Description

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Context

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault secures over 14,000 new seed samples, enhancing efforts to preserve crop diversity and ensure future food security

About Arctic doomsday seed vault

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault aims to provide insurance against incremental loss of crop diversity
It also provides insurance against catastrophic loss of crop diversity held in traditional gene banks around the world.
As of last year, seed duplicates of around 1,300,000 samples from almost every country globally have been safeguarded in the vault.
It was established in 2008 in the month of February.
It is located in the island of Spitsbergen, of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway in the Arctic Ocean.
The main purpose of it is to serve as a backup storage for seed samples protecting them from
natural disasters
war
other events that could damage or destroy seed collections in other locations.
It is owned by Norway
It is managed in partnership between the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the regional gene bank, Nord Gen and Non-Profit organisation, Crop Trust.
The seed boxes are stored under the black-box conditions, which means the depositors are the only ones who can withdraw their own seeds.
The Seed Vault can store 4.5 million varieties of crops.
A maximum of 2.5 billion seeds may be stored in the Seed Vault
Each packet consisting of an average of 500 seeds.
(−)18°C temperature is required for optimal storage of the seeds.
The seeds are sealed in custom-made three-ply foil packages
These are sealed inside boxes
These are stored on shelves inside the Seed Vault.
The low temperature (permafrost) and moisture levels inside the Seed Vault ensure low metabolic activity which keeps the seeds viable for long periods of time.