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■阿寬蕉(圖)是種子銀行收集到的第24,200種野生開花植物。網上圖片
英國基尤公園的植物學家表示，他們已收集全球10%(約16億)野生植物種子，達到保護瀕危植物的第一步。
英國皇家植物公園與全球54個國家合作，於9年前成立基尤千年種子銀行，保護植物的多樣性。第24,200種最新野生開花植物是粉紅色的野生阿寬蕉。
有了阿寬蕉，種子銀行已達成收藏和保護全球10%最受威脅野生種子的目標。他們現時已有另一目標，就是在2020年前收藏全球25%植物。
自2000年起，超過35億種子已被收集，並分別存放在英國南部種子銀行儲藏室的密封容器內和它們的原產地。
有關計劃主管史密斯表示：「這是一個收集中心，全球沒有類似的種子銀行。」他又說，銀行的種子可經歷數百甚至數千年都不會死。
史密斯表示，計劃與時間競賽，因為僅在過去10年，20種在種子銀行的植物已絕跡野外。他預計1/3至1/4植物會在本世紀內絕種。
史密斯說：「情況刻不容緩，人們轉換土地用途的速度前所未有。每年全球失去與英格蘭土地大小相若的原生植物。」
科學家表示，因為全球大部分食物和藥物都源於大自然，所以保護野生植物非常重要。
計劃首階段耗資7,360萬鎊(約9.3億港元)，款項由各國政府和私人單位支持，另一階段約需1.4億鎊(約17.7億港元)經費。 ■綜合外電消息
註解
Musa itinerans：阿寬蕉，生長於中國雲南省西南部的溝谷底部兩側及土層肥沃的山坡下面，是野生亞洲象的主要食物，同時也是普通香蕉品種的「親戚」，能為培育新抗病品種提供研究資源。但隨着叢林被開發用於農業生產，阿寬蕉的生存面臨日益嚴峻的威脅。 ■資深翻譯員 羅國偉
Britain's Seed Bank Deposits 1.6 Billions of Endangered Species
Botanists at Kew Gardens said they have collected seeds from 10 percent(equals to an amount of 1.6 billions) of the world's wild plants, their first goal in a project to protect all endangered plant species.
Seeds from a wild, pink banana, musa itinerans, are the latest addition to the collection at Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, designed to guard against dwindling diversity.
It became the 24,200th species of wild flowering plant stored in the seed bank, a nine-year-old programme run by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in partnership with institutions in 54 countries.
With it the project reaches its target to collect, bank and conserve seeds from 10 percent of the world's most under-threat wild plant species－although it is already working towards a new goal of 25 percent of plants by 2020.
Since 2000, more than 3.5 billion seeds have been collected and stored in air-tight containers in the temperature-controlled vaults at Kew's seed bank, as well as in their countries of origin.
"This is the hub. There is no seed bank like this in the world," Paul Smith, head of the partnership.
He said the seeds in the bank would survive for "hundreds, possibly thousands of years".
It is a race against time, Smith said, because in the last decade alone, 20 plants held in the bank have already been wiped out in the wild. He estimates that between a third and a quarter will become extinct this century.
"It is urgent and it is happening now. The amount of land conversion people are undertaking is unprecedented. An area the size of England is cleared of primary vegetation every year," Smith said.
Because most of the world's food and medicines come from nature, protecting wild plant species is critical, scientists said.
The first stage of the project cost 73.6 million pounds funded variously from governments around the world and private sponsors, while the next phase will cost about 140 million pounds.
AFP
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