Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Somewhere in between the Arctic Circle and Norway within an icy mountain lies a vault that contains a precious resource that has vital importance for the future of humankind. However, this resource is not coal, oil or precious minerals but seeds.
What is it?
The Svalbard global seed vault is a project to keep safe thousands of food crop seeds in case of an apocalyptic event or global catastrophe. The vault contains more than 930,000 variety of food crops storing the largest collection of agricultural biodiversity.
Why does it exist?
Over the past 50 years, agricultural practices have changed dramatically with technological advances allowing large-scale crop production. Even though crop yield production increased, biodiversity has decreased to a point that about 30 crops provide 95% of human food energy needs. The lack of biodiversity has left food supplies susceptible to threats such as diseases and drought. The vault keeps safe a variety of food crops. For crops like rice, the vault could contain a trait for rice to adapt to grow at higher or lower temperatures. This is vital when there is a killer new pest or disease destroying crops and we need a way to combat it otherwise we may face a major food shortage.
How does it work?
The vault is located on a remote island called Svalbard, which is the farthest north a person can fly on a scheduled flight. The vault itself is located over 100 metres into a mountain. The location is above sea level protecting it from ocean flooding if the sea level rises. The permafrost offers the vault natural freezing providing a cost-effective and fail-safe to conserve seeds.
The vault storage itself can store 45 million varieties of crops. Each variety will contain an average of 500 seeds. A maximum of 2.5 billion seeds may be stored in the vault. Temperatures inside the vault are kept at -18°C to ensure low metabolic activity keeping the seeds viable for long periods. The seeds are stored and sealed in custom made three-ply foil packages. The seeds are then sealed inside boxes and stored on shelves inside the vault.
Who owns the vault?
The Seed Vault is owned and administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food on behalf of the Kingdom of Norway and is established as a service to the global community. The Global Crop Diversity Trust provides support for ongoing operations of the Seed Vault. They also fund the preparation and shipment of seeds from developing countries to the facility. The countries that deposit their seeds to the vault will have ownership over the seeds sent to the facility. The depositors seal the boxes and cannot be distributed to or given access to by anyone other than the depositor.
Summary
The seed vault is built to preserve the biodiversity of seeds to ensure that in an event of a natural disaster we have a large number of seeds to help future generations overcomes the challenges of climate change and population growth. The seeds stored in the vault are as important as oxygen and water to ensure the survival of our food crops.