genetic material of plants, animals or micro-organisms, including modern cultivars and breeds, primitive varieties and breeds, landraces and wild/weedy relatives of crop plants or domesticated animals, of value as a resource for future generations of humanity. [GBA] - genetic material of actual or potential value. [CUB
Article 2 of the CBD defines the term, "genetic resources" to mean "genetic material of actual or potential value
the genes found in plants and animals that are of actual or potential value to people
Germplasm that includes the entire array of cultivars in the crop species, related wild species in the genus, and hybrids between the wild and cultivated species.
Landraces, varieties, and finished lines produced or derived from developing countries.
Any material from a plant, animal, microbe, or other origin that includes DNA or RNA (which transmit heredity) and that has actual or potential value for humanity.
Genetic resources are genetic material, i.e. any material of plant, animal, microbial or other origin containing functional units of heredity that is of actual or potential value (CBD Art. 2). The value need not be commercial (i.e. monetary), but may be scientific or academic in nature. The valuable information must not be genetic; it may also consist, for example, in the biochemical information contained in the material. As »value«, and specifically the potential value, has not yet been defined, virtually all biological resources may fall under this definition.
