Seedbanks are a reservoir of stored seeds so as to have safeguards for our future. They serve as an insurance policy for our existence against wars, climate changes of rising sea level, violent storms and earthquakes that would threaten to endanger many species of plants.

Such an assurance would make it possible to have an adequate gene pool of seeds that would evolve naturally for they would be provided with the protection and care to guarantee their continued existence.

Seedbanks would help in securing the good health of seeds for they are able to be minimized from the risk of pests and disease.

There are some 27,000 known species of plants. By 2010, this number is expected to increase by 10-20 percent. These species are known to have some 90,000 scientific and indigenous names.

Of these, some 60,000 have been identified for conservation because they are considered endangered or threatened with extinction.

Worldwide most mountains and forests are protected. This represents 10 percent of all the earth’s surface area.

There is an estimated 14,000 crop diversity sites in the world with 1,400 genebanks. 60 percent of these are long or medium term facilities and 8 percent short term.

The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (2004) considers as fair and equitable the sharing of benefits that would be deprived from biodiversity of sustainable agriculture and food security.

This treaty calls for the sharing of benefits of using food and agriculture through information exchange and the transference of technology. It also envisions a fund raising strategy for all activities, plans and programs to help small farmers in developing countries.

Conservation and plant diversity is an integral part of the production system of crops, pastures and plant species. It ensures the production of the landscape that is threatened, prevents unsustainable erosion, and provides for food, security and health care.

The Convention of Biological Diversity seeks a reduction of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level. Over the past 50 years our ecosystem has been dramatically changed more than any other period in our history.

With plants as the basis of this system it is necessary to enhance life on our planet to foster restoration and rehabilitation of many plant species as possible. One way to do this is to avoid the over-harvesting of products from our natural and semi-natural ecosystems.

Natural and Unnatural Habitats

It is necessary for countries to cultivate plant species in their natural habitat. Countries are encouraged to maintain at least 60 percent of their plant population in one place. This is especially true of plants deep in rain forests that have medicinal, food, and other social and humanitarian values.

Currently, there is an estimated 10,000 species in other collections. These are maintained in botanical gardens, seedbanks and tissue culture collections. They represent about 30 percent of all threatened plant species.

Wild plants are more difficult to conserve unlike food crops like rice, wheat and barley. They are likely to live shorter lives and have difficulty adjusting to a controlled environment. With their dormancy mechanism their germination is geared more toward a wild life.

Storage

Seeds for long-term storage come in two species: 1) orthodox, and 2) recalcitrant. Orthodox enables seeds to be dried at low temperatures and stored at low humidity, while recalcitrant seeds are unable tolerate low humidity and low temperature. Their storage conditions cannot be conceived for long term in seedbanks.

Typically, the sequence for seeds storage includes unpacking, data recording in a database, and their cleaning and testing. Seeds must be collected at the right time and place. Other procedures involve seed preparation, drying, packaging and storage that vary across species, followed by periods of generation tests, seed regeneration and re-storage.

Afterwards the seeds are placed in sealed aluminum packages, put in a freezer that is controlled at sub-zero temperature with storage designed for specific species.

The Millennium Seedbank is part of Great Britain’s Royal Botanical Gardens. It has some 1,450 species on its target list. It is reported on their website that there are 68 more species to collect and its bank updates its database every so often and communicates its results to the public.

This seedbank has as its goal of collecting seeds from 24,000 species worldwide, including seed bearing flora of the United Kingdom and to do so based on international standards.

NSW Seedbank Mount Annan Botanic Garden is Australian plant garden of the Botanic Garden Trust was established in 1986. It has more than 8,700 collections of fully documented wild seeds in its seedbank. A major upgrade of the garden came in 1999 with the collaboration with the Millennium Seedbank of the United Kingdom that began in 2003 to ensure the high quality of seed collection, process, and research and conservation.

The Norwegian Seedbank and Svalbard International Seed Vault (2007) on the island of Spitsbergen some 600 miles from the North Pole have a $3 million vault built deep in sandstone lined with permafrost. It boasts of having blast-proof doors, airlocks, motion sensors and a natural permanent Artic freezer.

Norway’s goal is to collect all species of seeds indigenous to every country that wishes to contribute to its collection. It has been promoted as a cutting edge seedbank with built-in safeguards against all wars and natural disasters.

Challenges

The challenge as designated by the Global Diversity Trust Fund was to seek from donors $60 million to support conservation. Of this, $51 million were raised to promote international, regional and national collections of crop diversity.

Many plant species in the world lack the necessary funds and resources to improve the transfer of information and technology.

There is work to be done in the compilation of a complete flora list of plant species with vernacular names and those that are still to be identified.

How do we more efficiently protect our natural grasslands such as the prairies and coastal ecosystems that are still being exploited by erosion?

According to CITES Strategic Vision (2008-2013) it would be necessary to identify and address the underlying service of unsustainable illegal international trade in endangered species.

Communication, education and the raising of public awareness about these issues through talks, lectures and the role of the mass media are of paramount importance in confronting many of these major problems.