permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

Arctic seed vault opens doors for 100 million seeds (2/28/2008)
http://www.wildbiology.com/research/Arctic_seed_vault_opens_doors_for_100_million_seeds.asp

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today on a remote island in the
Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that
originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique
varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice,
wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of
eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed
vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop
seeds being held anywhere in the world.

At the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg,
unlocked the vault and, together with the African Nobel Peace Prize-winning
environmentalist Wangari Maathai, he placed the first seeds in the vault.
The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and a host
of dignitaries and agriculture experts from around the globe deposited
seeds during the ceremony. A variety of Norwegian musicians and choirs also
performed in the opening ceremony held 130 metres deep inside the frozen
mountain.

Built near the village of Longyearbyen on the island of Spitsbergen, the
vault at its inception contains 268,000 distinct samples of seeds-each one
originating from a different farm or field in the world. Each sample may
contain hundreds of seeds or more. In all, the shipments of seeds secured
in the vault today weighed approximately 10 tonnes, filling 676 boxes.

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. Contingencies
for climate change have been worked into the plan. Even in the worst-case
scenarios of global warming, the vault rooms will remain naturally frozen
for up to 200 years.

"With climate change and other forces threatening the diversity of life
that sustains our planet, Norway is proud to be playing a central role in
creating a facility capable of protecting what are not just seeds, but the
fundamental building blocks of human civilization," said Norway's Prime
Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

"Crop diversity will soon prove to be our most potent and indispensable
resource for addressing climate change, water and energy supply
constraints, and for meeting the food needs of a growing population," said
Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is funded and established by Norway as a
service to the world. The Global Crop Diversity Trust is providing support
for the ongoing operations of the seed vault, as well as organizing and
funding the preparation and shipment of seeds from developing countries to
the facility. NordGen will manage the facility and maintain a public
on-line database of samples stored in the seed vault, which has the
capacity to house 4.5 million samples-some 2 billion seeds.

Prime Minister Stoltenberg and Wangari Maathai, founder of the African
Green Belt Movement and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, delivered together
the first box of seeds to the vault. It contained rice seeds specially
prepared with varieties originating from 104 countries. The box was opened
during the ceremony, and then resealed before being placed in the vault.

"The significant public interest in the seed vault project indicates that
collectively we are changing the way we think about environmental
conservation. We now understand that along with international movements to
save endangered species and the rainforests of the world, it is just as
important for us to conserve the diversity of the world's crops for future
generations," Maathai said.

"The opening of the seed vault marks a historic turning point in
safeguarding the world's crop diversity,'' said Fowler. "But about 50
percent of the unique diversity stored in seed banks still is endangered.
We are in the midst of trying to rescue these varieties. Our success means
we will guarantee the conservation and availability of these wildly diverse
crops. Forever."
Unique Building

The building of the vault itself has attracted much outside interest due to
its location and its unusual engineering, security, and aesthetic features.
Its engineering allows it to stay cool with only a single 10-kilowatt
compressor, which is powered by locally generated electricity.

The vault consists of three highly secure rooms sitting at the end of a
125-metre tunnel blasted out of a mountain on Norway's Svalbard
archipelago. The seeds will be stored at minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus
0.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and sealed in specially-designed four-ply foil
packages. The packages are sealed inside boxes and stored on shelves inside
the vault.

Each vault is surrounded by frozen arctic permafrost, ensuring the
continued viability of the seeds should the electricity supply fail. The
low temperature and moisture level inside the vaults will ensure low
metabolic activity, keeping the seeds viable. If properly stored and
maintained at minus 20 degrees Celsius (about minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit),
some seeds in the vault will be viable for a millennium or more. For
example, barley can last 2000 years, wheat 1700 years, and sorghum almost
20,000 years.

Anyone seeking access to the seeds themselves will have to pass through
four locked doors: the heavy steel entrance doors, a second door
approximately 115 metres down the tunnel and finally the two keyed
air-locked doors. Keys are coded to allow access to different levels of the
facility. Not all keys will unlock all doors. Motion detectors are set up
around the site. Boxes of seeds inside the rooms are scanned before
entering the seed vault.

A work of art also will make the vault visible for miles around. Artist
Dyveke Sanne and KORO, the Norwegian agency overseeing art in public
spaces, have worked together to fill the roof and vault entrance with
highly reflective steel, mirrors, and prisms. The installation acts as a
beacon, reflecting polar light in the summer months, while in the winter, a
network of 200 fibre-optic cables will give the piece a muted
greenish-turquoise and white light.

*Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Global
Crop Diversity Trust*