The Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Across the Barents Sea and more than 1270 miles north of Oslo lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Built inside a mountain, this facility provides ultimate protection to arguably the world's most important natural resource, the diversity of our agricultural crops that underpins the food security of every nation. Here seed banks from around the world store duplicate samples of their collections as an insurance policy against natural disaster, war, fire and flood, and their own equipment failures.
The Seed Vault contains samples of more than 850,000 different crop types, originally collected in 233 countries. It is this diversity that will allow and
facilitate agriculture's adaptation to climate change and its increasing productivity.
A partnership between the Norwegian government, the Nordic genetic Resources Center and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the Seed Vault provides free conservation services to countries and public institutions.
Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon describes the Seed Vault an "inspirational symbol of peace and food security for the entire humanity."
Founded
2008
Location
Svalbard, Norway
Seeds Stored
Seed samples: 1,125,419
Species: 5,481
Countries of origin: 234