The FAO Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture was established in March 2000 with the aim of providing quality balanced information on agricultural biotechnology in developing countries and to make a neutral platform available for people to exchange views and experiences on this subject. Twelve e-mail conferences have been hosted by the Forum so far.

The title of Conference 13 is "The role of biotechnology for the characterisation and conservation of crop, forest, animal and fishery genetic resources in developing countries"

It begins on 6 June and runs for four weeks, finishing on Sunday 3 July 2005.

Read the Background Document for the Conference. The 16-page document gives an overview of the current status of genetic resources in the different food and agricultural sectors; a brief description of relevant biotechnologies (such as molecular markers, cryopreservation and reproductive technologies); and a discussion of some potential factors that may influence applications of biotechnology in developing countries in this area.

As part of the build up to this e-mail conference, an international workshop entitled "The role of biotechnology for the characterisation and conservation of crop, forestry, animal and fishery genetic resources" was organised by FAO, the Fondazione per le Biotecnologie, the ECONOGENE project and the Società Italiana di Genetica Agraria on 5-7 March 2005 in Turin, Italy. Presentations by international experts there include three sessions on the status of the world's agricultural biodiversity; the use of biotechnology for conservation of genetic resources; and genetic characterisation of populations and its use in conservation decision-making respectively. There was also a poster session and a session on the final results from ECONOGENE (a European Union funded project on biodiversity and conservation of sheep and goat breeds reared in marginal rural areas). The proceedings of the workshop are now available on the web.