A Backup for the Future of Our Food Supply: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault
No fewer than 1,060,073 seed samples from 6,336 different species are safely stored beneath a thick layer of ice on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Plant varieties can disappear due to natural disasters, wars or other unforeseen events. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault stores backup copies of seeds from around the world, making it the world's largest insurance policy for the future of our food supply.
Backup copies of seeds
There are more than 1,700 gene banks around the world, each with its own collection of seeds.
However, these gene banks are not immune to disaster. Several local seed banks have been affected by war, while others have lost valuable collections due to failing freezers or other accidents. To protect seeds against regional risks, backup copies are sent to Svalbard. If a disaster occurs, countries and institutions can request their reserve seeds from the Vault.
Why Svalbard?
There are several reasons why Svalbard is the ideal place to preserve such a valuable seed collection:
- It's extremely cold. Seeds are best stored at -18°C. The Vault is built deep inside the permafrost and the surrounding mountain, creating a natural freezer.
- There is very little tectonic activity. This means the Vault is not vulnerable to earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.
- The Seed Vault is located more than 100 metres above sea level. Even rising sea levels pose no threat, protecting the collection from flooding.
- Norway is politically stable, providing a safe location for this global collection.
Seeds from the Netherlands and Seed Valley
The Vault has room for 4.5 million different varieties. Up to 500 seeds of each variety can be stored, giving the facility a total capacity of almost 2.5 billion seeds.
The seeds come from every continent, making it the world's most diverse collection of crop species. It contains rare plant varieties as well as backup copies of important agricultural crops such as wheat and rice.
The Netherlands has also contributed to the collection. The Vault currently contains 20,238 unique seed samples supplied by the Netherlands, while 6,308 accessions originate from Dutch plant material.
Fun fact: some of these seeds were contributed by companies from the Seed Valley network!
Want to learn more about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault? Or curious to see what it looks like inside? Whatch this video by NOS.