This book and CD-ROM provides a comprehensive global review of the conservation, utilization and organization of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. It represents a synthesis of reports from 113 individual countries and, in addition to extensive data tables, there are eight chapters summarizing the current situation regarding aspects of plant genetic resources management including in-situ and ex-situ conservation, usage, legislation, regional collaboration and access. The impact of major pieces of international legislation such as the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is picked up at various points throughout the book, as is the essential nature of plant genetic resource collections as tools to allow mankind to meet the massive challenges of producing enough food to meet the needs of a growing world population.

There is a huge amount of information in this book, and as a global reference it is extremely useful, if not always an easy read, due to the sheer amount of data presented. The chapters themselves are well structured with plenty of figures, maps and tables to support the text. Each of the chapters has a section detailing how the global situation has changed since the publication of the first State of the World Report in 1996 and a summary of remaining gaps and needs. The book provides an excellent overview of the different ways in which plant genetic resources are managed and conserved, and equally importantly, used.