Seeds from Prince’s meadows are stored in Arctic ‘doomsday vault’
WILD PLANT seeds from meadows at the Prince of Wales’ residence at Highgrove are being stored in the “doomsday vault” in the Arctic, it has been revealed.
The latest deposits at the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, off the northern coast of Norway, also include the first seeds from the Cherokee Nation in the US, and bring the total number of samples stored there to more than one million.
The vault provides a back-up to the network of seed banks around the world which store, grow and replenish thousands of varieties of crops – but which can be threatened by war, accidents and natural disasters.
Storing plant seeds is very important to ensure genetic material is available for food security, enabling plant breeders to develop new crops to withstand emerging pests and diseases and the extreme weather that climate change will bring.
Seeds of 27 wild plants from the meadows at Highgrove are being deposited at the vault on the archipelago of Svalbard, as well as in the collection at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst in Sussex.
The plants, hand-picked from the pasture, are species that are disappearing from the UK landscape.
They highlight the importance of conserving the diversity of life in the face of climate change and losses to nature, the scheme’s backers said.
The Prince said: “Ever since I
The Prince of Wales, speaking about protecting varieties.
first arrived at Highgrove which is 40 years ago this year, I have battled to preserve and protect the crucially important diversity of flora and fauna that ultimately sustains our survival on this planet.”
Charles also explained how he had done his utmost to maintain increasingly rare seeds of heritage vegetables, varieties of fruit and native breeds, which were being abandoned 40 years ago in favour of monocultures.
“It is more urgent than ever that we act now to protect this diversity before it really is too late,” The Prince warned.
It is more urgent than ever that we act now to protect this diversity.