NBS

NBS (Nationale Boomgaarden Stichting) is a Belgian NGO that has been collecting and evaluating old fruit tree cultivars in Belgium, and in particular in its northern part, Flanders, since 1970. It currently manages 100ha of orchards mostly in the province of Limburg in Flanders. NBS has now collected approximately 3500 varieties of apples, pears, plums, cherries, persimmons, nuts, grapes, quinces and medlars, of national, regional and local importance, which it catalogues, describes and evaluates in ‘Pomologia’, a quarterly publication distributed to its 1500 members. It has also set up a ‘Genebank Flanders’ comprising 1500 varieties of old apple, pear, plum and cherry planted as full standard trees and managed as traditional orchards. These are maintained, together with further planting elsewhere, by a team of personnel, the National Orchard Social Working Group, set up by NBS over 5 years ago. NBS also established an international traditional fruit exhibition ‘Europom’ in Limburg in 1985, and this now occurs every year.