Can you help provide a precis of this broadcast, “Results of evaluation conducted by the expert commission regarding the state of lands belonging to the Pavlovsk Experiment Station.”
And thanks to commenter Mike H for the link to the VIR site.
Pavlovsk: you are here
Chaffey’s regular words of wisdom on anything botanical. Well, mostly wise. But more on that later…
That’s from a nibble a few days ago. The qualification concerned Pavlovsk, and Jeremy has now set the record straight. Incidentally, the latest update on the situation from the Vavilov Institute itself has the first decent map of Pavlovsk I’ve seen. Here it is. Explore for yourself: no Street View, alas.
Nibbles: Pavlovsk, Baobab hybridization, Jackfruit, Vavilovia, Cowpea education, Lead, Bees, Banana wilt, Dariy cows, Pavlovsk, Drylands, School gardens, Genetic diversity in botanic gardens
- The value of Pavlovsk. Jeremy delivers a slap.
- CIRAD on kinky sex among the baobabs.
- “I had never heard that there were distinct varieties of the jackfruit, although of course such a thing was reasonable, so I naturally wanted very much to taste one.” Naturally.
- Wild relative of pea gets a weird hybrid in-ex situ conservation treatment.
- A Cowpea Story, an illustrative children’s book by Vicky Inniss-Palmer, tells the hopeful story of a cowpea named Catalina and her struggle to overcome illness and disease with the help of scientists. Meanwhile, scientists meet.
- Urban gardeners, beware lead. And nurture your pollinators.
- Reading this, anyone would think nobody had ever researched banana Xanthomonas wilt.
- Improved dairying in Kenya.
- Vavilov Institute’s comprehensive update on Pavlovsk.
- ICRISAT to put in place new market-oriented strategy which will use a “systems perspective in setting our priorities to ensure that all important issues along the dryland agriculture value chain are addressed.”
- Meanwhile, ASARECA asks for ideas on how to intensify one of those dryland systems in the face of climate change.
- ICIMOD promotes herbal gardens in schools.
- Botanic gardens get wrists slapped over their inattention to genetics.
Nibbles: Genebank, Guanaco, Maize, Wild food
- Maintaining a citrus gene bank. Just the book you need if you have to, er, maintain a citrus genebank.
- Guanacos need quiet.
- Don’t understand this piece on maize germplasm conservation and use.
- Indigenous food plants in trouble in the Philippines.
The Importance of Scientific Collections
The American Institute of Biological Sciences and the Ecological Society of America are among the scientific organizations around the world that have urged the Russian Federation to reconsider the decision to destroy the collections at the Pavlovsk Experiment Station. And they remind us that we do occasionally need to relate our concerns about agricultural biodiversity to wider concerns about biodiversity: it isn’t only our favoured collections that are threatened.
Lack of funds, loss of technically trained staff and inadequate protection against natural disasters, are jeopardizing natural science collections worldwide. For example, in May of this year an accidental fire destroyed roughly 80,000 of the 500,000 venomous snake-and an estimated 450,000 spider and scorpion-specimens at the Butantan Institute in São Paolo, Brazil. The 100-year-old collection featured some rare and extinct species and contributed to the development of numerous vaccines, serums and antivenoms. The building that housed these specimens, including what may have been the largest collection of snakes in the world, lacked fire alarm or sprinkler systems.
“Biological collections, whether living or non-living, are vitally important to humanity,” says Dr. Joseph Travis, president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. “Natural science collections have provided insights into a wide variety of biological issues and pressing societal problems. These research centers help identify new food sources, develop treatments for disease and suggest how to control invasive pests. Natural science collections belong to the world and cannot be limited by geographic borders.”
Good points, well made.