Community Seed Banks (CSB) can be understood as informal collective seed management systems for counteracting the loss of locally adapted crop types. There is a lack of information on CSBs in Europe. The DIVERSIFOOD project aimed to address this gap by conducting in-depth mapping and publishing resources, including:
- The “Community Seed Banks in Europe” report presenting descriptions of CSBs, in terms of their legal forms, aims, activities, cultural aspects, stakeholders, plants that they work with, infrastructure, financial aspects, governance, achievements, and challenges.
- A website on CSBs in Europe to facilitate networking between them, and other stakeholders.
- Digital ‘Innovation Factsheets’ on ‘Defining Community Seed Banks’ (available here) and ‘Data management in Community Seed Banks’ (available here), to assist stakeholders within CSBs.
These resources fill a gap in terms of analyses of CSBs and related initiatives in Europe, thus facilitating further development of CSB initiatives. They can be used by multiple stakeholders including academics, as well as CSBs themselves, for the purpose of self-reflection and shared learning. Moreover, the resources can help to raise awareness on a political level, to support the acknowledgement of CSBs as communities of practice that play a key role in management of genetic resources for food and agriculture, agrobiodiversity, sustainability, food security and food sovereignty, and how CSBs protect plant and seed diversity through innovative tools, methods and social forms.
The Irish Seed Savers Association is one of a small number of CSB initiatives in Ireland. The social enterprise began its work in the 1990s and opened Ireland’s first living seed bank, seed processing, and drying facility in 2013. Similar initiatives include the National Botanic Gardens’ Seed Bank (currently being set up), as well as True Harvest Seeds (preserving seed from native origin plants in Kilclief, Co. Down) and the Irish Threatened Plant Seedbank in Trinity College Botanic Garden. The knowledge presented here may help to facilitate the activities of these and other CSB initiatives in Ireland.
Find out more about this innovation by contacting Claire on claire@erinn.eu.
