The world鈥檚 largest scientific repository of fruits and berries, outside St Petersburg, Russia, could be bulldozed later this year to make way for new homes.
This week Cary Fowler, director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust in Rome, Italy, called for scientists to intervene to prevent 鈥渢he largest intentional, preventable loss of crop diversity in my lifetime 鈥� during the International Year of Biodiversity鈥�.
Vladimir Putin, Russia鈥檚 prime minister, and President Dmitry Medvedev have so far not responded to pleas to save the collection at the Pavlovsk experimental station. Staff there say the last chance to prevent the site being sold may come in a court hearing next week.
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The Pavlovsk experimental station is one of 11 that are part of the , one of the world鈥檚 oldest seed banks. It holds more than 4000 varieties of fruits and berries, including more than 100 examples each of gooseberries, raspberries, and cherries, almost 1000 types of strawberries from 40 countries, from which most modern commercially grown varieties are derived.
Late last year, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development handed over a fifth of the station to the Russian Housing Development Foundation, a state body set up in 2008 to identify public land that could be sold to build private homes. On 28 June, a Russian court will rule on whether the rest of the site should be handed over.
A spokesman for the Housing Development Foundation told 快猫短视频 that the station land is 鈥渘ot utilised鈥� and that its inspection showed that claims about there being 鈥減riceless collections on these pieces of land [are] false鈥�.
According to Fyodor Mikhovich, the station鈥檚 director, 鈥渕ore than 90 per cent of the collection is found in no other research station鈥�. Norman Looney, president of the , based in Leuven, Belgium, agrees that the collection is unique. He told 快猫短视频 that with world food production likely to move north as a result of climate change, 鈥渢hese genetic resources will become even more important to breeders鈥�.
鈥淚t would be a major tragedy if the collection were lost,鈥� says Jim Hancock of Michigan State University. One of the world鈥檚 leading strawberry breeders, he says the collection houses many Russian varieties that are exceptionally hardy and disease-resistant.
Mikhovich says it is unlikely the courts will block the rest of the site from being handed over, so attention may soon focus on relocating the collection. Fowler, who is in charge of assembling seeds from most of the world鈥檚 crops at a 鈥渄oomsday vault鈥� in the Arctic, says most of the seeds in the Pavlovsk collection will not survive freezing, and only planting can protect their genes for posterity.
鈥淲e will try to help them rescue the station. We have contacted a number of institutions to alert them that we may need to swing into action at short notice if the court rulings go against Pavlovsk,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut no rescue effort will salvage much. There will be little time, there is no place to put the collection and quarantine regulations will prevent us sending it abroad quickly.鈥�
