Problems of forest conservation: A feasible mechanism for biodiversity conservation

In traditional systems, genetic biodiversity is maintained both through cultural intervention and through natural selection. On the other hand, traditional cultivars have a twofold value that make them worth preserving: as germplasm repositories that can eventually be inserted into modern crops, and as a complex genetic bank adapted to specific environment conditions. To people living in developing countries, these cultivars have an additional value -- to allow production for self-subsistence where modern crops are either not available or not adequate.