The National Charter includes an important section on Research to strengthen the scientific foundations of facilities recommended for the long-term management of genetic resources. The motivations which underlie the research are:

  to improve our knowledge of genetic diversity and our understanding of the biological mechanisms which allow its adaptive capacities to be maintained, both in response to environmental change and to the various pressures contingent upon responding to human needs;

  to allow more rational conservation choices in the future, integrating biological knowledge with the social, economic and regulatory components which make the proposed choices viable in the long term;

  to control the technologies - methods and techniques - associated with these choices;

  to identify and build suitable action plans to promote a broader utilisation of genetic resources, taking into account all their components (biological, social, economic and regulatory components).

Finally, the establishment of a proper research dynamic in this area and its international recognition will reinforce the credibility of French expertise in the domain of genetic resource management in the long term.