From strategy to action – the first steps in the ESCAPE project

The Finnish ex-situ conservation strategy for plants includes five targets: to (i) secure the extant collections; (ii) increase the number of conserved taxa; (iii) develop ex-situ conservation for northern species; (iv) incorporate ex-situ conservation into reintroduction programmes, and (v) increase the use of collections in education and public outreach. To achieve these targets a five-year EU Life+ funded project was launched in autumn 2012. Here we present the first steps of the project: establishing a national seed bank, ensuring the storage of micro-propagated tissues in a cryogenic unit, preparing assisted migration trials based on ex-situ material, and initializing ex-situ conservation of bryophytes.