We are committed to protecting biodiversity
In order to develop new plants with improved characteristics, our researchers constantly need to broaden the genetic variability of cultivated species. So they are today, as they always have been, the guardians of biodiversity. Breeders are stewards of biodiversity, using and maintaining biodiversity to extend the work of man to develop food to nourish the planet. Breeders conserve and maintain plant collections in order to cultivate a wide range of traits that can be used to meet the present and future needs of users and consumers.
Creating new varieties
The diversity of living things
Biodiversity describes the variability of living organisms in all forms: diversity of ecosystems (deserts, coral reefs, forests, cultivated land…), diversity of species and, less visible, the diversity of genes and their combinations. The need to maintain and enhance biodiversity has benefited from international recognition since 1992 at the UN Earth Summit in Rio, where the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was adopted. This convention establishes, in particular, the sovereignty of each state regarding its natural heritage and the biodiversity contained within its borders. Organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN have led the implementation of responsible approaches to managing access to biological diversity under the auspices of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.