Arcadia’s grant to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is to support the Gardens’ Millennium Seed Bank Project.

By 2010 the Project and its partners will have banked seed from 10% of the world's wild plant species. The seed will be from some of the rarest, most threatened and most useful plant species known to man.

With future climate change scenarios and the increasing impact of human activities, the Project intends to accelerate its activities to secure in storage 25% of the world's plant species by 2020.

Plants are the basis of ecosystems in which all animals, including humans, live, survive and grow. By saving seeds we can save plants. Seed banks provide insurance against the loss of species in the wild. Seed banks also provide options for the future conservation and utilisation of plants. Even if they are lost in the wild, plants will always be available for human utilisation, for medicines, crop improvements, building materials and so on.

Our grant is for five years. It will be used for critical areas of collection, and on research techniques for seed viability, quality, and longevity.