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RESEARCH ARTICLE

In situ and ex situ conservation gap analyses of crop wild relatives from Malawi Nolipher Khaki Mponya Nigel Maxted

. Tembo Chanyenga . Joana Magos Brehm .

Received: 20 April 2020 / Accepted: 16 September 2020 Ó The Author(s) 2020

Abstract The study analysed the conservation gaps of the priority crop wild relatives (CWR) taxa for Malawi in order to contribute to the development of a harmonized conservation strategy that helps secure the priority CWR under in situ and ex situ. We used taxa distribution modelling, complementarity analysis and ecogeographic land characterization map to analyse spatial diversity and distribution of 123 priority taxa across different adaptive scenarios. We identified areas of observed and predicted richness, the minimum number of protected areas (PAs) that conserve the broadest ecogeographic diversity in situ and the minimum number of grid cells that capture highest diversity outside PAs to recommend the establishment

of genetic reserves. We then analysed the representativeness of the conserved ecogeographic diversity of target taxa in ex situ collections to identify ex situ conservation gaps and advise for priority areas for ex situ collections. For the 123 taxa, 70.7% of the total diversity occurs in 36 PAs with 66.8% of the diversity captured in only 10 complementary PAs. Outside PAs, the broadest diversity was conserved in three grid cells of size 5 9 5 km. Fifty-three of 123 taxa have ex situ collections with only three taxa having ex situ collections at the Malawi Plant Genetic Resources Centre. The findings of this study will guide formulation of conservation actions for the priority taxa as well as lobbying for active conservation of the same under in situ and ex situ.

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-020-01021-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Keywords Crop wild relative
Conservation gaps
Genetic reserves
In situ
Ex situ
Protected areas

N. Khaki Mponya (&) Malawi Plant Genetic Resources Centre, Chitedze Agricultural Research Station, P.O. Box 158, Lilongwe, Malawi e-mail: [email protected] N. Khaki Mponya
J. Magos Brehm
N. Maxted College of Life and Environmental Sciences, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK T. Chanyenga Forest Research Institute of Malawi, P.O. Box 270, Zomba, Malawi

Introduction The global community is currently challenged with feeding an expanding human population (FAO 2018; UN 2017; UN 2019). This puts more pressure on already limited resources amidst increased climatic shocks, which have destroyed crops, associated biodiversity and rendered some agricultural land unproductive. The calls for building up resilient production systems have been echoed in the Sustainable

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Genet Resour Crop Evol

Development Goals (SDGs) 2 and 15 that target reducing hunger, environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity (FAO