Although there are currently around 1,700 seed banks worldwide spread across more than a hundred countries, the one on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, also known as the ‘Plant Noah’s Ark’, has managed to collect nearly one million seed varieties by its tenth birthday, which it celebrated on Monday.
It should be noted that seed banks are places that store seeds of various plant species to preserve them in case of different natural disasters, wars, diseases, and similar events that could cause certain seeds or plants to disappear. Such facilities store various types of seeds, from different crops to seeds of rare and endangered species that could become extinct.
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Many of the aforementioned institutions are located in developing countries, which face threats from natural disasters and wars, or are simply not well maintained and have financial problems.
That is precisely why, ten years ago, a project was launched to establish a global seed storage facility on the Norwegian Svalbard, intended to serve as a sort of “backup” for seeds in case the original stock in any country in the world disappears for any reason.
The vault in Svalbard, which opened in 2008, celebrated its tenth birthday on Monday by receiving a delivery of over 76,000 seed varieties. Although it is located in Norway, this seed storage belongs to donor countries and various global institutions.
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– I am extremely happy to report that in the last ten years, since we opened this bank on February 26, 2008, a total of 1,059,646 crop varieties have passed through these doors, said Norwegian Minister of Agriculture Jon Georg Dale on Monday.
