The Vavilov institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, is one of the most important in Europe and it looks set to lose a vitally important research station housing more than 4000 fruit and berry species, many of which are extinct in their natural habitats. Since these are live plants, they cannot be preserved by storing seeds or other materials in a seedbank, they must be kept growing. This research station, consisting of 910,000 sq meters, is the largest field genebank in Europe.
Staff at the facility say a planned move would take at least 15 years to complete, and they are being given just 3 months. The loss to science and global biodiversity would be devastating if this forced move proceeds as planned.
The institute lost a case in court brought by property developers who want to use the site to build exclusive housing. An appeal to the ruling is pending, but this is expected to lose. Apparently in this case the law seems to be solidly on the side of the property developers.
The last remaining hope is intervention by either Russian President Medvedev or Prime Minister Putin, either one of which can set aside the court ruling. Via Twitter, President Medvedev announced he would look into the matter.
You can help by making a personal appeal to the Kremlin! You can sign an online petition here. You can also write the Kremlin a letter. Or tweet them at @KremlinRussia_E. Time is running out!
I think also president Obama should be contacted. Maybe he can have a dialog with Medvedev.
//Torsten Rehn
Save the plants.
Think of the future.