The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a secure backup facility for the world’s crop diversity on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago. Let’s have a look inside the world’s largest secure seed storage.
The Seed Vault, carved into virgin solid rock, was opened on 26 February 2008. The seed storage area itself is located more than 100 meters inside the mountain, beneath layers of rock that range from 40 to 60 meters thick.
Climate change has been affecting farms for years, with floods washing away crops, unpredictable weather wiping out harvests, and drought killing whole yields. Seed banks are a clever way to make sure that thousands – sometimes millions – of fruit and vegetable varieties don’t go extinct despite these threats.
Svalbard globale frøhvelv provides long-term storage for duplicates of seeds from around the world, conserved in gene banks. This includes the security of the world’s food supply against the loss of seeds in gene banks due to mismanagement, accidents, equipment failures, funding cuts, war, sabotage, disease, and natural disasters. The Seed Vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement among the Norwegian government, the Crop Trust, and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).
A global icon
The entrance portal is a simple concrete construction that has gained status as a global icon, in part due to “Perpetual Repercussion”, an illuminated fiber optic art installation created by the Norwegian artist, Dyveke Sanne, that decorates the entrance. Many Svalbard visitors go to the Vault’s entrance to take selfies and tick off “been there”.
The massive vault, set amid cold, dry permafrost, now holds thousands of varieties of essential food crops, including beans, wheat, and rice. There are over 1,378,238 samples of 6,521 crop species, and the volume is constantly growing.
“During 2024, 61 seed gene banks deposited 64,331 seed samples, including 21 from institutes that deposited seeds for the first time this year,” says Åsmund Asdal, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault coordinator.
Around 75 per cent of global domestic vegetable varieties have been permanently lost since the 1900s because of monoculture farming, according to the FAO. This popular farming technique involves growing just one crop species in a field at a time.
Items that preserve and store genetic material, such as seeds, tissues, or DNA samples – are sent from all over the world to Svalbard in a bid to keep native – and sometimes ancient – crop varieties alive.
The Norwegian government entirely funded the Seed Vault’s approximately 45 million kr (US$8.8 million in 2008) construction cost. Norway and the Crop Trust pay for operational expenses. Storing seeds in the vault is free to depositors.
Cooled to minus 18°C
The mountain mass has permafrost, with a stable temperature range of -3 to 4°C. The seed storage area has an additional cooling system to maintain a temperature of -18 °C and keep it constant. The public power plant in Longyearbyen provides electricity for the Seed Vault. In addition, the Seed Vault is equipped with generators that provide electricity in the case of a power outage.
While countries may have their own national or even regional seed banks, it’s crucial, like any critical data, to have a ‘backup’. For gene banks, this is Svalbard, where the Arctic tundra provides an ideal, secure climate for storage.
The Seed Vault functions like a safe deposit box in a bank
The bank owns the building, and the depositor owns the contents of their box. The Government of Norway owns the facility, and the depositing gene banks own the seeds they send. The deposit of samples in Svalbard does not constitute a legal transfer of genetic resources. In gene bank terminology, this is called a “black box” arrangement. Each depositor signs a Deposit Agreement with NordGen, acting on behalf of Norway.
The Agreement makes clear that Norway does not claim ownership over the deposited samples and that ownership remains with the depositor, who has the sole right of access to those materials in the seed vault. No one has access to anyone else’s seeds from the seed vault. NordGen maintains the database of samples and depositors.
The Facility
The seed store facility consists of three halls, each with a base measuring about 9.5 x 27 meters. Each hall can accommodate about 1.5 million seed samples, giving the Seed Vault a total capacity of 4.5 million seed accessions. Only one of the three halls is in use, cooled to -18°C, and equipped with shelves for seed boxes. When this hall reaches capacity, the second storage hall will be prepared and cooled to the level needed for seed conservation.
Inside the World’s Largest Secure Seed Storage – Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Tor Kjolberg reporting.
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