Opening Presentation by Prof. Roslyn Gleadow, President, The Global Plant Council at the 1st International Symposium on Climate-Resilient Agri-Environmental Systems (ISCRAES 2020), Virtual Interactive, 4th November 2020.

1. Prof Ros Gleadow
President, Global Plant Council
Monash University,
Melbourne, Australia
@rosgleadow
1st International Symposium on Climate-Resilient
Agri-Environmental Systems, November 2020
PLANT SCIENCE CROSSING BORDERS
Working towards global solutions

3. Photo: antonabroad.com/palm-oil-boom-the-end-of-the-orangutan/

5. 5
Max Cowan,
Monash
Birger L. Møller
Copenhagen
Robert
Henry, UQ
Challenges to conservation, sustainability and climate resilient crops
Ananda et al. 2020 Front. Plant Sci. 11: 1108
Cowan et al. 2020 Environ. Exp. Bot. 169: 1-14
Myrans et al. 2020 Diversity & Distribution
Nearly all of sorghum’s wild relatives (i.e. other species) are Australian

6. Nzwalo & Cliff 2011 PLoS Neg Trop Disease; Burns et al. 2010 Sustainability 2: 3572; Vandegeer et al. 2013 Funct Plant Biol 40:195
Konzo epidemics in SSA coincide with high cyanide concentrations in tubers of droughted Cassava
Cassava is eaten by 1 billion people every day. It is cyanogenic, can be lethal unless processed

7. 7Jones et al. (2013) PNAS 110: 8399-8404
We are connected to each other and the environment
“the rate of future zoonotic disease
emergence …will be closely linked to the
evolution of the agriculture–environment
nexus.”

8. Coalition of plant, crop, agricultural & environmental science organizations
§ Increase the awareness plants, of the need to train plant scientists & fund research
§ View to improve sustainable food production and conservation of plant diversity

9. o President: Ros Gleadow from Monash University where
she leads the Plant Ecophysiology group.
o Past president: Bill Davies, from Lancaster
Environment Centre
o Chair: Francisca Blanco-Herrera, president of the
Chilean Society of Plant Biology
o Treasurer: Deena Errampalli, past president of Plant
Canada
o Board members:
o Wataru Sakamoto, director of the Institute of
Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University
o Katherine Denby, from University of York,
Director of UK N8 Partnership
o Matthew Reynolds, Head of Crop Physiology at
Cimmyt
o Weihua Tang, from CAS Center for Excellence in
Molecular Plant Sciences (Shanghai)
o KC Bansal, former Director of the National
Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)
o Pablo Manavella, vice-president of Argentinean
Society of Plant Physiology
GPC is governed by a board: ~ monthly
Annual meetings and workshops ~ yearly

10. Mendoza

11. What does the GPC do?
• Networking
• Workshops
• Jobs
• Knowledge exchange
• Policy statements
• Initiatives
Enables journalists and influencers to identify people to contact for comment in different countries
Examples of Initiatives

12. The GPC has a wide reach.
Impact summary: October 2019-September 2020
Newsletters 16
General 12
ECRi 4
Website
(pageviews, Oct 2019 - Sep 2020)
76.630
News published 235
Blog posts 24
Events >60
Social media (25,000+ followers)
(views, Oct 2019-Sep 2020)
4.826.100
Twitter 4.197.500
Facebook 366.600
Others (Weibo, Instagram, Youtube etc.) 262.000
• High level of engagement on social media
• Reach is increasing 50% p.a.
• Get to different audiences using different
platforms

13. Value of global organisation like GPC
• Can work outside of national boundaries
• For the benefit of members, and plant science generally for the improvement of crops and
sustainability
• Enables journalists and influencers to identify people to contact for comment in
different countries and languages
• Bring collective intelligence to bear on particular problems
• gather working groups, write position papers
• Information brokers
• Conferences, jobs, global context
• Year of Plant Health (2020), Year of Roots and Vegetables (2021)

14. • Raising awareness in the plant science community about the need to develop a
consensus framework for the sharing and use of Digital Sequence Information
that is consistent with obligations under the Nagoya Protocol* and the Convention
on Biological Diversity** more broadly on Access to Genetic Resources and the
Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization.
* Nagoya Protocol https://www.cbd.int/abs/
** Biodiversity convention https://www.cbd.int/convention/
Current initiative -
Guidelines for Access and Benefit Sharing

15. 15
Conclusion: Working towards global solutions for sustainable agriculture
§ Climate affects what we can produce – but agriculture affects the climate
§ There is a central role for agronomy more broadly in the global stewardship – but the thinking, planning,
needs to be global
§ Role for global organisations to provide leadership, integration and coordinated responses – and
global perspectives
§ This pandemic is a teachable moment. Let’s use it.
1st International
Symposium on Climate-
Resilient Agri-
Environmental Systems
www.globalplantcouncil.org
Email: ros.gleadow@monash.edu
twitter: @rosgleadow