Svalbard International Seed Vault Opens
A hollowed out cave on a frozen Norwegian island is on its way to becoming the world’s largest seed bank. The Svalbard International Seed Vault opened yesterday and is intended to conserve the genetic wealth of the world’s flora and food sources.
The vault received an initial deposit of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries. The seeds were placed in the vault by Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and environmentalist Wangari Maathai, founder of the African Green Belt Movement and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
The opening of the seed vault is part of an unprecedented effort to protect the planet’s rapidly diminishing biodiversity. The diversity of our crops is essential for food production, yet it is being lost. This “fail-safe” facility, dug deep into the frozen rock of an Arctic mountain, will secure for centuries, or longer, hundreds of millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today. As well as protecting against the daily loss of diversity, the vault could also prove indispensable for restarting agricultural production at the regional or global level in the wake of a natural or man-made disaster. (PhysOrg)
Read more at: Arctic seed vault opens doors for 100 million seeds
Behind the Project: The Global Crop Diversity Trust
See pictures here
POSTED IN: Climate Change, Natural Resources
0 opinions for Svalbard International Seed Vault Opens
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: