The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, set deep inside a mountain to withstand disasters from nuclear war to global warming, was launched in 2008 as a backup for the world’s gene banks that store the genetic code for thousands of plant species.

Protected by permafrost, the vault has received samples from across the world, and played a leading role between 2015 and 2019 in rebuilding seed collections damaged during the war in Syria.

“The seeds deposited this week represent not just biodiversity, but also the knowledge, culture and resilience of the communities that steward them,” Executive Director Stefan Schmitz of the Crop Trust said in a statement.

The new contributions include a sample of 15 species from Sudan, consisting of several varieties of sorghum – a plant that is significant both for the country’s food security and its cultural heritage, the Crop Trust said.

The war between the Rapid Support Forces and the army which broke out in April 2023 has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 12 million, while plunging half of Sudan into hunger and several locations into famine.

“In Sudan…these seeds represent hope,” the director of Sudan’s Agricultural Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Centre said in a statement.

The total of 14,022 new samples will be deposited at 1430 GMT, including seeds of Nordic tree species from Sweden and rice from Thailand, the Crop Trust said.

— Reporting by Louise Rasmussen and Anna Ringstrom

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The non-profit organization jointly operates the Svalbard Global Seed Vault with Norwegian authorities and offers financial and technical support to smaller seed banks, also known as gene banks, in collecting, preserving and breeding crop varieties.

Amid a surge in conflicts and adverse impacts of climate change “there is an absolutely great sense of urgency to make sure that the entire gene pool of crops is conserved,” Schmitz told Reuters.

Speaking on the sidelines of an International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) conference, in Rabat, Morocco, he said increased funding would enable Crop Trust to fully fund ICARDA’s gene banks.

The centre made the first seed withdrawal from the Svalbard vault in 2015, after the Syrian war disrupted the operation of a gene bank in Aleppo.

The surge in conflicts stresses “the urgency to have the global biodiversity preserved in order for mankind to continue to have access to what they need to sustain life on earth,” ICARDA’s director general Aly Abousabaa said.

Extreme environmental events, such as this week’s torrential rains in Dubai, “have literally washed some of the experiments we had on the ground,” he said.

ICARDA operates in 16 dry countries, of which 50 per cent facing conflict. It draws on old crop varieties to breed seeds that are resilient to harsh climates.

In Morocco, the centre’s researchers led the development of strains of drought-resisting wheat varieties that “have done extremely well at 200mml of rain, compared to what you would normally receive at between 350mml and 400mml of rain,” Abousobaa said.

“We have not yet fully exploited the capacity of science,” he said, urging steady funding “because science cannot afford the ups and downs”.

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The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, set in permafrost caves on an island halfway between mainland Europe and the North Pole, was launched in 2008 as the ultimate backup for the world’s gene banks to protect plants from war, disease and climate change.

The vault has received samples from across the world, and played an essential role between 2015 and 2019 in rebuilding seed collections damaged during the war in Syria.

On Tuesday, depositors carried crates of seeds into the vault’s entrance, a long narrow structure which juts out of the snow-covered hillside.

Twenty-three seed banks took part, nine of them for the first time, the largest number of newcomers introduced at one single occasion, according to Crop Trust, a non-profit that operates the facility along with Norwegian authorities.

First-time depositors included seed banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria and Zambia, Crop Trust said.

The crates arriving on Tuesday contained crops such as beans, barley, cowpea, maize, rice, millet and sorghum, it added.

“Preserving genetic diversity in this Arctic fastness ensures the adaptability and resilience in our crops, guaranteeing food security for generations to come,” Crop Trust Executive Director Stefan Schmitz said.

Many of Tuesday’s deposits were the result of a global 10-year biodiversity project known as BOLD, which is designed to boost global food and nutrition security, the trust added.

With the latest deposit, 111 seed banks in 77 countries have a backup of their plants in Svalbard, said Norway’s ministry of agriculture and food.

The chambers, which are only opened three times a year to limit the seeds’ exposure to the outside world, boast temperatures of around -18 degrees Celsius (-0.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

–Reporting for Reuters by Terje Solsvik.

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