![]() In 1984, the Nordic Gene Bank (now NordGen) began storing backup Nordic plant germplasm via frozen seeds in an abandoned coal mine outside of Longyearbyen. ![]() The vault has been depicted in several films and other art forms, including Marcus Paus’ children's opera Children of Ginko.Įntrance to the Seed Vault taken in February 2020. Storing seeds in the vault is free to depositors. Norway and the Crop Trust pay for operational costs. ![]() The Norwegian government entirely funded the Seed Vault's approximately 45 million kr ( US$8.8 million in 2008) construction cost. The Seed Vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement among the Norwegian government, the Crop Trust, and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen). This provides security of the world's food supply against the loss of seeds in genebanks due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, war, sabotage, disease and natural disasters. The Seed Vault provides long-term storage of duplicates of seeds conserved in genebanks around the world. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault ( Norwegian: Svalbard globale frøhvelv) is a secure backup facility for the world's crop diversity on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago. In 2016, water seeped into its tunnel entrance when the permafrost that encases it began to melt as Arctic temperatures climbed unusually high. The vault has itself been hit by climate change. More than 5,000 species of plants are now stored in the Arctic Archipelago, a frozen landscape where almost nothing grows. The countries and institutions that deposit seeds in the vault retain ownership over them and can retrieve them when necessary. Its usefulness was spotlighted during Syria's civil war when researchers were able in 2015 to retrieve from the vault duplicates of grains lost in the destruction of Aleppo. The seed store was launched in 2008 with financing from Norway with the aim of safeguarding biodiversity in the face of climate change, wars and other natural and man-made disasters, earning it the nickname "doomsday vault". "It has proved to be an exhausting and often demoralising task to persuade people of the utterly essential role played by all this diversity in maintaining vibrant, healthy ecosystems that sustain both people and our planet," the Prince of Wales said in a statement. The new arrivals include staple crops such as wheat and rice, as well as wild varieties of European apple trees.Īlso among the seeds are beans, squash and corn from the Cherokee Nation - the first Native American group to send crops to the vault - including their sacred White Eagle corn.īritain's Prince Charles, who is known for his environmental advocacy, sent the seeds of 27 wild plants, including cowslips and orchids collected from the meadows of Highgrove, his country home. Before it's too lateĪ total of 36 regional and international institutions have contributed to the 60,000 samples that were deposited on Tuesday. "Solutions that are vital for feeding a growing population and achieving a green transition," she added.
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