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Millennium Seed Bank Project in Namibia

Jan Brand from NBRI with Hyphaene petersiana palm trees in the northern Kunene Province of Namibia

The collaboration with the Partner in Namibia was agreed in 2001, for a 5-year period. The Partner is the Ministry of Agriculture, Water & Rural Development (MAWRD), of which the National Plant Genetic Resources Centre (NPGRC) and the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) are a part. RBG Kew and MAWRD agreed to work together with two main objectives: (1) to establish an international collaborative project to assist the MSBP in achieving its main objective of conserving germplasm of the dryland flora of the world, and (2) to assist the NPGRC in its efforts to conserve plant genetic resources of indigenous Namibian plant species.

The collaboration is expected to deliver the following outputs:

1.      Germplasm of wild species of arid/semi-arid areas in Namibia will be conserved and duplicated at the seed bank at Wakehurst; the project aims to collect around 150 species new to the seed bank per year;

2.      Personnel in Namibia trained in specialised techniques and research methodologies;

3.      Storage capacity at NPGRC expanded; and

4.      Baseline knowledge on Namibian plant genetic resources is improved and documented.

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