This project was started as an initiative from the UN Presidium to preserve the richness of the Earth in a gene bank for the future generations to regenerate the planets lost ecosystems when the technology is available. The project was launched in 2052.
Millions of samples were needed
The 21st century was the witness of the biggest mass extinction in 65 million years (since KT event) with mass lose of life in the whole planet, is said that almost 71% of animal species and 87% of plant species went extinct between 2000 and 2099.
World governments agreed that human race was unable to revert the damage caused to the environment so the took an alternative: to store the whole gene map of Earth itself, from cockatoos, elephants and beetles to oaks, orchids and algae. While is not what the planet needed, is the best humans could do to revert their damage; yet it wasn't an easy task: it took 20 years for whole armies of geneticists and 27 billion dollars (2013 dollars) to do so.
The headquarters and the genes bank are located in a huge complex in Hong Kong bay in a reclaimed-land island.
Total species stored in the bank[]
| Category | Species |
|---|---|
| Vertebrate Animals | |
| Mammals | 5,490 |
| Birds | 9,998 |
| Reptiles | 9,084 |
| Amphibians | 6,433 |
| Fishes | 31,311 |
| Total | 62,316 |
| Invertebrate Animals | |
| Insects | 1,017,238 |
| Spiders And Scorpions | 102,248 |
| Mollusks | 85,0001 |
| Crustaceans | 47,020 |
| Corals | 2,175 |
| Others | 68,827 |
| Total | 1,332,508 |
| Plants | |
| Flowering plants (angiosperms) | 281,821 |
| Conifers (gymnosperms) | 1,021 |
| Ferns and horsetails | 12,610 |
| Mosses | 16,236 |
| Red and green algae | 10,134 |
| Total | 321,822 |
| Others | |
| Lichens | 17,339 |
| Mushrooms | 31,496 |
| Brown algae | 3,067 |
| Total | 51,802 |
| TOTAL | 1,758,548 |