Contribution of seed banks across Europe towards the 2020 Global Strategy for Plant Conservation targets, assessed through the ENSCONET database S. RIVIÈRE and J . V . M ÜLLER Abstract To meet the international biodiversity targets of including ‘ease of storage, economy of space, relatively low the – Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, it is labour demands and consequently, the capacity to maintain important to assess the success of coordinated ex situ large samples at an economically viable cost’ (BGCI, a). plant conservation initiatives such as the European Native In addition, ‘seeds are a convenient means of long-term Seed Conservation Network (ENSCONET), which operated storage of genetic diversity, as the samples are small in during –, and the ENSCONET Consortium, size, are easily handled, require low maintenance and fre- which was established in . In particular, analysis of quently remain viable for long periods’ (BGCI, a). In the ENSCONET database (ENSCOBASE) indicates that ex this context, regional networks of seed banks are important situ seed banks have been making significant progress to- frameworks for the development of national and regional wards meeting targets (at least % of threatened plant conservation strategies and action plans. species in ex situ collections, preferably in the country of ori- Examples of such networks include the Australian Seed gin, and at least % available for recovery and restoration Bank Partnership, which brings together Australia’s leading programmes) and (% of the genetic diversity of crops, botanical institutions, seed scientists and conservation and including their wild relatives and other socio-economically restoration experts to collaborate in the collecting and bank- valuable plant species, conserved, while respecting, preserv- ing of native seed for conservation (Sutherland & Aylott, ing and maintaining associated indigenous and local knowl- ), and the U.S. Center for Plant Conservation network, edge) for native European species. However, the infraspecific which maintains the National Collection of Endangered diversity of threatened species stored in ENSCONET seed Plants, which is a bank of seeds, cuttings and other plant banks needs to be increased to meet research and conserva- material from the country’s most imperilled native plants tion objectives. (Galbraith & Kennedy, ; BGCI, b). In Europe, the European Native Seed Conservation Keywords Crop wild relatives, ENSCONET, European Red Network (ENSCONET) was funded under the European List of Vascular Plants, ex situ, Global Strategy for Plant Commission’s Sixth Framework Programme for Research Conservation, medicinal plants, seed conservation and Technological Development (FP)betweenNovember Supplementary material for this article can be found at and October . ENSCONET aimed to integrate https://doi.org/./S the activities of partners networked through virtual centres of excellence focusing on clearly defined scientific and technological objectives. The objective of the project was to ‘improve quality, coordination and integration of European Introduction seed conservation practice, policy and research for native plant species and to assist EU conservation policy and its ob- eed banks are one of a number of complementary strat- ligations to the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Segies used in integrated plant conservation (Sharrock Global Strategy for Plant Conservation’ (Müller et al., ). et al., ), particularly to achieve targets and of the Thirty-one partner organizations from European coun- – Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (Wyse tries worked together in activity groups focused on areas Jackson & Kennedy, ; Convention on Biological such as seed collecting, seed curation, data management Diversity, ). Storing plants as seeds is a widespread prac- and dissemination of information. The final project report tice and can be used as a key approach to ex situ conserva- (ENSCONET, )listsamongthemajorachievementsof tion. There are significant advantages to seed banking, the data management activity group the implementation of the joint database platform ENSCOBASE, the European S. RIVIÈRE (Corresponding author) Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Natural Capital Native Seed Conservation Database. At the end of the funded and Plant Health—Diversity and Livelihoods, Millennium Seed Bank, project, in October , ENSCOBASE contained entries Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, RH17 6TN, UK E-mail [email protected] from seed banks across Europe, representing , acces- sions from , taxa native to Europe, and covering bio- J. V. MÜLLER Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Conservation Science, Millennium Seed Bank, Ardingly, UK geographical regions in Europe. Since July , access to Received May . Revision requested June . ENSCOBASE has been freely available via the internet. Accepted November . First published online May . ENSCOTOOL, a local data management system linked Oryx, 2018, 52(3), 464–470 © 2017 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605316001496 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.229, on 28 Sep 2021 at 23:56:28, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316001496 European seed banks 465 directly to the main ENSCOBASE server, was developed, and Nic Lughadha, ). However, there have been considerable released in September to facilitate institutional data pro- barriers to progress in relation to target because of complex viders to populate ENSCOBASE with new data records. data, and inconsistency of global data with IUCN Red List After the end of the FP-funded project, the project part- standards. To assess the contribution of seed banks across ners continued their collaborative work across Europe. They Europe towards targets and we compared data on seed ac- established the ENSCONET Consortium in August , cessions from ENSCOBASE against seven checklists. The first with the aim of maintaining significant levels of seed conser- two checklists ( and below) were used to map ENSCOBASE vation activity across the continent. The ENSCONET holdings against two international taxonomic checklists to en- Consortium continues to rely on ENSCOBASE as the cen- sure consistency in the taxonomy used for ENSCOBASE, es- tral data platform for European native seed conservation. pecially with regard to accepted names/synonyms. Checklists During there was an increase in records, to , acces- and were used to assess the progress of the ENSCONET sions representing , taxa (Godefroid et al., ). At that Consortium towards target . Checklists , and contained time, the ENSCONET network held in long-term conserva- socio-economically important plants, such as crop wild rela- tion storage c. %( species) of the plants listed in the tives, medicinal plants, ornamental plants, and food, forage Habitats Directive Annex II, excluding bryophytes (Council and timber species, and were used to assess the progress of Directive //EEC), and %( species) of plants listed the ENSCONET Consortium towards target . by Botanic Gardens Conservation International as threatened As targets and of the Global Strategy for Plant in Europe (Sharrock & Jones, ). Conservation refer to the term ‘species’,infraspecifictaxa To help data providers mobilize their data more quickly were excluded from the combined checklists & and , & and in a more standardized way, a new data import system . The following accessions were also excluded from the was developed in , with which data providers could im- ENSCOBASE holdings: seed accessions not identified to spe- port data in bulk via a web platform. As new data are being cies (i.e. species epithet was ‘sp.’); seed accessions not fully iden- uploaded into ENSCOBASE continually, it became clear tified (i.e. with identification qualifier ‘cf.’); historical seed that such a coordinated effort would become instrumental accessions, which were imported into the database but no long- in informing progress towards internationally agreed plant er refer to an active conservation accession (e.g. in cases where conservation targets such as target (at least % of threa- the original seeds have been used for propagation purposes). tened plant species in ex situ collections, preferably in the country of origin, and at least % available for recovery Checklists 1 & 2: Euro+Med PlantBase and The Plant List We and restoration programmes) and target (% of the gen- mapped the multi-taxonomy system represented in etic diversity of crops, including their wild relatives and ENSCOBASE against the Euro+Med checklist (Euro+Med, other socio-economically valuable plant species, conserved, ). Some names were corrected and synonyms were while respecting, preserving and maintaining associated in- identified. This, together with the analysis using checklist digenous and local knowledge) of the – Global (The Plant List, ), resulted in a decrease in the total Strategy for Plant Conservation. In addition to assessing number of taxa under consideration from . , to the coverage of the Strategy’s targets by ENSCOBASE at ,. The synonymy system was used for all families species level, it is also essential, as highlighted by Sharrock covered by Euro+Med. In , Euro+Med comprised et al. (), to assess the infraspecific genetic diversity of ex families (corresponding to c. % of the European vascular situ collections. A species may possess high genetic variabil- flora), but did not include an additional families (five ity in natural stands