What’s Toyota’s involvement? 

The Toyota Environmental Activities Grant Programme is contributing towards the development of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership. The grant funding enables new partners to be trained in Brazil and the rest of South America, and provides training courses for new global partners in the UK throughout 2016. It will also allow for new seed driers to be purchased; essential tools for the collection teams. We even have seeds taken from our TMUK manufacturing facility that have been placed in the seed bank! 

Why is it important? 

The project is critical to Kew’s ambition of collecting and conserving 25 per cent of the world’s wild plant species in their Millennium Seed Bank and their partner seed banks by 2020. In this way it will help to ensure that threatened plant species do not disappear forever from our planet.

Kew Millennium Seed Bank - Wakehurst Place (UK). 

Kew scientist, Beverly Maynard, carefully places the seed jar for storage in the -20°C vault at the Millennium Seed Bank.

Flowers of Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica), in Ethiopia.

Discovering the wonder of nature.