Plant Genetic Resources Institute (PGRI) established in 1993 through technical cooperation by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was designed for acquisition, collection, conservation, evaluation and distribution of plant genetic resources for agricultural research and food security. Later, National Herbarium which has its own building and research facilities, was also merged with PGRI as a research program. In 2017, PGRI was restructured and renamed as Bio-resources Conservation Institute (BCI). Two new research programs including Microbial Genetic Resources Program (MGRP) and Animal Genetic Resources Program (AGRP) were formed to extend the research activities from plant genetic resources to microbial and animal genetic resources.

Bio-resources Conservation Institute (BCI) is an institution of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) working for conservation and research on local and exotic biological resources in Pakistan. BCI is working in collaboration with federal and provincial agricultural research institutes and universities engaged in biodiversity conservation. BCI is also strongly linked with international genebanks and biodiversity conservation partners for global food security.