Food securityMajor deposit in the world’s largest seed collection in the Arctic

Published 24 February 2017

A major seed deposit critical to ensuring global food security was made to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the Arctic Circle today. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is the largest collection of agricultural biodiversity in the world. Located in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, the Seed Vault is owned by the Norwegian government. Seed samples for some of the world’s most vital food sources like the potato, sorghum, rice, barley, chickpea, lentil, and wheat will be deposited at Svalbard in the coming days, bringing the total number of seed samples at the facility to 930,821.

A major seed deposit critical to ensuring global food security was made to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the Arctic Circle today.

Despite a backdrop of geopolitical volatility, nearly 50,000 samples of seeds from seed collections in Benin, India, Pakistan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Netherlands, the United States, Mexico, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, and the United Kingdom have travelled to the vault on the Svalbard archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole today for long-term safekeeping.

The preparation and shipment of seeds to the facility has been funded in-part by the Crop Trust, the only organization working worldwide to create, fund, and manage an efficient and effective global system of seed collections.

Crop Trust notes that the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the world’s largest collection of agricultural biodiversity, is a safe and secure vault supported by the Crop Trust which can store up to four and a half million samples of crops from all over the world. By preserving duplicate samples of seeds held in genebanks worldwide, the vault provides a “fail safe” insurance against loss of crop diversity caused by climate change, natural disaster or war.

Speaking from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Marie Haga, Executive Director of the Crop Trust commented: “Today’s seed deposit at Svalbard supported by The Crop Trust shows that despite political and economic differences in other arenas, collective efforts to conserve crop diversity and produce a global food supply for tomorrow continue to be strong. Together, the nations that have deposited their seed collections account for over a quarter of the world’s population. Nearly every country has agreed on the importance on conserving crop diversity through Target 2.5 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to conserve agricultural diversity in seed collections. Crop diversity is a fundamental foundation for the end of hunger.”

To support the Crop Trust’s work at Svalbard and genebanks around the world, GoPro for a Cause, GoPro’s program dedicated to tell the stories of non-profit organizations, has launched a fundraising initiative and short documentary to help the Svalbard Seed Vault ensure ongoing crop conservation.

Commenting on the campaign, Erica Stanulis, Director of Global Corporate Social Responsibility at GoPro, said: