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Millennium Seed Bank Project in Tasmania

Michiel van Slageren and Micah Visoiu inspecting seed of Richea pandanifolia on Mt Field, Tasmania, 25 April 2005

The collaboration with the three Partners in Tasmania was formalised on 26 November 2004, for a 6-year period. The Partners are (1) the Nature Conservation Branch of the Department of Primary Industries and Water (DPIW), the (2) Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens (RTBG) and the (3) Tasmanian Herbarium, part of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG). This partnership is one of seven Australian partnerships in the Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP).

RBG Kew and the Tasmanian Partners agreed to work together with the Purpose to support plant conservation within Tasmania by complementing in situ plant conservation activities at a state level through a program of increased collection, storage and maintenance of seed from target species, and undertaking research to understand the germination and long-term storage requirements for such seed. This Purpose will be addressed through the delivery of the following six key Project outputs:

1.      An enhanced and strengthened capacity of TAS to collect (DPIW) and conserve (RTBG) Tasmania’s threatened and priority plant species through the establishment of the Tasmanian Seed Conservation Centre;

2.      An increase in the number of long-term seed conservation collections of threatened and priority Tasmanian flora using the most current and appropriate seed banking and collecting technologies. The project aims to collect around 800 species new to the MSB in its six-year duration;

3.      Improved seed management procedures for long-term conservation collections through holdings at a new Tasmanian Seed Conservation Centre;

4.      Improved availability of seed, seed management information, and protocols;

5.      Enhanced preserved collections of the targeted Tasmanian flora at the Tasmanian Herbarium for taxonomic reference and research; and

6.      Incidental collection of data (population and threat), relevant to the assessment of extinction risk and future taxonomic research and review.

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