Baku, April 7 (AzerTAc). The 2nd international symposium on Wild Relatives of Subtropical and Temperate Fruit and Nut Crops has today kicked off at the Genetic Resources Institute of the National Academy of Sciences in Baku. Organized in cooperation with the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS), the event brings together about 80 scholars and specialists from 15 countries. The symposium mainly focuses on current and potential uses of subtropical and temperate fruit and nut crop wild relatives (FNWR), the strategies to conserve, manage, and utilize these vital resources, and crop wild relatives and global climate change. Speaking to the event, chairman of the State Committee for Land and Cartography Garib Mammadov highlighted what the Azerbaijani government has done to develop science and education in the country. Crop Wild Relatives refers to all members of the primary, secondary, and tertiary gene pools of domesticated crop species. Crop wild relatives, apart from offering invaluable ecosystem services essential for the well being of human society, crop wild relatives are rich sources of genes for traits favored by natural selection such as resistance to biotic and a biotic stresses and adaptability to acclimatize to climatic change.