Wakehurst Place

The Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP)

“Perhaps the most significant conservation initiative ever…”
Sir David Attenborough

Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank is the world’s largest wildflower seed bank. The project is managed by the Seed Conservation Department of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and based at Wakehurst Place, West Sussex.

This global conservation project aims to save 10% of the world’s plants representing 24,000 species, by 2010. It has already stored 96% of the UK’s native seed-bearing plants.

This year the Millennium Seed Bank aims to collect and conserve a further 3,870 wild plant species mainly from the world’s dry lands. Further collections of UK species will also be made to help ensure that our native wildflower flora is guaranteed for future generations.

Why Save Seeds?

The Bank of England of the botanical world…”
HRH The Prince of Wales

Seeds are one of nature’s most amazing resources. These miraculous capsules enable plants to travel through time and space. Dried and frozen in a seed bank, seeds may live for centuries - perhaps millennia. Because of this, seed banking is an extremely efficient and cost-effective way of conserving plants away from where they grow (ex situ conservation) and where they may be under threat.

Scientists predict that up to 25% of the world’s plant species will be condemned to extinction over of the next 50 years as a result of agricultural change, building, climate change and other pressures. Therefore, seed banks play a vital role in worldwide conservation efforts.

Seeds of Success

The MSB Project works with 103 partner organisations in 46 countries. For instance, in Africa, the project works in Botswana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania. Through collaboration work with our partners, we have samples of more than 18,000 plant species.

Over the past few years, seeds stored in the Millennium Seed Bank have been used for research on subjects as diverse as combating desertification, efficient photosynthesis and livestock poisoning. Other seeds have been used successfully in habitat restoration and re-introduction.

The clock is ticking towards 2010 and we need your help. Please support Kew’s work at the Millennium Seed Bank with a donation

This Millennium Seed Bank Project has been generously supported by the Millennium Commission and The Wellcome Trust

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