Crop Wild Relatives – Inventories in Nåtö Nature Reserve, Åland Islands, 2023

Introduction: The crop wild relative (CWR) inventory in Nåtö, Åland Islands was carried out as a part of the Nordic project ‘Conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources in the Nordic countries’. During the project, CWR inventories were conducted in each Nordic country.Aim: The aim of the inventories was to investigate the distribution and status of CWR populations in target protected areas, which could in the future form a CWR conservation network. The goal was to learn from these experiences for the implementation of such tasks in the future and at the same time improve the quality of CWR conservation. The main aim was to promote CWR conservation, test inventory and <i>in situ</i> site selection methods and to eventually identify populations which would be suitable for long-term conservation.Method: The presence and status of CWR populations in Nåtö were described based on FAO CWR descriptors (Alercia et al. 2022). The selection of taxa for inventory was based on a revised Nordic CWR priority list (Fitzgerald et al. 2021). Nåtö was selected as a target site based on an earlier conservation gap analysis, which identified the most CWR species rich complementary conservation areas within Finland (Fitzgerald et al. 2020; 2023). The current inventory was carried out on 100x100 m Finnish uniform grid system (YKJ-grid) squares.Results: Altogether 44 squares and 367 priority CWR populations were inventoried. Data on taxon names, population size, count of individuals, potential threat and management needs were recorded. The report summarizes the results and the full taxon observation and population data results can be accessed through Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF, 2024).