The Millennium Seed Bank Beyond 2009

The Millennium Seed Bank has the capacity to store up to half the world’s plant species. It is the largest wild plant seed bank in the world, and is owned and managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. By 2010, RBG Kew, and its partners in more than 50 countries, will have collected and conserved seed from 10% of the world’s plants. The concept of large scale wild seed banking has been proved and now, in the face of increasing threats to plants from climate change, land use changes and a burgeoning human population, we urgently need to scale up our activities.

Starting in 2010, the Millennium Seed Bank will build upon and improve its current global partnership model to secure in safe storage 25% of the world’s species, targeting those most at risk from climate change and species of greatest utility to humankind. It is forseen that by 2020, the Millennium Seed Bank and its partners will have collected, conserved, used and carried out research on 75,000 wild and domesticated plant species.

Collection programmes will prioritise species from montane, dryland, coastal and island ecosystems, which research shows are most vulnerable to climate change. In addition, collection programmes will prioritise species of greatest utility to man, including: drought resistant crop and forage species that sustain the world’s poorest communities; salt tolerant and desert pioneer species that combat desertification; photosynthetically efficient and energy-rich plants with potential as biofuels; and medicinal species effective against microbial pathogens and cancer. All of the methodologies needed to find and collect these species have been developed and successfully employed in the current phase.

Storage of seed is pointless if we are unable to turn those seeds into plants. Germination protocols will be developed for all of the species in the bank. This is a vital and novel output of the Millennium Seed Bank partnership. Germination is the first step towards use, and both seed and expertise from the MSBP partnership are currently being used in agriculture, energy, human health and other development arenas. In addition, the MSBP partnership is actively involved in re-introduction and restoration programmes worldwide. Examples include: restoration of tall grass prairie in the USA; restoration and fire management of sand plain fynbos in South Africa; re-introduction of starfruit in the UK; and restoration of mined lands in Australia and Madagascar. Habitat restoration and species re-introductions will become increasingly important technologies as the effects of climate change become more marked. Botanic gardens are uniquely placed to lead these efforts.

One of the most important ways in which botanic gardens can help increase our understanding of the effects of climate change is by measuring its impact on plant diversity in situ. Whenever MSBP seed collectors are in the field they collect information about the wild plants that are the source of the seed. By 2010 MSBP field teams will have collected data from around 40,000 wild plant populations, across the globe. For each of these populations we will have a baseline against which future population fluctuations and movement can be monitored. In addition, the seed collections themselves represent a genotypic sample frozen in time, against which future genetic or biochemical adaptation can be measured. This is the first step towards a global early warning system. If we go back and monitor these populations again in 10 or 20 years time we will be able to measure how climate change is affecting different species.

All of the activities detailed above constitute the most ambitious ex situ conservation programme ever conceived, and should give us all cause for optimism for the future. The problems posed by climate change and other human impacts on plant diversity are surmountable, and RBG Kew is leading the effort.

Paul Smith, March 2007