The Pavlovsk Seed Repository and Gardens, located outside of Lennigrad, houses an extremely rare collection food crops seeds and living specimens of fruit trees including apple & cherry, berry plants (over 100 varieties of gooseberries and raspberries)and black currants, 9 out of 10 of which are found no where else in the world. During the WWII siege of Lenningrad, the Institute's scientists risked starvation rather than eat or allow starving residents to eat the repository's collection of wheat and potato seed. I had the privilege of meeting one of the scientists who risked death to save this collection at a Slow Food Presidia event in Turin many years ago. Through a translator, I thanked her for dedication and her fortitude. As we shook hands, I tried to imagine the physical and mental stress of having to choose between food today, and a nation's food supply in years to come. Having survived this brush with extinction, it was incredibly painful to hear that a Russian court recently ruled that the estate could be demolished to make way for a housing development.
The logic behind the ruling was truly astounding. In essence, since the advocates for the institute argued the collection was priceless, the court ruled it had no monetary value and therefore had no standing. One week ago the situation seemed grim, but thanks to the efforts of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the Guardian newspaper in England and concerned citizens across the globe, the situation has caught the attention of President Medvedev. (He recently activated a Twitter account and started receiving messages about this issue.)
While it has President Medvedev's attention, the court's decision still stands at this point. Please take a moment and do one or more of the following:
Sign the GCDT's petition; Petition
Tweet a message to the President:
@KremlinRussia_E Mr. President, protect the future of agriculture - save Pavlovsk station! http://bit.ly/...
In Russian:
@KremlinRussia Господин президент, защитите будущее сельского хозяйства - спасите Павловскую станцию!
Send a letter: Letters/Kremlin
Key points as per GCDV:
The deliberate destruction of unique biodiversity is always of great international concern. That concern is exacerbated because of the scientific, economic, symbolic and cultural importance of the Pavlosk station.
• The plant germplasm maintained at the Pavlovsk Experiment Station of the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry is a "gold mine" on a global scale, because it contains the genetic resources needed for the development of modern cultivars, i.e. for modern agriculture. In the case of the Pavlosk’s strawberry collection
alone, genetic diversity from 40 countries and all continents is stored there.
• For all practical purposes, the collection cannot be moved elsewhere. It would cost some millions of dollars perhaps, and take over 10 years to ensure the safe duplication of all the accessions, and there is no guarantee of 100% success.
• An intrinsic part of the value of the collection is the expertise of the scientists who have studied it and maintained it. Continuous in-depth studies have provided vital information on detailed characteristics of major economic and biological
traits, and allowed the collection to be used successfully in breeding many commercially successful crop varieties. The loss of the botanical wealth at the Pavlovsk Station would also result in the loss of the human knowledge associated with this important collection.
• The Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry remains a source of inspiration worldwide, particularly as a demonstration of the importance to humanity of the genetic diversity of our crops. It was the scene of great heroism during the Siege of Leningrad, when scientists chose to die in the Institute, surrounded by samples of seed that they could easily have eaten, but they preferred to ensure these collections would be available to future generations.
Thank you for helping.