SVALBARD GLOBAL SEED VAULT: GLOBAL CENTRAL SEED BANK

I. Introduction

General public is well aware of the threat of extinction to animal species, far fewer areaware of the risk of crop extinction. With whales or tigers or polar bears," you can look at them in the eye and you can be very empathetic. But you can't do that with a wheat variety or carrot variety”. The history of Svalbard seed vault starts as early as 1983. Like other big projects, it’s been a long and not very easy journey. Preserving seed from food plants is an absolutely essential part of the work of preserving the world’s biodiversity, adapting to climate change and global warming and thereby ensuring food for the world’s population for the foreseeable future. There are hundreds of gene banks (globally their number is around 1400). But some of them are highly vulnerable to natural disasters, war or the lack of management or finance and security. The foundation of a “global central seed bank” for the world’s seeds (primarily of food plants) has therefore long been an issue and Svalbard Global Seed Vault was a step in this direction. In 1989, IBPGR started surveying the relevant alternative sites in Svalbard. Norway offered to take care of the actual construction of the vault, while FAO and IBPGR would take care of the administrative operating costs through the creation of a fund based on capital from external donors.

 

II. Description of the facility

This Seed Vault lies about 1 kilometre from Longyearbyen Airport, at about 130 metres above sea level and consists entirely of an underground facility, blasted out of the permafrost (at about minus 3-4degrees Celsius). The facility is designed to have an almost “endless” lifetime. The location takes into account all known scenarios for rising sea level caused by global climate changes. The facility has also been located so deep inside the mountain that any possible changes to Svalbard’s climate, which we know about today, will not affect the efficacy of the permafrost. This will be a temporary temperature back up in the event of technical failure, such as loss of power supplies for a period. The facility consists of three separate underground chambers. Each chamber has the capacity to store 1,5 million different seed samples. With the aid of its own electric machinery, powered by electricity from the local power station, it will maintain a constant interior temperature of minus 18 degrees Celsius. The chambers will have storage shelving for pre packed examples of food seeds from the depositors. 

The storage chambers themselves are reached via an access tunnel about 100 metres long, with an entrance portal on its outside. The entrance portal will be the only visible part of the facility. It is in the form of a long, narrow concrete “fin”, with an entrance of brushed steel. An artistic decoration on the outer roof surface and on the upper part of the front will partly reflect the polar light and partly give off a muted, glowing light The outer half of the entrance tunnel is constructed as a steel pipe with a diameter of about 5metres. This will pass through the layer of snow and ice and the loose rocks, into solid mountain. The innermost part and the storage chambers will be blasted out of the mountain using tunnel drilling and rock blasting techniques. The mountain is secured with bolts and spray concrete. The permafrost will also contribute to stability. The interior floor is of asphalt. There is electric lighting throughout and the facility will be secured against forced entry and will have TV surveillance. Areas for filing and other administrative work of a temporary nature will be located beside the entrance tunnel. These will be heated to normal room temperature whilst work is going on. The total floor area of the facility is just less than 1,000 square meters. 

Why Svalbard

 

1) Svalbard, as Norwegian territory, enjoys security and political and social stability. Norway understands the importance of preserving Svalbard as an area of undisturbed nature, which is now an important research and reference area. The seed vault fits ideally into this concept.

 2) Svalbard has an isolated position far out in the ocean, between 74° and 81° N and only1000 kilometres from the North Pole. The archipelago is characterized by an undisturbed nature. Permafrost provides stable storage conditions for seeds. Besides which there is little risk of local dispersion of seed.

3) The seed vault, which consists of three chambers, is located right outside Longyearbyen and directly opposite long year Airport. The facility is about 130 metres above sea level and has been tunnelled 120 metres into the mountain, in a stable sandstone situation. Each of the three underground chambers is about 1,200 cubic metres (20 metres deep, 10 metres wide and 6 metres high). The location so far below ground guarantees stable permafrost for the foreseeable future and is high enough above sea level to secure the facility against any rise in sea level as a result of global warming.

 4) The facility’s open location near the town makes monitoring and security easier. Security is the responsibility of the Governor of Svalbard in cooperation with the University of Svalbard(UNIS).

IV. Conclusion

Svalbard Global Seed Vault is not a gene bank, it is a facility for maintaining crop diversity in the form of seeds, stored and conserved in a frozen state. The ideal temperature is between minus 10 and minus 20 degrees Celsius. The Seeds in the Seed Vault shall only be accessed when the original seed collections have been lost for any reason. The depositors will retain their rights over the seeds. There will be no way that Svalbard Global Seed Vault, or Norway can give access to the seeds without consent from the depositors. The seeds will be returned to the depositors on request. The Seed Vault has the capacity to store 4.5 million different seed samples. Each sample will contain on average 500 seeds, so a maximum of 2.25 billion seeds may be stored in the Seed Vault. The Seed Vault will therefore have the capacity to hold all the unique seed samples that are conserved today by all the approximately 1400 gene banks that are found in more than 100 countries all over the world. When in full use, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault will represent the world’s largest collection of seeds. Priority will be given to crops that are important for food production and sustainable agriculture, which is of the utmost importance for developing countries where food security is a challenge. More than 7,000 plant species have historically been used in human diets; however, less than150 species are today used in modern agriculture.

The biggest threat comes from lack of resources and funding. Poor management can be a major problem. Gene banks have been subject to natural disasters, war and civil strife. Many gene banks are situated in developing countries and many have been faced with different challenges over time. It is impossible to know, as there is no way of ascertaining how many different types have existed in the past. But surely, much diversity has already been lost. The number of plant varieties used during the last 30years of intensification of agriculture has been dramatically reduced. Extinction is forever. Different varieties of wheat and potato can disappear as permanently as the dinosaurs.