An Arctic seed vault designed to safeguard the world's plant diversity has received thousands of new samples, marking the largest number of depositors since 2020. The latest deposits, including Palestinian seeds, come amid growing concerns over conflict and climate change threatening food security.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is set deep inside a mountain on Norway's Spitsbergen island, about 1,300 kilometres from the North Pole, where it can withstand disasters ranging from nuclear war to global warming.
Often referred to as the "Noah's Ark" of food crops, it acts as a backup for gene banks around the world that store the genetic code for thousands of plant species.
Launched in 2008 with funding from Norway, the three cold chambers are today home to some 1.3 million varieties of seeds that their owners can withdraw at any moment.
Since its launch in 2008, funded by Norway, the vault's three cold chambers have housed around 1.3 million seed varieties that can be withdrawn by their owners at any time.
The vault plays a critical role in preserving plants needed to feed a growing global population facing the impacts of climate change.
On Tuesday, more than 30,000 samples from 23 organisations in 21 countries were deposited, the Crop Trust, a partner in the project, said in a statement.
"This marks the largest number of depositors since the Seed Vault received samples from a record-breaking 35 genebanks in 2020, underscoring the urgent global effort to conserve crop diversity in the face of escalating climate change, conflict and other crises," the statement read.
Among the latest deposits are seeds from vegetables, legumes and herbs sent by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The trust also expects new seed samples from Sudan in February – another country suffering from war and famine.
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'Protecting culture'
Bolivia made its first contribution to the vault through the Universidad Mayor Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, a 400-year-old institution. The seeds were collected by 125 farming families from local communities.
"This deposit goes beyond conserving crops; it’s about protecting our culture," said the project coordinator for the Norway-funded Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development in Bolivia.
Chad, also making its first deposit, sent 1,145 samples of sesame, rice, maize and sorghum, crops crucial to the country’s food security and adapted to withstand high temperatures and unpredictable rainfall.
"Climate change and conflict threaten infrastructure and impact food security for over 700 million people in more than 75 countries worldwide," Crop Trust director Stefan Schmitz said.
The vault's chambers are only opened two or three times a year to limit exposure to the outside world.
Even if the refrigeration system were to fail, the vault would maintain its cold temperature thanks to the permafrost around it.
(with newswires)
