21 May 2008 - Buried deep
underground. Able to withstand a ‘bunker
buster’ bomb. In a location carefully selected
for maximum security. Equipped with state-of-the-art
electronic monitoring devices. No, it’s
not a high-tech bunker in Baghdad, Kabul
or Washington. Look to the North: a new
seed bank in Svalbard, Norway is safeguarding
global crop varieties for future generations.
The Svalbard Global
Seed Vault, which opened in February, was
set up to provide insurance against biodiversity
loss of agricultural crops. To fill it,
more than a quarter of a million samples
containing 100 million seeds have been shipped
to Norway by international seed banks. Eventually
the vault will hold more than two billion
seeds.
The bunker-like facility
in Svalbard represents the partnership of
the Nordic Gene Bank, the Norwegian Ministry
of Agriculture and Food, and the Global
Crop Diversity Trust.
The Seed Vault functions
like a safety deposit box at a bank. Statsbygg
(the Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction
and Property) owns the building and vault,
while the depositing seed banks own the
contents of their individual boxes. The
samples stored in Svalbard are back-up copies
that seed banks can access if their original
samples are lost, destroyed or damaged.
Arctic conditions ideal
for seed preservation
Svalbard, an arctic
archipelago located in the northwestern
Barents Sea, was chosen for a variety of
reasons: the permafrost offers natural freezing
for the seeds; the vault’s remote location
enhances the security of the facility; the
local infrastructure is excellent; Norway,
a leader in many multinational efforts,
is a willing host; and the area is geologically
stable. The polar bears that prowl the area
may be seen by some as providing an extra
layer of security.
The arctic climate provides
a reliable environment conducive for seed
storage. Located 125 metres inside a mountain,
the vaults are buried deep within the arctic
permafrost. Even given worst-case scenarios
for global warming, the vault rooms will
remain naturally frozen for up to 200 years,
according to the Norwegian Meteorological
Institute.
Stability is another
advantage the Arctic offers. Some of the
world’s best seed banks are located in countries
with unstable political or geological situations:
Peru, Columbia, Syria, India, Ethiopia,
and the Philippines.
Food security is a challenge
in many developing countries, and in the
face of climate change is a growing concern
in the west. Crop diversity is the resource
we need to develop varieties that can withstand
pests and diseases that come with warmer
temperatures. By providing a backup sample,
the Svalbard Seed Vault will ensure that
unique diversity held in seed banks in developing
countries is not lost forever should an
accident occur. In effect, the Arctic now
provides a kind of insurance policy for
the world’s agricultural biodiversity.
“Crop diversity will
soon prove to be our most potent and indispensable
resource for addressing climate change,
water and energy supply constraints, and
for meeting the food needs of a growing
population,” said Dr Cary Fowler, Executive
Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.
‘A quiet rescue mission
is under way’
With growing evidence
that climate change could seriously threaten
global agricultural production, the Svalbard
Global Seed Vault plays a valuable role
in safeguarding genetic material stored
in seed collections scattered around the
world.
Mounting scientific
evidence indicates that rising CO2 emissions
are causing not only global warming, but
also increasing the frequency and intensity
of extreme weather events. Floods, droughts
and hurricanes are effects of climate change
that threaten the world’s food security.
“A quiet rescue mission
is underway,” said Fowler. “It will intensify
in the coming years, as thousands of scientists,
plant breeders, farmers and those working
in the Global Crop Diversity Trust identify
and save as many distinct crop varieties
as possible.” As gene banks around the world
produce fresh seeds, they will send a steady
flow of new samples to Svalbard for safekeeping.
Arctic seed storage
– a hedge against climate change
"Climate change
will place enormous pressure on agriculture,
presenting our crops with conditions that
will make productive harvests ever harder
to achieve,” said Fowler.
“Scientists must turn
to the genetic diversity of our crops to
breed crop varieties which can succeed in
these new conditions. However, this very
diversity is also threatened - as the climate
changes, crop species will no longer find
suitable growing conditions, and will disappear.
The Svalbard Global
Seed Vault will protect this crop diversity
from climate change by providing the world's
safest storage, at the same time as ensuring
that plant breeders have the best possible
chance to protect our food supply from climate
change."
Climate Solutions –
WWF’s vision for 2050
While the Seed Vault
is a testament to international cooperation
on biodiversity conservation, it is also
emblematic of the Arctic’s role in safeguarding
and regulating the global environment.
Arctic sea ice and glaciers
hold trillions of litres of fresh water
that - if released in large amounts due
to global warming - could alter the world’s
ocean currents and change weather patterns
dramatically.
Governments and institutions
have united to preserve the world’s agricultural
biodiversity in the Arctic. Now WWF calls
on international policymakers to join forces
and take action to protect our planet from
the dangers of a melting Arctic. Radical
and immediate greenhouse gas reductions
are necessary to prevent the Arctic from
disintegrating.
WWF believes that
the technologies and sustainable energy
resources known or available today are sufficient
to meet the challenge of growing global
demand for energy, and there is still sufficient
time to build up and deploy them, but only
if the necessary economic policy decisions
and government interventions are made in
the next five years.
