Vault In Norway Houses Global Seed Samples
February 26, 2008 1:15 p.m. EST
Vittorio Hernandez - AHN News Writer
Longyearbyen, Norway (AHN) - Norway opened on Tuesday a seed vault at an Arctic mountain in the Svalbard archipelago. The vault is a depository of seeds of all food plants from all over the world. It seeks to ensure adequate food supply in the event that climate change, wars and natural disasters destroy vegetation.
At the opening ceremony, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said,"The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is our insurance policy... It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological diversity for future generations."
The vault is located 425 feet deep inside a frozen mountain. It can store up to 4.5 million seed samples and protect it from man-made and natural disasters. The $9.1 million facility was built to withstand an earthquake or a nuclear hit. Its strength against tremors was tested last week when a 6.2 magnitude earthquake shook Svalbard.
Although Norway owns the vault, other countries may deposit seeds without any charge and may withdraw the seed samples anytime they want to.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, one of the guests at the opening ceremony, said, "this is a frozen Garden of Eden". The ensure the seeds will last inside the vault, giant air conditioning units had been installed at a negative 0.4 degree Fahrenheit. According to experts, with this frigid temperature, many of the seeds may last up to 1,000 years.
The Global Crop Diversity Trust is in charge of collecting seed samples. Cary Fowler, head of the trust, said, "Crop diversity will soon prove to be our most potent and indispensable resource for addressing climate change, water and energy supply constraints and for meeting the food needs of a growing population."
Up to 500 seeds are packed inside silver foil containers, stored on blue and orange metal shelves inside three 32 by 88 foot storage chambers. Each vault is capable of holding 1.5 million sample packages.
According to Ola Westengen, operations manager of the vault, among the seed samples it will house are 30,000 beans and grass species from Colombia, 47,000 wheat samples and 10,000 maize seeds from Mexico, and 70,00 rice varies from 120 different countries collected by the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.
Artist's conception of the vault.
The entrance to the vault.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a vault containing millions of seeds from all over the world, saw its first deposits on Tuesday. Located 800 kilometers from the North Pole on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, the vault has been referred to by European Commission president José Manuel Barroso as a "frozen Garden of Eden". It is intended to preserve crop supplies and secure biological diversity in the event of a worldwide disaster.

"The opening of the seed vault marks a historic turning point in safeguarding the world’s crop diversity," said Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust which is in charge of collecting the seed samples. The Norwegian government, who owns the bank, built it at a cost of $9.1 million. 

At the opening ceremony, 100 million seeds from 268,000 samples were placed inside the vault, where there is room for over 2 billion seeds. Each of the samples originated from a different farm or field, in order to best ensure biological diversity. These crop seeds included such staples as rice, potatoes, barley, lettuce, maize, sorghum, and wheat. No genetically modified crops were included. (Beyond politics they are generally sterile so of no use.)

Constructed deep inside a mountain and protected by concrete walls, the "doomsday vault" is designed to withstand earthquakes, nuclear warfare, and floods resulting from global warming. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg called it an "insurance policy" against such threats.

With air-conditioned temperatures of -18 degrees Celsius, experts say the seeds could last for an entire millennium. Some crops will be able to last longer, like sorghum, which the Global Crop Diversity Trust says can last almost 20 millenniums. Even if the refrigeration system fails, the vaults are expected to stay frozen for 200 years.

The Prime Minister said, "With climate change and other forces threatening the diversity of life that sustains our planet, Norway is proud to be playing a central role in creating a facility capable of protecting what are not just seeds, but the fundamental building blocks of human civilization." Stoltenberg, along with Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, made the first deposit of rice to the vault.

"It is very important for Africa to store seeds here because anything can happen to our national seed banks," Maathai said. The vault will operate as a bank, allowing countries to use their deposited seeds free of charge. It will also serve as a backup to the thousands of other seed banks around the world.

"Crop diversity will soon prove to be our most potent and indispensable resource for addressing climate change, water and energy supply constraints and for meeting the food needs of a growing population," Cary Fowler said.