Marks 15-Year Anniversary of Svalbard's Global Seed Vault

On Sunday, 15 years have passed since the world's largest secure backup facility for seeds was opened in the permafrost on Svalbard. This is marked with new deposits from 20 different gene banks and a visit from the Norwegian Minister of Agriculture and Food, Sandra Borch (Center).

On this anniversary, there will be an open house for Longyearbyen's population at the Svalbard Museum with speeches, light refreshments, and presentations of the work at the seed vault. On Tuesday, local 15-year-olds will assist with seed depositing, and the minister will sign certificates for the new depositors.

The aim of the seed vault, which was established and is owned by the Norwegian state, is to preserve the great genetic variation within the world's food plants. During the marking, the seed vault will pass 1.2 million seed samples from around the world, corresponding to 500 million seeds, writes Svalbardposten.

"It is an insane amount of seeds and it is amazing that gene banks and governments trust us to keep the seeds in the vault safe. We therefore feel that it is wonderful to be able to commemorate the 15-year anniversary. The interest in depositing seeds has been overwhelming," says Åsmund Asdal, Seed Vault Coordinator of the Nordic Genetic Resource Center, to the aforementioned newspaper.