The people on the front lines in Ukraine are not alone in having to deal with threats of death and destruction. Parts of the country’s cultural heritage are also at risk. Kherson State University (KSU) is located in the war-torn city of Kherson. The university houses a very important collection – namely 30,000 unique plant species. Now, after months of air raids and power cuts, the building has gained momentum. Therefore, the employees decided that something had to be done. And in the time before Christmas last year, the work started. The inalienable herbarium had to leave the city. Quick help from Norway The rumors about the work and the injuries in Kherson quickly reached colleagues of the Ukrainian professors in Oslo. They immediately understood how urgent the situation was, and therefore sent 4,000 euros to Ukraine. This was enough to cover all necessary expenses related to the evacuation. – It has been an exciting operation to follow. And being able to help with money and logistics to save the collection is nice, says Hugo de Boer to news. He is director of research at the Museum of Natural History at the University of Oslo. In the herbarium you will find 12,000 vascular plants, 16,000 species of lichen and 2,000 types of moss. 200 of these are what are called type tests. These are the individual organisms on which the species descriptions are based. – The research we do is based on such collections. Naming things, but also seeing how the species withstand climate change is important. This is the basis for researching changes in nature, and we need the comparison for society to learn and understand. A photo shows some of the scope that was packed up and transported across the country. Photo: Privat A risky project For ten days, the employees worked to get the collection packed into boxes. It exploded all around the city, and they worked without water, electricity and heat. They also received help from other parts of the country. – Ukraine is a large country, and help came from places that were less affected by war. Going to a place that is daily exposed to missile attacks and great destruction is stressful. It has been a risk, says de Boer. On 24 December, the boxes were brought down to the street from the seventh floor. Everything had to be done in secret so as not to endanger the collection. At the beginning of January, all the plants were loaded into a truck, which was headed for Ivano-Frankivsk – a city in the west of the country. – It seems that Russia has had a targeted campaign to destroy cultural heritage in Ukraine. Therefore, people have been anxious that the assignment should become known. This is a building you can easily find via Google Maps, and an easy target for attack, explains the research director in Oslo. Important basis for spreading knowledge By moving the collection, the researchers have now laid the basis for preserving and sharing their unique cultural, scientific and natural knowledge with the rest of the world. To date, only a quarter of the collection’s 30,000 copies have been scanned. None of the samples are fully digitized or publicly available for research. This should be done during your stay in Ivano-Frankivsk. Hugo de Boer says that other and similar cultural treasures are still in danger. And several are said to have suffered injuries as a result of the war. Here is a picture of the route from Kherson to Ivano-Frankivsk. All went well and the valuable collection is safe. Photo: Private
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Evacuated Ukrainian national treasure in secret – received financial aid from Norway – news Trøndelag
