The only problem was planners did not make the structure, built into a mountain side, waterproof and the entrance flooded amid heavy rains in 2016, necessitating a major € 20 million of repairs and upgrade which were just completed, some four years later. The Norwegian government put up much of the money for the construction of the facility whose backers declared it was able to withstand a nuclear bomb blast. The Svalbard vault is on the island that is legally part of Norway since a 1925 treaty. The latest seed deposits include onions from Brazil, guar beans from central Asia, corn seeds sacred to the Cherokee nation and wildflowers from a meadow at Prince Charles’s home in the UK (sic). This brings the total of seed types to over one million since the vault was first opened for deposits in early 2008. On February 25 more than 60,000 new seed varieties were placed in the Svalbard vault, the largest deposit of seeds since it opened. What makes this entire seed bank enterprise suspicious at the very least is the list of financial sponsors behind the global project The Svalbard “Doomsday” Seed Vault on Spitsbergen Island north of the Arctic Circle just received an additional major shipment of plant variety seeds for its special storage. Image Credit: Subiet - License: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license with conditions Īgainst the backdrop of the spreading fear about a global coronavirus pandemic, an event has slipped largely under the radar at a spot so removed from the rest of the world that most are unaware of its existence. But we need to protect them, secure them and to make sure that they are conserved in perpetuity.What’s Going On With the Arctic ‘Doomsday’ Seed Vault? “What is secured inside the vault is one of the most important global public goods we have on Earth. We think that is a general question of transparency and accountability to the broader public,” says Stefan Schmitz, executive director of the Crop Trust. “The virtual tour gives everybody the opportunity to look inside. Seeds are replaced every few decades and if the cooling system ever failed, it would probably take hundreds of years for the temperature inside the vaults to rise above zero. The island is the most rapidly warming part of the planet but experts say the deposits are buried so deep in the permafrost that they will be safe for centuries. In theory, the seeds are safe, although the entrance to the facility flooded with meltwater in 2017 after a heatwave in Svalbard. As you make your way between what look like the shelves of a DIY warehouse, you can click on a country’s box to find out more. Each species is sealed in an aluminium airtight bag and kept in its country’s box. Eventually, you arrive at the “cathedral”, home to the three seed chambers, each of which can store nearly 3,000 seed boxes. ![]() What is secured inside the vault is one of the most important global public goods we have on Earth Stefan Schmitz, the Crop TrustĪway from the panoramic view of the Arctic night from the vault’s entrance, the virtual tour takes you down a long tunnel deep into the mountain. Research into the resilience of these crops and plant species could be vital as the planet heats in the coming decades. ![]() Photograph: NordGenĪfter the Aleppo seed bank was destroyed in the Syrian civil war, the vault was used to replenish seeds for the first time by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, a regional hub based in Aleppo to study crops from the cradle of civilisation where agriculture first began. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault might look a bit like a DIY warehouse but it’s ‘one of the most important global public goods we have on Earth’. I’ve been so many times and I’m still curious.” Then you see all of the boxes with seeds from all of these countries. “When you open the door, it’s -18C – the international standard for conserving seeds – which is very, very cold. All you can hear is yourself,” says Lise Lykke Steffensen, executive director of NordGen, which is responsible for the day to day operation of the vault. It has high ceilings and when you’re standing inside the mountain, there’s hardly any sound. Scientists say they hope people will learn more about their work through the virtual tour – without running the risk of falling prey to a polar bear. The seeds could hold answers to agricultural challenges posed by climate crisis, invasive species, pests, changes in rainfall patterns and rampant biodiversity loss are studied, and it opens three times a year to accept new deposits from other seed banks around the world. The deep-freeze, designed to last for ever, is co-managed by the Norwegian government, the Crop Trust and NordGen, the genebank of the Nordic countries.
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