World Conservation Congress: are vanilla, cotton and avocado in danger of extinction?

the climate change global affects plants and reshapes them ecosystems. If the cash cultivated receive increased attention to their protection, a species that is not cultivated or of no obvious ecological interest, as is the case of an engineer species for example, is more likely to become extinct.

This trend is however misleading because, while it is possible to preserve crops locally by setting up greenhouses, for example, this does not mean that the cultivated species adapts to the climate change. Local solutions can also lead to a loss of diversity genetic in the cultivated species and limit its resilience in the face of a changing environment. In order to promote this resistance, it is therefore essential to conserve an important genetic variety in this one but also within the species of the same genus which could possibly hybridize with it and allow it to adapt to new environmental conditions.

A study published in the newspaper Plants, People, Planet made it possible to analyze the risk of extinction of 224 species of plants genetically similar in particular to But, avocado, vanilla, peppers, beans, squash, potatoes, cotton and tomatillo. The species analyzed come from Mesoamerica (central and southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras), which is a source of many cultures, a center for their domestication as well as a reservoir of genetic diversity for these species.

Multiple threats to wildlife

Among the 224 species considered, the study reveals that 35% (or about 78 species) are threatened with extinction, according to the criteria of the IUCN Red List. The main causes responsible for this observation are the modification of the natural habitat of the species for l’agriculture and livestock, the invasive species and the pathogens, the use ofherbicides as well as logging and excessive harvesting of these species.

The study reports that among the genus Vanilla, the eight species present in the region are endangered or critically endangered. Among the cotton of the genus Gossypium, 92% of taxa are threatened, 60% of specieslawyer (Persea) are also. Among the maize taxa, genera Zea and Tripsacum, 44% and 33% of species are threatened, respectively.

According to José Sarukhán, national coordinator of the Mexican National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of biodiversity (Conabio), the genetic diversity of these species is under-represented in the banks of Genoa.

Now, since Mesoamerica is a ” pole of origin and domestication of the main crops ”, The knowledge and preservation of this genetic diversity is of major importance to understand how a group of species can adapt to very different environments from one another. In addition, the preservation of species related to cultivated plants is of paramount cultural interest because local populations use some of them as medications.