The Chinese Academy of Sciences (
CAS) is
working with local government on plans to invest at least 300
million yuan (US$36 million) on an initiative to establish four new
major gene banks as repositories of rare plant material.
A
party of international botanists recently made a HSBC Bank
sponsored visit to the CAS Botanical Gardens in Beijing. They were
there to exchange expertise in biological diversification.
Senior sources at CAS spoke of plans to save 20,000 rare and
endangered plants worldwide. This is to be achieved through a
process known as "plant migration." The head of the Biological
Bureau at CAS reported that in addition to participation in the
international cooperative plan, CAS has invested 150 million yuan
(US$18 million) and the local governments involved have provided a
further 200 million yuan (US$24). These funds have been mainly for
the construction of the facilities to house the gene banks.
The largest gene bank facility is reportedly being built in the Dai
Autonomous Prefecture of Xishuangbanna in southwest China's
Yunnan Province. This will preserve genetic material from some
8,000 to 10,000 rare plants. In addition, CAS has key construction
work under way at its botanical gardens in Wuhan, Guangzhou and
Beijing.
The Beijing Botanical Garden will specialize in plants and herbs
from temperate zones. Potential for application in the field of
sandstorm prevention will be a particular feature of this
collection.
Twelve botanical gardens attached to CAS have already started to
cooperate with other botanical gardens around the country to save
rare plants. They plan to preserve 75 percent of their local plants
in the newly built gene banks.
Zhu Zhen, deputy director of the CAS Bureau of Life Science and
Biotechnology cited the examples of China's super hybrid rice
originating from a roadside "weed" and genetically-modified soybean
in the United States depending on plant material from China.
The natural resource residing in a single plant's genetic material
might well influence the rise and fall of an industry or even the
fate of a nation.
(China.org.cn by Wang Qian, November 25, 2002)