基因宝库获大笔资助
When plant breeders want to improve crops, they turn to the diversity stored in gene banks around the world.
当植物养育者们想要提升作物的时候，他们就会去存储在世界各地的基因库多样性里去寻找。
But many of these critical storehouses, which hold seeds and other plant tissues, are in poor condition as a result of funding shortages.
但由于资金短缺，很多这些存放着种子和其他植物组织的重要的储存库条件都很简陋。
Now, the Crop Trust, a nonprofit based in Bonn, Germany, is aiming to help crop gene banks find firmer footing by providing a steadier source of cash.
如今，位于德国波恩的非营利组织作物信托(Crop Trust)正致力于通过提供更稳定的资金来源，帮助作物基因库找到更稳固的立足点。
And today it announced its first award, a 5-year, renewable grant of $1.4 million annually, to the gene bank of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Philippines.
今天，国际水稻研究所(IRRI)在菲律宾洛斯巴诺斯的基因库宣布了它的第一个奖项——每年140万美元的总共5年的可再生奖。
“These crop collections are too important to the world to be left to uncertainty,” says Marie Haga, executive director of the Crop Trust, which was founded in 2004.
成立于2004年的作物信托基金(crop Trust)的执行董事玛丽·哈加(Marie Haga)表示:“这些农作物藏品对世界来说太重要了，不应该听任其变化无常。”
“They can’t depend on budgets that go up and down.”
“不能让他们依靠那些时高时低的预算。”
The trust is best known for its work on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a storage facility dug into an Arctic mountain in Norway.
该基金会因其在斯瓦尔巴特群岛全球种子库(Svalbard Global Seed Vault)的工作而闻名。斯瓦尔巴特群岛全球种子库是在挪威的一座北极山中挖掘的一个储藏设施。
It contains nearly 1 million samples of crop seeds gathered from gene banks over the world, kept in case disaster strikes.
它包含了从世界各地的基因库中收集的近100万份农作物种子样本，这些样本被保存起来，以防灾难发生。
But the organization also has been quietly working to improve the ability of gene banks to conserve and distribute seeds, and helping the banks meet standards that qualify them for long-term funding from an endowment established by the trust.
但该组织也一直在默默地努力提高基因库保存和分发种子的能力，并帮助这些基因库达到通过信托基金设立的捐赠基金获得长期资金的标准。
Haga hopes the Crop Trust will eventually be able to support national and regional gene banks as well as the prominent international centers.
Haga希望作物信托最终能够支持国家和地区基因库以及著名的国际中心。
Fundraising for long-term seed conservation has gotten more difficult, she says, and it’s always been harder to raise funds for agricultural diversity than charismatic wild animals.
她说，为长期种子保护筹集资金变得越来越困难，为农业多样性筹集资金总是比为有魅力的野生动物筹集资金困难。
“We need to protect all natural biodiversity,” she says, “but let’s not forget that plants actually feed us.”
“我们需要保护所有的自然生物多样性，”她说，“但我们不要忘记，实际上是植物养活了我们。”
对于这份保存了上百万作物样本的基因宝库，朋友们有什么看法呢？欢迎给amber留言哦！
感谢关注
跟amber一起看世界
- END -
____
______
________
____
______
________