Synonyms
Introduction: The Role of Seed Banks
A seed bank is a documented collection of seeds held for long-term security or for ease of access. It is one of the oldest forms of gene bank, where genetic material essential for agriculture, forestry, or plant conservation is preserved, curated, and made available to user communities from off-site (ex situ) storage conditions.
All seed banks aim to acquire and maintain seed of high quality that will provide users with viable genetic material that represents the variation and useful traits of the original field collection. Such genetic materials of actual or potential value are termed “genetic resources.” In the field, plant species are continually evolving in response to selection pressures acting on them. This process is largely halted for a seed collection that is brought into a seed bank for long-term preservation, but the samples of genetic diversity held in seed banks are increasingly important for two...
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References
Botanic Gardens Conservation International (2018) The Global Seed Conservation Challenge. http://www.bgci.org/plant-conservation/seedconservation/. Last accessed 23 Feb 2018
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (2009) International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i0510e.pdf. Last accessed 23 Feb 2018
GENESYS Global portal on plant genetic resources, http://www.genesys-pgr.org. Last accessed 23 Feb 2018
International Society of Ethnobiology (2006) International Society of Ethnobiology Code of Ethics (with 2008 additions). http://ethnobiology.net/code-of-ethics/. Last accessed 23 Feb 2018
Iskenisk Declaration (2011) on the access, use, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge in Canada. http://www.abs-canada.org/portfolio-view/iskenisk-petkoutkoyek-declaration. Last accessed 23 Feb 2018
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2018) The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership data warehouse. http://brahmsonline.kew.org/msbp. Last accessed 23 Feb 2018
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2011) Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation. https://www.cbd.int/abs/text/. Last accessed 23 Feb 2018
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Way, M. (2018). Seed Banks. In: Poff, D., Michalos, A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_345-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23514-1_345-1
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