Millennium Seed Bank Project

The Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP) "is the largest ex situ conservation project ever conceived. Its partners will have banked seed from 10% of the world's wild plant species by the end of the decade."

"With future climate change scenarios and the ever-increasing impact of human activities, the MSBP intends to accelerate its activities to secure in safe storage 25% of the world's plant species by 2020."

Funding
"The Millennium Seed Bank Project was awarded a grant of £29.9m by the Millennium Commission. The work of the latter has now been taken over by the Big Lottery Fund, a key distributor of UK lottery money. This grant was initially awarded in 1995. A supplementary grant of £2.15m was awarded in 2003 to enhance aspects of the project and particularly the targeting of new collections.

"In 1996, Orange plc became the primary sponsors of the public appeal with a donation of £2.5m. The following year, the Wellcome Trust, a leading medical charity, donated £9.2m towards the construction of the Wellcome Trust Millennium Building in recognition of the medicinal value of plants. RBG Kew is contributing £8.8m mainly from its grant-in-aid from Defra. Some £9.5m of 'in kind' support is estimated to have been provided by partner organisations."

Contact

 * Web: http://www.kew.org/msbp

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 * Namdeb Diamond
 * Giles Coode-Adams