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In the case of a global catastrophe, the Svalbard global reserve will allow us to plant 1 million varieties of seeds!

Credits: Wikipedia / Frode Ramone

The Svalbard global seed vault recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, with 76,000 samples of supplementary seeds. The fortified enclosure, which acts as an insurance policy against potential global disasters, now houses over one million varieties of seeds.

At the beginning of March, the Svalbard global seed reserve exceeded one million seed samples (1,059,646 species, more precisely). Over 70,000 new samples of rice, wheat, corn, cowpea and sorghum joined the mix on the Norwegian island of Spitzberg, halfway between continental Norway and the North Pole.

Cary Fowler, the man considered the “father” of this seed vault, compares the stash to a “back-up” whose goal is to respond to a potential global catastrophe, a war, climate change, disease or the risky management of existing gene banks which could lead to shortages. The Syrian conflict is an excellent example of how such a “food bank” functions, which was used for the first time at the end of 2015. The gene bank located near the city of Aleppo having been destroyed, the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA)  requested seeds from Svalbard to replenish stocks in the countries surrounding Syria.

Intended to resist disasters, the vault could equally -contrary to all expectations -be the victim of global warming: the increase in Arctic temperatures has in fact led to melting of the permafrost (soil that is supposed to be permanently frozen) and caused a leak at the entry to the tunnel in 2016. Fortunately, only the 15 meter long entrance hall was affected, and none of the seeds were damaged. The site mangers need to make sure that something like this could never again happen in the future. To this end, Oslo have just announced the release of 100 million Kroner (over 9 million pounds) in 2018 to carry out the works, in particular the construction of a new access tunnel and a new service building which will be far from heat sources.

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