Gene Banks Essentially, they are not a new idea as the Kayapo people of Brazil maintain germplasm collections of tuberous plants in hillside gardens protected from flood (see Plucknett et al., 1987) Most countries have at least one field gene bank and FAO (1996) estimate some 527,000 accessions are conserved in this way worldwide Examples of field gene banks include the National Fruit Collection in the United Kindgom, one for cassava at CIAT, Colombia, one for sugarcane at the Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Recursos Geneticos e Biotecnologia (CENARGEN), Brazil, and the potato collection at the Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) in Peru Such facilities are considered by FAO to be particularly important in small island developing states It should also be noted that the Nordic Gene Bank, which operates on a regional basis, unlike many seed banks, includes within its remit the in situ conservation of wild crop relatives While they offer the opportunity for characterization and evaluation, such collections are labor intensive and are susceptible to catastrophic events For example, a field collection of yams was lost in St Lucia during 1994 as the result of cyclone damage This is one of the reasons that a number of field gene bank collections are now backed up in vitro Botanical and Zoological Gardens Botanical and zoological gardens may be seen as types of gene bank with relatively few individuals per accession While zoos have embraced careful breeding programs that help maximize the genetic value of the limited collections across the world, this is much less true of collections in botanical gardens Here species may be represented within the ‘‘botanical gardens flora’ by a single genotype such is the clonal exchange of material Acknowledgements The authors would particularly wish to acknowledge the following for their assistance in providing information: Mr M Ambrose (John Innes Centre, United Kingdom); Dr D Astley (HRI, United Kingdom); Dr M Fay, Mr R Smith and Mr M Way (RBG Kew, United Kingdom); Dr W Holt (Institute of Zoology, London, United Kingdom); Dr S Miyazaki and Mr A Yamamoto (NIAR, Japan); Dr B Panis (Leuven, Belgium); Dr V C Pence (CREW, Cincinatti, United States); Dr D Smith (CABI Bioscience, United Kingdom); Dr S-H Tan (CBS, Netherlands); Dr L Towill and Dr C Walters (NSSL, United States); Dr M Wood (London, United Kingdom); and Dr X-Y Yang (XTBG, Peoples Republic of China) See also: Biodiversity in Plant Breeding Breeding of Animals Captive Breeding and Reintroduction Genetic Diversity In Situ, Ex Situ Conservation Indigenous Strategies Used to Domesticate Plants in Brazilian Amazon Zoos and Zoological Parks 653 References Adams RP (1997) Conservation of DNA: DNA banking In: Callow JA, Ford-Lloyd BV, and Newbury HJ (eds.) 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