The Global Crop Diversity Trust has been working to save the collection since it first appeared threatened. The trust, a food security group, has been urging people to appeal to Russian officials.

An order from President Dmitri Medvedev or Prime Minister Vladimir Putin could stop the housing development. President Medvedev has started an investigation.

The collection has been threatened before. During World War Two, German troops surrounded Saint Petersburg, then called Leningrad. Scientists protected the seeds and plants even as people starved.

The Pavlovsk Experimental Station is one of an estimated one thousand four hundred seed and plant preservation centers worldwide.

Some have been damaged or destroyed by war, natural disasters and theft. In two thousand eight Norway opened a so-called doomsday vault designed to be secure from any threat -- even an asteroid strike.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is in the side of a mountain. The huge, icy space holds extra copies of seeds from other seed banks. In February, it received its half-millionth seed variety to keep safe

And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. You can read and listen to our programs and get podcasts at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty.