The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Svalbard Globale Frøhvelv) holds the key to the world’s crop production. Often referred to as the ‘Doomsday’ vault, the objective of the facility is to safeguard seed for future crop production in the case of a nuclear war or other disasters. At present, there are over 1,2 million seeds kept at the vault, which is built into a permafrost layer in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago.
Gene banks ‘deposit’ duplicates of seeds into the vault to protect against the potential loss of seed due to mismanagement, accidents, sabotage and natural or human-made disasters. The Seed Vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement between the Norwegian government, the Crop Trust, and the regional gene bank, the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen). NordGen stresses that the vault is a security back-up, and that depositing gene banks must ensure that they only send the vault duplicates of crop seeds.
THE VAULT IS LARGE ENOUGH TO STORE OVER FOUR MILLION CROP SEEDS IN OPTIMAL CONDITION
The facility was officially opened on 26 February 2008, and was entirely funded and built by Norway. Within the first year, more than 90 000 seed samples had been deposited in the vault, adding to the already over 300 000 Nordic samples that had been stored by NordGen since 1984. By the end of the first year, the vault had over 400 000 seed samples. In celebration of the Seed Vault’s 10th anniversary in February 2018, 70 000 samples were delivered to the vault, bringing the number of samples received to more than one million.
IMPORTANCE FOR FOOD SECURITY
この記事は Farmer's Weekly の April 28, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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この記事は Farmer's Weekly の April 28, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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