Houses may replace Europe's largest collection of crops
New private homes could replace Europe's largest collection of fruits and berries, if a Russian court rules the land could be sold to property developers. The Pavlovsk experimental station near the Russian city of St Petersburg is the biggest European field seed bank and one of the largest in the world. Thousands of varieties of plants and crops there are found nowhere else.
Recently, the Global Crop Diversity Trust appealed to the Russian authorities to save the collection, which many scientists call an irreplaceable biological heritage.
Agricultural scientist Nikolai Vavilov built the seed bank - thought to be one of the oldest in the world - in 1926, to preserve biodiversity and enable the breeding of new crop varieties.
"The collection is a source of genes to develop many new varieties of fruits and berries, and it is also a huge cultural heritage," Sergey Alexanian, head of the Department of International Relations at the Vavilov Institute, told BBC News. He said the Pavlovsk collection holds about 320,000 samples of fruits and berries - 100 varieties each of gooseberries, raspberries and cherries, and more than 1,000 varieties of strawberries. About 90% of the varieties of crops there are unique, he added.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10899318
Professor Geoff Dixon FSB, biologist and horticulturist, says: “I am absolutely horrified at any suggestion that a gene bank is to be destroyed. These are the last ditch repositories of man's biological heritage and we will never know what has been lost. But it is very certain that there will be genes in there which are vital for our children, grandchildren and their childrens' childrens' livelihoods and for the overall benefit of the planet’s biodiversity. Fruit genes are of especial importance because of the value of the products for human health and welfare - an area just becoming recognised for its importance”.
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