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SUMMARY:Exploring underutilised plants and fungi from Colombia to boost it
 s bioeconomy - Dr Mauricio Diazgranados\, Royal Botanic Gardens
DTSTART:20191122T174500Z
DTEND:20191122T191000Z
UID:TALK129892@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ali Mashhadi
DESCRIPTION:Colombia is the world’s second most biodiverse country. Host
 ing ~30\,000 plant species (25% endemic\; >1\,000 threatened)\, and more t
 han 3\,500 useful plants\, it is centre of origin of tomatoes\, peppers\, 
 potatoes\, chilies and many other crops and their wild relatives. The fung
 al diversity can be equally high\, but still undiscovered. Despite its uni
 que biological richness\, vast social inequality with marked poverty in th
 e rural areas has triggered more than six decades of internal conflict. In
  recent years Colombia has established policies promoting sustainable use 
 of biodiversity to develop its bioeconomy\, to reduce this social gap and 
 consolidate peace whilst following a green growth. In 2017\, the Royal Bot
 anic Gardens\, Kew launched the “Kew-Colombia Bio Programme”\, to supp
 ort this country’s transformation based on the sustainable use of its pl
 ant and fungal diversity. The programme has successfully established ten r
 esearch projects\, covering topics in systematics\, conservation\, plant u
 ses and biodiversity informatics. With funding from the Newton-Caldas Fund
 \, Kew delivered “ColPlantA: Colombian resources for Plants made Accessi
 ble” (http://colplanta.org/)\, an authoritative\, expert-driven\, open a
 ccess\, online portal for botanical information on Colombian plants\, offi
 cially launched in August 2019. ColPlantA aims to hold an online species p
 rofile for each of the plant species known from Colombia\, aggregating inf
 ormation from other databases and portals\, and displaying previously inac
 cessible information. Currently ColPlantA holds more than 22\,200 species 
 profiles with more than 12\,000 images. As a continuation of ColPlantA\, t
 his month Kew started its newest project in Colombia\, called “Underutil
 ised Plants and Fungi of Colombia” (UPFC). The overarching aim of this p
 roject is to document and broadly disseminate knowledge on the useful plan
 ts and fungi of Colombia with the ultimate goal of developing pathways to 
 enhance nature’s contribution to people in this country. This project wi
 ll promote the sustainable use of biodiversity whilst protecting the surro
 unding natural resources. Representing 10% of global biodiversity\, Colomb
 ia’s useful plants and fungi can provide critical science-based solution
 s not just for its national problems\, but also for global challenges.
LOCATION:Wolfson College\, Gatsby Room
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