More than 14,000 seed samples from 21 genebanks have been deposited in the remote Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a “doomsday vault” built to ensure food security in the wake of disaster and other environmental impacts.

The Vault sits on the remote island of Spitsbergen, the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway in the Arctic Ocean. It houses over 1.3 million seed samples from almost every country globally—the world’s highest at a single location—and aims to conserve vital seed collection duplicates as “an insurance policy” for the world’s food supply.

Among the latest depositors in the icy chambers are essential varieties of sorghum and pearl millet from Sudan’s crop genebank, a collection nearly destroyed during the country’s civil war, and “velvet beans” from Malawi, which support both sustainable agriculture and traditional medicine. 

Critical food crops from a Philippine genebank that typhoons and fires have ravaged and a major collection of more than 3,000 varieties of rice, beans, and maize from Brazil, the host of this year’s global climate negotiations, have also been deposited. 

Seed safety duplicates

It marks the culmination of the safety duplication element of the Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development (BOLD) project, a ten-year initiative funded by the Norwegian government and managed by the Crop Trust.

Genebanks need “safety duplicates” of their collections stored in a different location, but duplication takes time, effort, and money — resources many genebanks lack  — according to the Crop Trust. The BOLD project provides technical and financial support to 42 partners worldwide, ten of whom will be represented at the ceremony in Svalbard this week.

It will also mark the 66th deposit in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which has received seed samples from 123 genebanks in 85 countries worldwide since its inauguration in February 2008. 

“This moment is a powerful reminder that securing our food future requires collective action,” says Stefan Schmitz, executive director of the Crop Trust. 

“Through our partnerships, including the BOLD project, we’ve worked with institutions around the world to safeguard vital crop diversity. The seeds deposited this week represent not just biodiversity, but also the knowledge, culture and resilience of the communities that steward them. We must find a way to protect this crop diversity for generations to come.”

Protecting agricultural heritage

Following the deposit ceremony, the first-ever Svalbard International Dialogue will bring together high-level government officials, crop experts, and global thought leaders to discuss the challenge of safeguarding crop diversity amid increasing environmental pressures and escalating global conflicts.

According to the Crop Trust, the participation of genebanks from nations like the Philippines and Sudan highlights Seed Vault’s role as a safeguard against the parallel crises of changing climates and conflict. 

“Sudan is securing their collections in Svalbard, ensuring that their agricultural heritage is protected from the threats of climate change, conflict, and loss,” says Lise Lykke Steffensen, executive director of NordGen, the Nordic countries’ genebank and knowledge center for genetic resources, which supported Sudan’s deposit. 

“This recent deposit, involving genebanks from around the globe, highlights the critical importance of international collaboration in preserving genetic resources and the trust that binds these efforts. NordGen is proud to handle these invaluable seed samples in the Seed Vault, ensuring their preservation for future generations.”