A national research project for the ex situ conservation and characterization of the Italian threatened wild flora: The contribution of the Botanic Garden of Pisa

The ex situ conservation of plants is a challenge for all signatories of CBD to meet. In Italy, all conservation-related issues are under the supervision of the Ministry for the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea, but so far no national policy has been drafted for ex situ plant conservation. The Ministry technical services (ISPRA - Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) are currently assembling a comprehensive document on ex situ conservation of wild, crop and forestry germplasm. However, ISPRA lack the facilities required for the fulfilment of such a task. Facilities rest largely within the botanical research centres operated by Universities, National Parks and Natural History Museums, most of which are coordinated at national level by RIBES. In September 2008, five University Botanic Gardens (Genova, Pisa, Rome, Palermo, and Cagliari) joined forces in a national project entitled “Ex situ conservation and taxonomic, ecophysiological and genetic characterisation of threatened species of the Italian wild Flora”. Within this project, the Pisa unit proposes to evaluate, at national level: the adequacy of Italian seed collections with respect to ex situ requirements; the representation of seeds on an ecogeographic basis; the species investigated by the other units relating to the present project.