Rete italiana banche del germoplasma per la conservazione ex situ della flora spontanea italiana (RIBES)
Country: Italy
Regions: Valle d’Aosta, Piemonte, Lombardia, Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Toscana, Marche, Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo, Sicilia, Sardegna
RIBES is the Italian national seed-bank network for native species conservation. It was established in December 2005 and today it includes 18 members (universities, parks, and museums), representing 14 out of 20 Italian regions.
The goal of the network is the general improvement of the quality and safety of the germplasm reserves of native plant species in Italy to ensure the long-term conservation and protection of the endangered and/or endemic flora. In the RIBES seedbanks, more than 25,000 accessions of seeds and spores of about 3,200 taxa are conserved, representing approx. 40% of the Italian native vascular flora and, particularly, 41% of the Italian endemic flora, 50% of the endemic crop wild relatives and about 50% of the Italian threatened endemic taxa.
Currently, RIBES is carrying out actions for the prioritization of the Italian flora aimed at:
- the optimization of the seed-banking efforts in order to ensure the conservation of endangered and endemic species, and contribute to filling the existing gaps;
- the establishment of a coordinated national system of safety-duplicate accessions to secure the germplasm in at least two partner seedbanks.
RIBES is a member/partner of other wider networks such as ENSCONET (European Native Seed Conservation Network), Millennium Seed Bank Partnership and INSR (International Network for Seed-based Restoration) so providing an active connection with the international context.
RIBES is participating with eleven RIBES seedbanks in the project LIFE20 NAT/IT/001468 SEEDFORCE “Using SEED banks to restore and reinFORCE the endangered native plants of Italy” (2021-2026) and as a co-financer.
Contact
Dr Sara Magrini, President, magrini@unitus.it;
Dr Mariacristina Villani, Secretary, reteribes@gmail.com
Website: http://www.reteribes.it/