Arctic Seed Vault

Saving Seeds at Svalbard

The Seed Vault has a capacity of 4.5 million seed samples, equivalent to about 2 billion seeds. Samples eligible for conservation at Svalbard must already be housed in two conventional long-term genebanks elsewhere, in keeping with current international standards. The facility will start with a collection from the CGIAR and certain key national genebanks. As the collection expands, the focus will be on safeguarding as much of the world’s unique genetic material as possible and avoiding duplication.

Seed would be stored under what is known as “black box” arrangements, meaning that seed packages and boxes sent for storage would not be opened. The responsibility for testing material or for subsequent regeneration and multiplication will remain with the genebanks sending their seeds to Svalbard. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault will not operate like a regular genebank, making material available to breeders, and in fact samples held in “black boxes” will only be released in the event that all other seed sources have been destroyed or exhausted.

Packaging, shipment and information management



Genebanks sending seed would be required to place the seed in specified, standard-size foil packages inside a standard-size box.

The Trust expects to provide support for the ongoing operations of the Seed Vault, and to provide funding for the preparation and shipment of seeds from developing countries to the facility. Provision of assistance from the Trust would only be granted for those collections that satisfy the Trust’s normal funding criteria, and relevant policies established by the Seed Vault.

The Nordic Gene Bank will establish and maintain a public on-line database of samples stored in Svalbard. In addition, a hardcopy would be kept inside each box in the facility. All records would indicate both a Svalbard and a depositor identification number. Depositors of seed will provide a complete electronic inventory of the samples with generally recognized passport, characterization, and evaluation data when available.