I recently visited Wakehurst Place, a beautiful garden in West Sussex, but also home to the Millennium Seed Bank. The seed bank is aiming to collect and store seed of ten percent of the world’s flowering plants by 2010. In the display they have a poster showing countries in which they have partners collaborating in their seed collecting – but there were none in Guatemala.

I don’t know why this is – there could be some any number of explanations. However, it doesn’t seem that the reason is that there aren’t any sufficiently qualified people in the biological sciences, judging by the award given to Guatemalan biologist Marleny Rosales-Medy. She won a Whitley Award of £30,000 for the work she does in the Laguna Lachuá National Park on biodiversity, importantly also in concert with the local Q’eqchi residents.

Well done Marleny!

Categories: Culture, Environment