With the presence of a senior scientist from the Kew Gardens in London, the Dr. Rafael M. Moscoso Botanical Garden (JBN) unveiled on Tuesday, 7 February 2017, its Seed Bank dedicated to research and conservation of native and endemic plants of the Dominican Republic and the insular Caribbean.
Ricardo García, director of the Botanical Gardens (JBN), said the project is a tool for important conservation work and the sustainable management of flora in the country and in Haiti. He said it will serve to safeguard the genetic material of the plants of Hispaniola and to a resource for planting material for reforestation and urban greenspace programs. He said especially important is that the project will make it possible to increase the populations of endangered native and endemic species. He said without the seed bank there are several species that could be lost in the next ten years.
Participating in the announcement was Minister of Environment Francisco Domínguez Brito and Tiziana Ulian, senior research leader of diversity and livelihoods at the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew Gardens) in London, UK.
It took six years to build the Seed Bank, from 2010 to 2016, at a cost of around RD$18 million. It has capacity to store millions of seeds in an area that includes a laboratory, research center, cold store, and in vitro cultivation laboratory for the propagation of orchids.
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Metro RD
9 February 2017
