Inside the Svalbard International Seed Vault

A hollowed out cave on a frozen Norwegian island will become the world's largest seed bank according to the Norwegian government and the Global Crop Diversity Trust. The arctic seed vault, officially known as the Svalbard International Seed Vault and nicknamed the Doomsday Vault by the media, is intended to conserve the genetic wealth of the world's most important natural resource.

The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be housed inside a sandstone mountain on the island of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard archipelago, about 600 miles from the North Pole and about 620 miles north of mainland Norway. The islands are remote and enveloped in total darkness for nearly four months a year.

The location was chosen for its frigid permafrost environment that will ensure the seed collection remains frozen even if mechanical systems fail. Reinforced concrete walls, two airlocks and blast-proof doors will further protect the seed stock from civil strife, nuclear war or natural catastrophes.

The vault's construction is funded and managed by the Norwegian government as a service to the world community. The government expects construction of the Svalbard International Seed Vault to be completed by September 2007.

A partnership with the Global Crop Diversity Trust ensures the vaults operational costs and the expenses incurred for preparing, packaging and transporting seed samples from developing countries. The trust is responsible for the vault's entire seed collection. The number and types of seeds will be determined by which countries participate in the vaults creation and use.

Currently, there are about 1,400 seed vaults around the globe but many are located in countries that are politically unstable or experiencing severe natural catastrophes. The Svalbard International Seed Vault intends to become the world's back up food source gene bank, a global facility. A sample of all material from other seed gene banks will be kept in the Norwegian island vault.

The idea for the global seed vault started in the 1980s but was only recently implemented with the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Prior to this development, seed banks often led to disputes about ownership and access. The treaty outlined an international legal framework for seed conservation and global access. Proponents of the Svalbard International Seed Vault consider the project an essential global conservation effort of genetic crop diversity.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust will ensure conservation of all important food crops based on the judgment of the international community and outlined in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The priority crops apple, aroids (taro, for example), banana, barley, chickpeas, coconut, maize, potato and rice are just a sample of what the Svalbard International Seed Vault will maintain.

Genebanks or seed vaults generally maintain collections from existing plants wild plants, agricultural varieties, obsolete seeds, advanced species and special genetic stocks. It is estimated that 95% of rice, maize and wheat has been conserved in genebanks around the globe and includes crops that are no longer found in agricultural fields. About 90% of the world's current crops are saved as seeds in conservation facilities. The other ten percent of the world's crops are living plants either in the field or in a laboratory.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust will assemble the Svalbard International Seed Vault collection, maintain the proper cold storage and maintain detailed records on each sample including origin and characteristics. Many seeds have the potential to stay viable for up to two centuries.

The trust will periodically rejuvenate the seed collection by growing the crop and harvesting fresh seeds for the vault. This will help ensure that the seed stock is clean and disease-free for distribution. With carefully controlled conditions, even seeds from rainforest plants and trees can be maintained in the vault. This has the potential to make the arctic seed vault the most biologically diverse collection of plants on the planet.

Although guided by specific strategies, the Global Crop Diversity Trust explains the process of conservation of crop diversity as a technically simple endeavor. Many genetic samples can be stored in freezers. The most difficult aspect of the Svalbard International Seed Vault is maintaining funding for operating expenses, a problem that has plagued other gene banks worldwide. The trust intends to raise a $260M endowment to conserve the "biological basis of all agriculture" and ensuring that the "conservation of this most critical resource is placed forever on a firm foundation."

The goals of the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Svalbard International Seed Vault are supported by several international agreements. These include the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The latter being a critical element of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to "eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, to ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development."

The project's significance in defeating hunger and achieving food security will become more evident in time as food demands grow with the planet's booming population. If successful, the Svalbard International Seed Vault will guarantee all known varieties of the world's crops to be available to feed the planet's future generations.