Seed Bank in Financial Trouble?
It isn’t news that the economy is causing problems for a number of businesses, but Millennium Seed Bank Project may also be in financial trouble, according to director Paul Smith.
The Millennium Seed Bank Project, located in the UK is trying to collect and protect every type of plant known to exist. From Reuters:
The Millennium Seed Bank Project is the only project of its kind in the world which aims to collect and conserve all the planet’s wild plant diversity, Smith said.
They’re on schedule to have collected 10% by 2010, but because of the world-wide financial crisis, many donors aren’t contributing money that makes up about half of their funding. The other half comes from the National Lottery, but some of that money is now being put toward preparations for the 2012 London Olympics. It costs 10 million pounds annually to keep the project going.
This isn’t just about protecting plants – this project could also save lives in the future. Many plants are studied in conjunction with medicine, and future findings could mean cures for serious medical problems. With the seed bank, humankind will always have access to these plants.
The seed bank is located in an underground vault that is designed to withstand a nuclear accident.
[...] set up the Svalbard seed-bank last year, and now that a repository for 1.1 million plant varieties exists, it is focusing on the [...]
[...] set up the Svalbard seed-bank last year, and now that a repository for 1.1 million plant varieties exists, it is focusing on the [...]