Millennium Seed Bank deposits UK flora collections as part of China seed bank launch
Leader of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, Dr Paul Smith, presents duplicate seed samples to Dr Li De-Zhou, Director of the Kunming Institute of Botany
China's largest seed bank, the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species (GBWS) at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan Province, celebrated its international launch to the scientific community on 30th October 2008.
As part of the celebrations a delegation from Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP) went to China and lodged seeds from 204 species of UK flora at the Chinese facility. The ceremony was supported by the UK’s World Collections Programme, which is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and chaired by the British Museum.
The UK flora collections join 14,000 seed collections already saved in the GBWS in China.
The China seed bank was set up with significant assistance from staff at the Millennium Seed Bank, who advised on the design, technical specification and layout of the facility.
Training in the UK has been provided for six staff from the GBWS, and capacity building workshops on seed conservation practice have been held in China. Joint science initiatives are now strengthening through two PhD studentships and the development of a seed germination testing programme at GBWS.
Professor Hugh Pritchard, Head of Research at Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, says: “Southwestern China is an area of exceptional plant biodiversity; however the region is increasingly under threat from agricultural and industrial development. When Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Project formally joined with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2004 one of our key aims was to help our Chinese partner accelerate their wild plant conservation work in the region. It is fantastic to see this new facility up and running.
“The programme in China is making a major contribution towards the Millennium Seed Bank Project’s target of collecting and conserving 10% of the world’s flora by 2010.”
Under the agreement between Kew and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 4,000 threatened and endemic plant species from China are being targeted for conservation in the GBWS by 2010.
An orchid conservation biotechnology project, funded by Defra’s Darwin Initiative, is also providing links between Kew and the Kunming Institute of Botany and other institutes in China. Kew’s scientific links with China already extend to Tarim University in Xinjiang Province, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Gardens in Yunnan and the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development (IMPLAD) in Beijing.
The photograph above shows a group of senior invitees from China, UK and USA including (4th, 5th and 6th from left on front row) Steve Smith, UK Consul General in Chongquing; Professor Sun Han-Dong, Chinese academy of Sciences KIB; and Madam Wang Yun, Deputy Director of Hi-TechDevelopment Division, Department of reform and Development of Yunnan Province.
