Caucasus

Humans likely domesticated turnips near the Hindu Kush mountains, near present day Afghanistan, 3,500 to 6,000 years ago before spreading them east and west and breeding them into related vegetables like bok choy and broccoli rabe.

Iceberg lettuce, oakleaf lettuce, romaine, and all other lettuces that we eat nowadays, descend from wild plants that were modified 6000 years ago in the Caucasus so that plant oil could be harvested from the seeds. After the ancient Greek and Romans further bred the plants to use them as leafy vegetables, lettuce also ended up on our plates over time. The special history of lettuce has been described in detail thanks to the DNA analysis of 445 types of lettuce, conducted by Wageningen University & Research and the Chinese BGI. Their research will be published today in the authoritative periodical Nature Genetics and opens the door to faster and more effective breeding of more resilient food crops.

Canaanites were a secular people, rarely breeding with outsiders, and were descended from two main lineages: Neolithic inhabitants of the Levant and populations related to Bronze Age Iranians.

All regions of the Russian Caucasus (11 in total) have now adopted new Forest Management Regulations that include specific requirements to protect biodiversity during logging operations. The new regulations, developed in collaboration with WWF-Russia, are operational since 2019 and will remain valid for 10 years. Since 2017, biodiversity conservation has become obligatory for logging companies according to a Decree of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federati...