Saving the Future with Seeds The world’s plant species are under sustained threat and biodiversity is being lost at a rate that has defined the times as an extinction era. Seed banks, that collect, preserve and research seeds from all around the world may provide the ultimate backup plan for our food security, natural resources and rewilding projects during the challenging times ahead. Richard Forsyth asks Dr Aisyah Faruk, Conservation Partnership Coordinator at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, about the bank’s vital work in preservation.
EU Research: Is the seed bank now more important than ever as we lose biodiversity? Are you saving plant species from extinction? Dr Alsyah Faruk: Seed banking has always been an important aspect of plant conservation. Throughout human history, people have saved seeds of crops and culturally important plants, but in recent years, we have found that seed banking is increasingly becoming a key tool to mitigate against the loss of wild species and overall biodiversity. With two in five plant species now estimated to be at risk of extinction, we need to utilise all the tools we have to ensure this rather grim prediction doesn’t hold true.
EUR: What are the rarest seeds you have? Do you have examples of seeds that really are precious to preserve?
Dr Faruk: We hold seeds from 190 countries. They have been collected from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from sea level to over 5000 metres above mean sea level (masl), and from pretty much every habitat between these extremes. The rarest seeds that we hold is hard to define – we do hold seeds from eight species that are now extinct in the wild, making them very rare indeed. We have focused on collecting seeds from threatened species, and those from useful plants – that could be related to crops, medicinal plants, fibre and fuel plants, culturally important species etc. Some of our collections are from species newly described for science e.g. Ternstroemia guineensis from the Southern Kounounkan Platear in Guinea where 169 mature shrubs and trees were encountered, or Spathoglottis jetsuniae found on limestone outcrops in Bhutan.
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“With two in five plant species now estimated to be at risk of extinction, we need to utilise all the tools we have to ensure this rather grim prediction doesn’t hold true.”
EU Research
