Funding the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership

Donations from individuals, private foundations and companies enabled the construction of Kew's Wellcome Trust Millennium Building and the development of global partnerships to safeguard one in ten of the world’s flora.

Aerial shot of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank with 10% mown into lawn

Kew's Millennium Seed Bank saved 10% of the world's wild plant species in October 2009

In the mid-1990s, Kew secured large grants from the Millennium Commission and the Wellcome Trust to initiate a project to collect 10% of the world's wild seed-bearing plant species. This first phase was called the "Millennium Seed Bank Project".

Alongside donations from individuals, private foundations and companies, this funding enabled the construction of the Wellcome Trust Millennium Building and the development of partnerships to safeguard one in ten of the world’s flora.

We are very grateful to all the individuals and organisations that supported the Millennium Seed Bank Project during its first phase (1995 – 2009). The project has now been renamed as the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership to reflect the extensive work undertaken by our partners and contributions from other organisations.

This second phase of the project still requires further funding to achieve its target of saving 25% of the world's plant species by 2020.

Adopt a seed for just £25 | Save a plant species outright

A message from a supporter

"In the face of irreversible climate change, it is very hard for any individual to find a meaningful response. Supporting the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership in any way we can is our way of making an informed effective response that uses a particular local expertise for a project which has a truly global reach.

Driven by the science, rather than commercial or political interests, the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership provides an ark in the interest of all humanity. It isn’t the whole answer, just one aspect, in which action now may preserve the seed corn of our future."

Patricia Swannell, MSB supporter