In This Article
Subscribe to Technology Updates
‘Doomsday’ Seed Vault Opens in Arctic
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Norway and an NGO called the Global Diversity Crop Trust have opened a global seed bank, built to ensure the planet’s crop diversity.
30-Second Summary
The bank lies deep inside an Arctic mountain in the Norway-controlled archipelago of Svalbard, secure from the potential threats of both people and nature.
Nicknamed the “doomsday vault,” the repository is currently home to seeds from 250,000 crop varieties—many of which come from staple grains such as wheat and barley.
According to Cary Fowler, the executive director of the GDCT, agricultural diversity is a crucial part of protecting the planet’s food supply.
“We need [it] to help farmers and to help agriculture adapt to climate change, pests and diseases, droughts, and whatever demands we're going to have to make of agriculture,” Fowler told British newspaper The Guardian.
In addition, Robin Probert of Britain’s Millennium Seed Bank points out that “one in six of all wild plants are used for medicine. One in 10 of all wild plants are used for sources of food particularly in developing countries ... The least we can do is get them stored in a seed bank.”
Although there are currently around 1,500 seed banks around the world, the one in Svalbard is unprecedented in terms of its security and technology. The vault is buried 400 feet inside a mountain, affording its contents protection from disasters natural and otherwise.
Seed banks elsewhere have proven vulnerable to such dangers. In 2006, Typhoon Melenyo destroyed most of the collection of a Filipino seed research project, and a similar facility outside Baghdad was plundered in 2003 after the start of the Iraq War.
Nicknamed the “doomsday vault,” the repository is currently home to seeds from 250,000 crop varieties—many of which come from staple grains such as wheat and barley.
According to Cary Fowler, the executive director of the GDCT, agricultural diversity is a crucial part of protecting the planet’s food supply.
“We need [it] to help farmers and to help agriculture adapt to climate change, pests and diseases, droughts, and whatever demands we're going to have to make of agriculture,” Fowler told British newspaper The Guardian.
In addition, Robin Probert of Britain’s Millennium Seed Bank points out that “one in six of all wild plants are used for medicine. One in 10 of all wild plants are used for sources of food particularly in developing countries ... The least we can do is get them stored in a seed bank.”
Although there are currently around 1,500 seed banks around the world, the one in Svalbard is unprecedented in terms of its security and technology. The vault is buried 400 feet inside a mountain, affording its contents protection from disasters natural and otherwise.
Seed banks elsewhere have proven vulnerable to such dangers. In 2006, Typhoon Melenyo destroyed most of the collection of a Filipino seed research project, and a similar facility outside Baghdad was plundered in 2003 after the start of the Iraq War.
Headline Link: ‘Svalbard’s Giant Cold Store’
Nicknamed the “doomsday vault,” the Svalbard seed bank opened on Feb. 26. Although there are some 1,500 other seed banks in the world, this is not only the best protected facility, but the first to have a steady source of funding as well. Says GDCT executive director Cary Fowler, many seed banks “are located in dangerous places in the world,” or are “vulnerable to certain kinds of standard risks, such as fire or natural disasters.”
Source: The Guardian
Background: Seed banks
Concerns about the impact of global warming and habitat destruction on plant diversity have given rise to seed banks that act as an “insurance plan” for threatened plant species, NPR reports. Robin Probert of the Millennium Seed Bank at the U.K. Royal Botanic Seed Gardens says, “One in six of all wild plants are used for medicine. One in 10 of all wild plants are used for sources of food particularly in developing countries, where many of those species are now threatened with extinction. The least we can do is get them stored in a seed bank such as ours.”
Source: NPR
Historical Context: Disaster hits other seed banks
Iraq
The “Fertile Crescent” region, a large swath of which is in Iraq, is the origin of staple crops such as barley and wheat. So it is fitting that the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib played host to a large seed bank and plant-breeding program. Although the Abu Ghraib facility was looted in 2003 after the onset of the Iraq War, by that time scientists had already transported many of their research subjects to another location in Aleppo, Syria.
Source: Mindfully.org
Afghanistan
In September 2002, seed banks in the Afghan cities of Ghazni and Jalalabad were looted—not for their seeds—but for their storage jars. The seeds, which were for local varieties of chickpeas, lentils, pomegranates, nuts, melons, barley and wheat were left dumped on the ground in unidentifiable piles. “It’s like having a library of books with no titles on them,” said Geoffrey Hawtin, director general of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute in Rome.
Source: Science News
The Philippines
Typhoon Milenyo forced the International Rice Research Institute to relocate its facilities to the Los Banos campus of the University of the Philippines in 2006. An estimated 70 percent of the genetic materials used for research and 100 percent of the institute’s root crop samples were lost because of the storm.
Source: SeedQuest
Opinion & Analysis: A ‘Noah’s Ark’ for the plant world
Blog The World As We Know It writes of the Svalbard seed bank, “Hats off to Norway for building something like this, and hopefully, this vault will also solve the problem of lack of food in underdeveloped countries.”
Source: The World As We Know It
Irish broadcaster RTÉ called the seed vault “a Noah’s Ark” for plant species. According to the article, Svalbard’s permafrost will ensure that the ambient temperatures in the chambers will never rise above -3.5 C (25.7 F) even if there is a power outage in the freezer system.
Source: RTÉ
Jacques Diouf, the director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, heralded the seed vault as “one of the most innovative and impressive acts in the service of humanity.” The creation of the seed bank was aided by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The accord has 116 signatory countries.
Source: UN News Centre
Most Recent Beyond The Headlines
© 2012 Dulcinea Media, Inc.
