The Global Crop Diversity Trust, an international organization that works to preserve the diverse foundations of agriculture, is the City of Bonn's annual partner for 2023. With this partnership, the City of Bonn is also honoring the organization's tenth anniversary. The cooperation is now coming to an end. At the closing event on Tuesday, November 28, 2023, in the Old Town Hall, the City of Bonn and Global Crop Diversity Trust looked back on the year.
Deputy Mayor Dr. Ursula Sautter, who welcomed the guests on behalf of the Mayor, once again emphasized the great importance of the work of the Global Crop Diversity Trust: "The Trust focuses on the protection of plant diversity around the globe. We hope that our annual partnership has helped to raise public awareness of this important issue and the valuable contribution of the Crop Trust," said the Deputy Mayor. "Protecting our crop diversity will be a must if we are to feed the ever-growing population of our planet. Not only do we need to provide enough food, we also need to make our food production sustainable and healthier. I hope that together we have been able to contribute to these efforts by sending strong signals from Bonn over the past few months," Dr. Sautter continued.
"It is a privilege for the Crop Trust to have been selected as an official partner of the City of Bonn for 2023. We have had the wonderful opportunity to deepen the relationship with our host city and highlight the importance of crop diversity," said Dr. Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director of the Crop Trust. He expressly thanked the City of Bonn at the closing ceremony.
Prof. Dr. Maximilian Weigand, Director of the Bonn Botanical Gardens, and Xavier Longan, Deputy Director UN SDG Action Campain, spoke in their guest contributions about how important it is to preserve the diversity of crops for the benefit of all people.
The aim of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which has been based in Bonn since 2013, is to preserve the genetic diversity of crops in agriculture and keep it available in order to ensure that the world's population is fed in the long term. The Crop Trust supports the preservation of the most important collections of plant genetic resources in seed banks. Together with the Norwegian government and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen), the Crop Trust operates the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the global seed vault on Svalbard. Seed banks collect and preserve seeds of the most important crop plants and their "wild" relatives and are therefore of particular importance for the preservation of biodiversity and the food supply of mankind.
In addition to offering participation in various events, such as in the SDG Days or United Nations Day, the City of Bonn also supported the Global Crop Diversity Trust with advertising in the cityscape such as flags and banners, for example on Kennedy Bridge.
Annual partnerships of the City of Bonn
Every year since 2000, the City of Bonn has invited an international organization based in Bonn to participate in an annual partnership. Among other things, the organization has the opportunity to present itself and its topics in a series of high-profile events. The city supports these events with extensive services. With these annual partnerships, the City of Bonn makes a contribution to deepening international and municipal cooperation.