The
UN has predicted that soon there will be few locally endemic animal
species living in the world's seas, fresh waters and forests.
Over the next thirty years, more than 1,000 species of our mammals, a
quarter of the worlds' total, and a similar number of birds, face
extinction. Despite the best efforts of conservationists, the
extinctions continue.
The
environmental crisis has led Kew Gardens to conserve the seeds of the
world's plants in the 'Millenium Seed Bank'. In the words of
its Director at the time the project was set up, it was 'a desperate
measure, but appropriate to the desperate situation we face'.
The Frozen Ark Project is a parallel strategy for the animals.
An
international programme to preserve the DNA and viable cells of the
animals was discussed as a possibility for many years, but was not put
into effect. Now, the Frozen Ark Project has
started, based within the University of Nottingham. It has
developed into a network of centres around the world.
The stored material will be a
treasure-trove of
knowledge about many aspects of
the biology, behaviour, ecology and evolution of the animals
concerned. Frozen viable cells may even enable conservation
biologists to reverse the
dangerous loss of genetic variation that causes infertility and early
death in many endangered species. Many
institutions around the world already store animals tissues, but seldom
in a form suitable for preserving undamaged molecules and
cells. Few are aimed at exclusively endangered species, and
none is saving appreciable numbers of invertebrates.
Our electronic database will gather information about samples already collected worldwide, and list those needing to be collected.