(Feb 16) – The University of Pavia has signed an agreement with the Kunming Institute of Botany, one of the most prestigious institutes of Botany of China. The two universities will be involved in wild plants conservation plan. There are several analogies between the two institutions, as explains Graziano Rossi, professor at the university of Pavia: “We share the way we see and keep biodiversity, but also the philosophy and the techniques and technologies we uses are basically the same, and all of these are internationally recognized. We also share common relationship withthe British Royal Botanic Garden, the Millannium Seed Bank Project, which represents a ‘master’ for all of us”. The dean of the University of Pavia, Angiolino
Stella, has met the Director of the Chinese institute, Li Dezhu, together with prof. Rossi and teachers from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. It was the occasion to reinforce the importance of ex situ conservation for keeping safe the DNA of plants, both wild and cultivated. “The seed bank – Rossi continues – costs 1% of what it costs to keep the same plants in their living environment and so it is economical but also strategic for humanity and biodiversity. “(Gil)
THE LABORATORY OF PLANT ECOLOGY AND BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
The Laboratory of Plant Ecology Biological and Conservation of the University of Pavia is part of the Section of the Department for Territory and Terrestrial Environments Ecology. In the laboratory they study the main environmental factors that influence plants’ life, such as climate
and microclimate, substrate, competition between species, anthropogenic influence. Particular attention is paid to rare plants and / or threatened with extinction.
Since 1999, the Laboratory has been actively involved in conservation of
the germplasm of these plants, working with the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic
Gardens of Kew (U.K.). Since 2003, the University of Pavia is working on a seeds’ preservation of rare plants from the whole of Lombardy, on behalf of the Regional Centre for the Protection of
Autochthonous Flora.
