ENSCONET

Kew Garden's Millennium Seed Bank Project co-ordinates the European Native Seed Conservation Network (ENSCONET).

Discussion among ENSCONET partners during the 1st Annual Meeting in the Mediterranean Agricultural Research Institute, Chania (Crete, Greece) (Photo: Elena Estrelles)

This network currently involves 24 different institutions from 17 European countries, as well as five associate members, working jointly on seed preservation of wild plants for the future.

The aims of ENSCONET are:

-          the improved quality, coordination and integration of European seed conservation practice, policy and research for native plant species, and

-          to assist EU conservation policy and its obligations to the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.

Long-term storage of native plant seeds in the seed bank of ENSCONET partner No. 10 - UPM Madrid. (Photo: José M. Iriondo)

Study, information, and research on seed biology are supported by the work of the partners through the exchange of experiences, protocols and facilities. All the efforts are headed to optimise seed conservation practices. There are four activity groups: collecting, curation, data management and dissemination.

The ENSCONET receives funding from the European Community's Sixth Framework Programme as an Integrated Activity, implemented as a Co-ordination Action.

Seed collecting in the Italian Alps near Trento. (Photo: Andrea Mondoni)