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Global Seed Vault

Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Svalbard globale frøhvelv
Svalbard Global Seed Vault logo.svg
Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located in Svalbard
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Location within Svalbard
General information
Status Complete
Type Seed bank
Location Spitsbergen
Town or city Longyearbyen
Country Norway
Coordinates 78°14′09″N 15°29′29″E / 78.235867°N 15.491374°E / 78.235867; 15.491374Coordinates: 78°14′09″N 15°29′29″E / 78.235867°N 15.491374°E / 78.235867; 15.491374
Elevation 130 m (430 ft)
Groundbreaking 19 June 2006
Opened 26 February 2008
Cost 45 million kr (US$9 million)
Technical details
Floor count 1
Floor area ~1,000 m2 (~11,000 sq ft)
Awards and prizes Norwegian Lighting Prize for 2009
No.6 TIME's Best Inventions of 2008
Website
Official website

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Norwegian: Svalbard globale frøhvelv) is a secure seed bank on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen near Longyearbyen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago, about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the North Pole. Conservationist Cary Fowler, in association with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), started the vault to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds that are duplicate samples, or "spare" copies, of seeds held in gene banks worldwide. The seed vault is an attempt to insure against the loss of seeds in other genebanks during large-scale regional or global crises. The seed vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement between the Norwegian government, the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).

The Norwegian government entirely funded the vault's approximately 45 million kr (US$9 million) construction. Storing seeds in the vault is free to end users, with Norway and the Global Crop Diversity Trust paying for operational costs. Primary funding for the Trust comes from organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and from various governments worldwide.

The Nordic Gene Bank (NGB) has, since 1984, stored backup Nordic plant germplasm via frozen seeds in an abandoned coal mine at Svalbard, over the years depositing more than 10,000 seed samples of more than 2,000 cultivars for 300 different species. The Nordic collection has for years duplicated seed samples from the Southern African Development Community. Both the Nordic and African collections have been transferred to the new Svalbard Global Seed Vault facility. On 1 January 2008 the Nordic Gene Bank was integrated with NordGen.


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