Seed vault why

Photo: seedvault. Our Operations All gene banks holding sustainable seed collections are invited to deposit duplicates of their seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed The Seeds The Svalbard Global Seed Vault facilitates security conservation of seeds, comprising genetic material of importance for food and agriculture. The History The idea of having a global security storage facility in Svalbard, to house duplicates of seed conserved in gene banks More information.

Each country or institution owns their own deposits, but if an international time of crisis should occur the seed samples can be made available to all. The seed vault stores several tens of thousands variants of important food plants such as beans, wheat and rice. In total there are more than different species in the seed vault. These seed samples are duplicates of seed samples that are stored in national, regional and international gene banks.

Each sample contains approximately seeds in an air-tight aluminum bag. The samples are stored in containers with a maximum capacity of samples. The containers are sealed by the gene bank which deposits the samples. At the opening in the seed storage contained seed samples, for the most part rice and wheat. In September the deposits had risen to seed types originating from countries. In a total of seed samples from 64 gene banks was deposited. In the number of seed samples is close to 1 million.

The seed vault is not an ordinary gene bank that scientists and other interested parties can contact directly for access to the seeds. The seed vault is a secure seed storage for national, regional and international seed and gene banks worldwide.

The seed samples that are deposited in Svalbard can be used to recreate important diversity of plants if the seed samples in a regular gene bank were to be destroyed. The first withdrawal was done in Plant genetic resources are one of the most valuable assets of human societies. The plants we use today are cultivated variants - the results of thousands of years of breeding efforts — that have been adapted to our tastes, needs and industrial production methods. During the millennia a wealth of cultivars has been bred to suit different growing conditions; climate, soil, day-length, diseases or pests and societal needs.

But with more global and uniform economies and controlled production environments we have become to rely on fewer and fewer of these diverse variants. In fact some 75 percent of plant genetic diversity has been lost since s as farmers worldwide have left their multiple local landraces for genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties.

Uniform gene base implies both global and local risks. This means that changes in climate, new diseases or other environmental changes can have widespread impacts for food security.

Seed banks represent our efforts to counterbalance the widespread loss of biodiversity. Keeping the seeds alive is partly science and partly art. Most of the seeds can be kept for decades in cold and dry containers but how long they survive depends on the species and many other factors.

When the seeds start to lose their germination ability they must be planted in appropriate soils and brought to life.

It is a long-term seed storage facility, built to stand the test of time — and the challenge of natural or man-made disasters. Worldwide, more than 1, genebanks hold collections of food crops for safekeeping, yet many of these are vulnerable, exposed not only to natural catastrophes and war, but also to avoidable disasters, such as lack of funding or poor management.

Something as mundane as a poorly functioning freezer can ruin an entire collection. And the loss of a crop variety is as irreversible as the extinction of a dinosaur, animal or any form of life. Permafrost and thick rock ensure that the seed samples will remain frozen even without power. It will secure millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today.

It is the final back up. Svalbard is the farthest north a person can fly on a scheduled flight, offering a remote location that is nevertheless accessible. The Vault is well above sea level, protected from ocean flooding according to worst case scenario sea level rises. The permafrost offers the Vault room with a natural freezing, providing a cost effective and fail-safe method to conserve seeds.