> Inventaire des collections fruitières > Présentation  > Les collections  > Synthèse         > Accueil
> Les objectifs  > Les acteurs  > Les actions	The Danone Association for Fruit, created in April 1998 to help preserve and promote France's fruit heritage, introduced a national inventory programme. The main aims of the programme were to compile a report in metropolitan France on the areas prospected, the actors involved and the plant material under conservation and evaluation constituting the country's living fruit heritage and to analyse the results thereof. Limited to mainland France, the survey focused on the following species: apricot, citrus fruit, almond, cherry, chestnut, quince, fig, medlar, hazelnut, walnut, olive, peach, pear, apple, plum, sorb (service tree), various Mediterranean species, as well as strawberry plants and melons. The report shed a new, accurate and rational light on a national reality; the movement in favour of patrimonial preservation. The following statistics were highlighted in the report: · 359 actors, distributed throughout France, · 253 ex situ conservatories tasked with collecting plant material with a view to its preservation, analysis and, indeed, utilisation, · nearly 39,000 accessions included in these collections relating to the 21 species covered by the report, · 170 initiatives complementary to the preservation of the country's fruit heritage, comprising 20 fragmented orchards, 22 purely prospective initiatives, 45 projects, plus a further 83 promotional initiatives with non-exhaustive inventories. An innovative and exemplary initiative, the French fruit heritage list compiled by the Danone Association for Fruit constitutes a major phase in the fruit preservation programme and has made it possible to update existing knowledge and highlight the sheer amount of work undertaken over the past 20 years. This first phase gives us an insight into current advances and the limitations upon safeguarding the living fruit tree heritage of mainland France, allowing us to share this knowledge with the public, and highlights the complexity of the situation. The compilation of the list was based on a scrupulous concern for exhaustivity over the period of analysis in question. However, it remains necessarily upgradable and should be updated annually, both in terms of collecting new plant material and instigating new projects. The AFCEV's Pomological Union has taken over from the Danone Association for Fruit in January 2002.
	Sauvegarde et valorisation du patrimoine fruitier