Italy, primacy of olive biodiversity

What is biodiversity

Biodiversity can be defined as the wealth of life on earth: the millions of plants, animals and microorganisms, the genes they contain, the complex ecosystems they make up in the biosphere.
This variety does not only refer to the shape and structure of living beings, but also includes diversity understood as abundance, distribution and interaction between the different components of the system, coming to include human cultural diversity as well.

Italian Olive Biodiversity

The olive tree (Olea europaea L.) is one of the most important species of agricultural interest in the Mediterranean basin and among the top six most important agricultural crops in the world. Thanks to its main product, extra virgin olive oil, considered a fundamental element of the Mediterranean diet, it represents one of the pillars of the national economy.

Based on the estimates of FAO’s Division of Production and Plant Protection of Olive Germplasm, the world olive germplasm consists of 2629 different varieties, the Italian one would include 631 cultivars and 827 accessions not fully identified and maintained in 26 collections (Bartolini et al. , 2014).

The recent National Register of Fruit Plant Varieties, updated by MIPAAF, currently includes 695 olive varieties.

A UNIQUE olive-growing heritage in the world, a priceless treasure that we have the DUTY to protect, because it is deeply linked to the history, culture and landscape of our country.

Curiosity

The term biodiversity derives from the English biodiversity, formerly an abbreviation of biological diversity, and was coined in 1988 by the American entomologist Edward O. Wilson, author of the books: Biodiversity (published by Sansoni) and Formiche (published by Adelphi)