Food plant diversity is essential to food security, human health and nutrition, and culture, and is critical to agricultural productivity, sustainability, and resilience. With the world facing an unprecedented loss of biodiversity accelerated by the climate crisis, the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants (GCCFP) has been launched to create a coordinated effort across botanical institutions and sectors to enhance human and planetary health by protecting the planet’s edible biodiversity for present and future generations.
The Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants (GCCFP) is a collaboration led by the New York Botanical Garden, with support from Botanic Gardens Conservation International, United States Botanic Garden, Gothenburg Botanical Garden, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Global Crop Diversity Trust, CGIAR, the Alliance of Biodiversity International and CIAT, and the Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
Learn about the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants, its goals, and partners.
NYBG is serving as the Consortium Leader of the GCCFP for the first five-year term, in collaboration with major botanical garden and agricultural research institutions. Take a deeper dive into the origins and 2025 launch of the GCCFP.
The Global Conservation Consortia (GCC), a program of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), mobilizes a network of institutions and experts to collaboratively develop and implement comprehensive conservation strategies for priority threatened plant groups.
The GCCFP is a consortium-based initiative, helping to connect existing partners, projects, and initiatives in novel ways to accomplish more comprehensive conservation and greater use of food plant diversity. To do so, the GCCFP places major emphasis on knowledge generation and sharing, coordinated conservation, food plant diversity promotion, and outreach and education.
Building on the BGCI Global Conservation Consortium model, the GCCFP catalyzes collaborations across botanic gardens, genebanks, plant breeding, and other agricultural research organizations, farmer and seed-saver organizations, chefs, educators, and other pertinent sectors.
The main goals and activities of the GCCFP include:
KNOWLEDGE
Build a stronger picture of the world’s food plant diversity—what exists, where it occurs, what its uses are, what is threatened, where conservation gaps remain, and what action is needed.
The GCCFP is contributing to developing a robust evidence base for collaborative food plant diversity conservation by supporting research on food plant taxonomy and definitions, biogeography, extinction risk and threat assessments, conservation gap analysis, and data integration and information sharing.
CONSERVATION
Strengthen coordinated conservation of food plants in natural habitats and on farms, as well as in genebanks, botanic gardens, and other repositories. This includes helping preserve traditional knowledge associated with food plants.
The GCCFP is supporting collaborative food plant diversity conservation, including in natural habitats and farmlands (in situ), as well as in genebanks, botanical gardens, and other repositories (ex situ).
PROMOTION AND USE
Help put food plant diversity to work for more productive, sustainable, ethical, and resilient food systems, including by supporting culinary traditions, culture, and new uses for diverse foods.
The GCCFP is promoting greater use of food plant diversity by supporting cultural valorization and revitalization of culinary traditions and foodways, as well as by facilitating research on new food plant products and market developments.
CONNECTION AND CAPACITY
Bring people and institutions together to share expertise, strengthen capacities, educate new audiences, and build wider support for conserving and using food plant diversity.
The GCCFP is catalyzing capacity sharing and institutional strengthening, public outreach and education, and interaction with policy, governance, and global frameworks, in support of food plant diversity conservation and sustainable use.
The Steering Committee of the GCCFP includes:
