In Situ Conservation

In situ conservation is the maintenance of a crop or livestock breed genetic diversity within the working farms, fields, pastures and wild habitats where it evolved, rather than in an outside collection, so that a landrace, wild relative or traditional breed keeps adapting to its environment and to the farmers who select it. It is generally considered to complement rather than replace ex situ genebank conservation, since a living population continues evolving in ways a frozen seed sample cannot.