ProSpecieRara

ProSpecieRara is a Swiss , not-for-profit foundation that was founded in St. Gallen in 1982 . The purpose of the foundation is to "preserve and promote genetic diversity in fauna and flora". In particular, the aim is to save endangered livestock breeds and site-specific crops from extinction .

The numerous traditional (often regional) varieties of farm animals and crops were gradually replaced in the 20th century by standard varieties that were more suitable for modern high-performance agriculture. With the Biodiversity Convention of 1992, Switzerland committed itself to preserving the biodiversity of animals and plants. The activities of the ProSpecieRara Foundation are in line with this obligation and are partially supported by the federal government.

The foundation's activities are:

• Support and promotion of the breeding and cultivation of traditional varieties (by disseminating the relevant agricultural knowledge, arranging the seeds and networking the breeders).
• Help with marketing to consumers (including a "ProSpecieRara seal of approval")
• Preservation and dissemination of knowledge about the traditional varieties
• Political lobbying

Around 2,000 people are now part of the conservation network and breed the appropriate animal breeds, propagate seeds or look after perennial plants. The foundation publishes the magazine “rara” four times a year and has published various specialist books. Coop has been a sponsor and partner since 1999 .

In 2020, ProSpecieRara ensured the survival of 1911 fruit, 537 berry, 131 vine, 29 willow, 1580 garden and arable plant varieties (including 244 bean and 182 tomato varieties) and 839 ornamental plant varieties. In addition, she participated in the conservation of 32 animal breeds.

The foundation is now based in Basel . On Wildegg ProSpecieRara maintains a show and multiplication garden, at the foot of the castle hill also since 2019 its own little seed nursery.

See also

• SAVE Foundation - Safeguarding agricultural biodiversity in Europe
• GEH - Society for the Conservation of Old and Endangered Pet Breeds (Germany)
• Noah's Ark - Society for the Conservation and Dissemination of Cultivated Plants Diversity (Austria)
• Arche Austria - Association for the Conservation of Rare Livestock Breeds (Austria)
• VIEH - Various initiatives for the conservation of old and endangered domestic animal breeds (Germany)

Web links

Commons : ProSpecieRara  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• prospecierara.ch
  • prospecierara.de
  • sativa-rheinau.ch: Propagation and distribution of ProSpecieRara vegetables from organic cultivation
  • diverseeds.eu: Video clip of the EU's Diverseeds project via ProSpecieRara (English, 6 min., MP4 , 42.8 MB)
• Nutz Pflanzenvielfalt.de ("Association for the Preservation of Crop Diversity ", German equivalent of ProSpecieRara in the field of plant varieties )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ProSpecieRara: Figures , as of August 2014.