Interview
Why are scientists racing to fill seed banks?
- Kew Gardens scientists plan to bank seeds from numerous species to support conservation and restoration goals, utilizing multi-stage collection processes that include mapping populations and testing germination capabilities.
- Precise collection windows are determined by monitoring fruiting times, though climate change has altered these cycles, creating unpredictability and increasing the risk of missing ripe fruit in remote locations.
- Collected seeds undergo a drying and germination testing phase lasting a few weeks at the Antananarivo facility, after which the supply is split with half stored locally and half transferred to the Millennium Seed Bank in Wakehurst.
- Large-scale restoration efforts are underway, including the planting of approximately 30,000 seedlings in Ankara Fantisk national park, while government and NGOs utilize seeds from the Malagasy Seed Bank for ongoing work.
- Scientists anticipate that current deforestation rates in Madagascar are too rapid for seed bank activities to fully counteract or match habitat loss, particularly when deforestation occurs outside priority restoration sites.
- Poverty-driven over-exploitation of resources is identified as a primary cause of deforestation, with economic improvements viewed as a potential future mechanism to reduce environmental degradation.
- The military coup is expected to disrupt operations temporarily, though scientists anticipate a return to normal procedures with minimal impact on their specific projects, despite uncertainty regarding whether government restoration funding will match pre-coup levels.