Europe
The Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) has been working in Europe and the wider region since 2004 to conserve the native flora of this compact yet diverse continent. The European flora comprises of around 12,500 vascular plants (excluding Turkey), with centres of diversity around the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Wide variation in climate, geology and topography have created a range of bioregions and habitat types in Europe, contributing to the floral diversity of the continent. Current climates range from sub-tropical in the south to sub-polar in the north, and from oceanic in the west to continental in the east, while the effects of past climates, notably in relation to glaciations, are still present. The long history of human habitation and plant domestication has also contributed to the changing shape of Europe's flora. The principal vegetation cover in Europe is mixed coniferous and broadleaf forest, although less than 30% remains of its former extent.
The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership (MSBP) currently includes 45 partners in Europe in 18 countries and the MSBP is involved in two main projects in Europe.
Current projects (click project titles for details)
Funders: Arcadia and Legacy Funding
This project started in 2017 with the objective of contributing to the knowledge on and protection of the endangered and endemic flora of the Carpathian Region. The project focuses on Carpathian endemics and sub-endemics, as well as regional endangered species, found at the edge of their distribution and covers the Carpathian Mountains, Pannonian lowlands and Transylvanian basin. The three main outputs of the project are:
- Long-term seed conservation of the Carpathian flora (500 species)
- Research into the biosystematics of selected Carpathian endemic taxa and taxa groups:
- Carex L. (Carex curvula agg.)
- Daphne L. (D. arbuscula Čelak. and D. petraea Leyb.)
- Draba L. (Sect. Aizopsis, Sect. Chrysodraba and Sect. Leucodraba)
- Silene zawadzkii Herbich
- Soldanella L. (Sect. Soldanella)
- Establishing a Carpathian research network
The seed conservation partners in this project are:
- Romania - "A. Borza" Botanical Garden Babeş-Bolyai University
- Romania - Institute of Biological Research Cluj-Napoca, National Institute for Research and Development in Biological Sciences
- Slovakia - Plant Science and Biodiversity Centre, Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences
- Ukraine - State Natural History Museum of Ukraine
The European Native Seed Conservation Network (ENSCONET) operated from 2005-2009, funded by European Community's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) as an Integrated Activity implemented as a Co-ordination Action. Since 2010 the ENSCONET Consortium, comprising 31 European seed banks, botanical gardens and other institutes involved in plant conservation, has continued the work of ENSCONET.
The aim of the ENSCONET Consortium is to improve the quality, co-ordination and integration of European seed conservation practice, policy and research for native seed-plant species across Europe. The ENSCONET Consortium is a network to exchange information, equipment and staff, share data, and to collaborate at the European level based on mutual trust and understanding. Seed material is duplicated between the partner seed banks, information about seed conservation in Europe is disseminated, and policy makers are informed about seed conservation activities at local, national and international level.
During the summer of 2011, two ENSCONET Consortium joint seed collecting missions took place, one in central Slovakia and the other in northern Spain. During the summer of 2012, one ENSCONET Consortium joint seed collecting mission took place, in Hungary. These trips allowed exchange of experience between the participants as well as collecting considerable numbers of additional seed accessions for long term conservation storage.
RBG Kew was instrumental in the development of the ENSCONET Consortium and provides the Secretariat, which is the main point of contact for enquiries relating to the ENSCONET Consortium and its activities. The current members of the ENSCONET Consortium Supervisory Committee are:
- Elinor Breman, RBG Kew, UK
- Angelino Carta, University of Pisa, Italy
- Michael Kiehn, University of Vienna, Austria
- Mari Miranto, Finnish Museum of Natural History LUOMUS, Finland
Further information about the ENSCONET Consortium, including a list of current members and activities, can be found on our website, and data relating to ENSCONET Consortium seed collections can be found on the ENSCOBase website.
Publications:
- ENSCONET (2009) ENSCONET curation protocols and recommendations. Ed. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, U.K. & Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Spain. European Native Seed Conservation Network.
- ENSCONET (2009) ENSCONET seed collecting manual for wild species. Ed. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew U.K. & Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Spain. European Native Seed Conservation Network.
- ENSCONET Seed Collecting Manual for wild species
- ENSCONET Curation Protocols & Recommendations
Past projects (click project titles for details)
Funder: David and Claudia Harding Foundation
This network brought together partners from five plant science institutions housed at leading universities and botanic gardens across the Alps in Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland. The aim of the project was to deliver an integrated programme of conservation and research for alpine flora through:
Ex situ conservation of the region's most endangered alpine community species: 500 species to be conserved in three years.
Dissemination of research on these species to aid conservation and restoration activities through media, scientific publications, conference presentations and school outreach programmes.
Development of a conservation network to foster long-term co-operation and collaboration through research collaboration, joint field work and annual meetings.
The seed conservation partners in this project were:
- Austria - University of Graz
- Austria - University of Innsbruck
- France - Conservatoire Botanique National Alpin
- Italy - University of Pavia
- Switzerland - Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève
For more information about this project, including partner profiles and research outlines, please visit the project website or our project webpage.
Funder: Garfield Weston Foundation
Nine MSB partners from seven countries participated in the European section of phase 1 of the Global Tree Seed Bank Programme from 2015. The European partners collected and conserved 330 species (182 unique species). Those involved in the project were:
- Austria - University of Graz
- Belgium - Botanic Garden Meise
- Cyprus - Nature Conservation Unit, Frederick University
- Finland - Finnish Museum of Natural History
- Italy - University of Catania, Sicily
- Italy - University of Pisa
- Poland - Kostrzyca Forest Gene Bank
- Spain - Atlantic Botanic Garden, Gijón
- Spain - Soller Botanic Garden Foundation
Please visit the main project webpage for further details.
Funder: Global Crop Trust
Four partners from Europe were involved in the Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) project:
- Cyprus - Aegean Agricultural Research Institute
- Italy - Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pavia
- Portugal - Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência, Lisboa
- Spain - Institute for Agricultural and Food research Technology (INIA)
Cyprus and Italy were the first two countries to join the project, in 2013, and successfully finished their collection programmes. Cyprus contributed 256 accessions to the project (target 193) and Italy 382 accessions (target 350) of 43 taxa. Portugal joined in 2014 and also completed their collection programme, contributing 65 accessions (target 55). This seed material is now being sent out to pre-breeders.
Spain joined the project in 2016, their collection programme focussed on cereals and grain legumes.
Further information on the programme can be found on the Kew project webpage & the Crop Wild Relatives webpage.
Funder: varied
These projects ran for one to three years depending on funding and focused on conserving the national flora of the partner country.
| Country | Partner | Project |
|---|---|---|
| Austria | University of Graz | "Seed collecting and preservation activities in the Austrian counties of Styria and Carinthia", from 2015 |
| Austria | The Botanic Garden of the University of Vienna | "Conserving the rare and endangered plants of Austria" from 2016 |
| Italy | Department of Biology, Università di Pisa | "Conserving the regional flora of Italy" from 2012 |
| Italy | Ente di gestione delle Aree Protette delle Alpi Marittime | "Seed conservation in the Ligurian and Maritime Alps" from 2012. This work also involved research and the publication of a guide to the 'Flowers of the Ligurian and Maritime Alps' |
| Italy | Università di Pavia | "Seed collecting in mountain areas of Italy" from 2012 |
| Portugal | FCiências.ID - Associação para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa | "Ex situ conservation of the Portuguese flora" from 2012 |
| Slovakia | Plant Science and Biodiversity Centre, Institute of Botany, Slovak Academy of Sciences | "Conserving the native flora of Slovakia" from 2012 |
| Spain | Jardín Botánico Atlántico de Gijón, Universidad de Oviedo | "Collecting and conserving the endemic flora of the Cantabrian mountains" from 2015 |
| Spain | Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi | "Ex situ Conservation Programme for the Pyrenees flora: West Pyrenees" from 2012 |
Project partners
For further information please contact Aisyah Faruk, Conservation Partnership Coordinator for Europe at the MSB.
