![]() ![]() The first, and most obvious are its giant blast-proof metal doors. The vault employs a variety of methods to keep its bounty of seed samples safe. Finally, its height (it's 430 feet above sea level) also means that it will not be submerged even if the ice caps melt.īut its creators decided to make it even safer. The region also lacks tectonic activity and the presence of permafrost also aids in the process of seed preservation. Its remote and inhospitable location means it will almost certainly never encounter an outbreak of war. ![]() Situated on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, it's around 810 miles from the North Pole. All told, it houses 8,40,000 samples of seeds covering 4,000 species. The Svalbard vault is our best shot at ensuring the trend not only doesn't continue, but is reversible.īuilt out of an old, now-defunct coal mine, the Svalbard vault is the world's largest seed bank. It's reckoned that India alone had over 1,00,000 varieties of rice in the past. With no end in sight to the war, it may not be long before the vault is called into action again.Īccording to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, nearly 75% of the planet's genetic diversity has been lost. Now, they want to withdraw 130 out of the 325 boxes of seed samples they had deposited - including strains of barley, wheat and grass seeds - to replenish those damaged at the Aleppo seed bank. The seed bank, which preserved over 1,50,000 seed samples, was damaged in the fighting recently, but luckily, samples had already been sent to the Svalbard vault. Syria's Aleppo seed bank was recently presented with the Gregor Mendel award for continuing to preserve the region's agricultural heritage despite the ongoing and bloody war. And if its Norse god-like name didn't already imbue it with a sense of importance, its purpose will - it's meant to protect the world's biodiversity in the face of global crises.Īnd, in keeping with exactly that goal, the vault, which was started in 2008 just experienced its first withdrawal - by Syria. It sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi movie - a giant vault built into a mountain, deep in the frozen wastelands of the Arctic.īut the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is anything but fiction.
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