Botanical conservation at the Desert Park
Alice Springs Desert Park is one of three of the Northern Territory’s botanical gardens and part of the Australian Seed Bank Partnership and Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Botany and Herbarium staff are testing 73 species of seed to assess germination viability.
Alice Springs Desert Park is dedicated to the preservation and conservation of local endangered plant species.
As part of the Australian Seed Bank Partnership, we collaborate with 15 organisations, including 10 conservation seed banks in Australia’s top botanic gardens, state environment agencies, non-governmental organisations, and the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership at Kew Gardens in the UK.
Importantly, we also store Central Australian seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which protects seed samples from nearly every country worldwide. This initiative serves as a backup for gene bank collections, securing the foundation of our future food supply.
Our Botany staff are currently working in collaboration with the Herbarium team testing 73 species of seed, to assess germination viability after cold storage.
A large number of Central Australian plant species occur exclusively in Central Australia, without crossing over into neighbouring states. That makes much of our flora quite special and unique and the conservation of those species rests in our hands, because if we don’t do it who else is going to? The world is changing fast in many ways and the protection, gathering and sharing of knowledge around our plants and animals and how to ensure their survival into the future has never been more important.
