Botanical world's 'Bank of England' opens BBC News Online, Copyright 2000
November 20, 2000
The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, has officially opened the Millennium Seed Bank, which aims to safeguard over 24,000 plant species world-wide against extinction.
The £80m project, sited at Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, West Sussex, UK, is the largest conservation scheme of its kind. Millions of seeds are being banked in underground bomb-proof, flood-proof vaults. The bank will provide a resource for seed research and education. When necessary, seeds will also be made available for reintroduction into the wild.
The Prince described the complex as the "Bank of England of the botanical world". He called on the world's nations to ensure there was no environmental crisis that meant that its "gold reserve" would have to be used.
Lost species
Seeds from almost all the 1,400 or so British species suitable for inclusion have already been collected. Extinction threatens more than 300 UK wild plants, and a quarter of the world's plants could be condemned to vanish by 2050.
The centre, run by the Royal Botanic Gardens based at Kew in London, is said to form the greatest concentration of biodiversity on Earth. Prince Charles took a 45-minute tour of the centre. Before an audience of 150 invited guests, he said: "I feel I am opening the Bank of England of the Botanical World, a place where this reserve currency, in this case life itself, is stored."
The Prince said everyone had a responsibility to make sure the "gold" in the building never needed to be used to resurrect a lost species.
'Miracles of packaging'
He then joked: "I also want to make certain that I have some plants left to talk to in the future."
Kew spokesman
The underground project is funded by £30m from the Millennium Commission and £9.2m from the Wellcome Trust.Seeds arriving at the MSB have to be dried, cleaned and checked by scientists.
A Kew spokesman said: "Most seeds do not look very exciting but they are tiny miracles of packaging, containing all the genetic information for the next generation of plants."
They are placed, when ready, in ordinary glass jars and stored in the underground vaults at a temperature of about -20 degrees Celsius. The centre started operating in August.