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The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership (MSBP or MSB), formerly known as the Millennium Seed Bank Project, is an international conservation project coordinated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. After being awarded a Millennium Commission grant in 1995 the project commenced in 1996 and is now housed in the Wellcome Trust Millennium Building situated in the grounds of Wakehurst Place, West Sussex. Its purpose is to provide an "insurance policy" against the extinction of plants in the wild by storing seeds for future use. The storage facilities consist of large underground frozen vaults preserving the world's largest wild-plant seedbank or collection of seeds from wild species. The project had been started by Dr Peter Thompson and run by Paul Smith after the departure of Roger Smith.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Science and Conservation - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew )〕 Roger Smith was awarded the OBE in 2000 in the Queen's New Year Honours for services to the Project.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=NEW YEAR HONOURS )〕 In collaboration with other biodiversity projects around the world expeditions are sent to collect seeds from dryland plants. Where possible, collections are kept in the country of origin with duplicates being sent to the Millennium Seed Bank Project for storage. Major partnerships exist on all the continents, enabling the countries involved to meet international objectives such as the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations Environment Programme. The seed bank at Kew has gone through many iterations. The Kew Seed Bank facility, set up by Peter Thompson in 1980, preceded the MSBP and was headed by Roger Smith from 1980 to 2005. From 2005 Paul Smith took over as head of the MSBP. The Wellcome Trust Millennium Seed Bank building was designed by the firm Stanton WIlliams and opened by Prince Charles in 2000.〔(Millennium Seed Bank Building ) page on website〕 The laboratories and offices are in two wings flanking a wide space open to visitors housing an exhibition, and also allowing them to watch the work of cleaning and preparing seeds for storage through the large windows of the work areas. There is also a view down to the entrance to the underground vaults where the seeds are stored at - 20 °C.〔(Millennium Seed Bank Exhibition ) page on website〕 In 2001, the international programme of the MSBP was launched. In April 2007, it banked its billionth seed,〔Black, Richard BBC News 2007-04-26 Plant vault passes billion mark (), accessed 2007-06-09〕 the ''Oxytenanthera abyssinica'', a type of African bamboo. In October 2009, it reached its 10% goal of banking all the world's wild plant species by adding ''Musa itinerans'', a wild banana, to its seed vault. As estimates for the number of seed bearing plant species have increased, 34,088 wild plant species and 1,980,405,036 seeds in storage as of June 2015 represent over 13% of the world's wild plant species. ==Project aims== The main aims of the project〔"A Year at Kew – the Millennium Seed Bank" () accessed 2007-06-09〕 are to: *Collect the seeds from 75,000 species of plants by 2020, representing 25% of known flora. This is the second phase of this goal, with the original partnership goal of banking 10% of known flora by 2010 was achieved in October 2009.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=BBC NEWS - Science & Environment - Banana marks seed bank milestone )〕 *Collect seeds from all of the UK's native flora. *Further research into conservation and preservation of seeds and plants. *Act as a focal point for research in this area and encourage public interest and support. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Millennium Seed Bank Partnership」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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