What are the dimensions of the vault?

The distance from the front door of the portal building to the back of the vault is approximately 145.9 metres (478.7 feet). The width of the each vault is approximately 9.5 to 10 metres (31.2 to 32.8 feet) and the height is 6 metres (19.7 feet). Each vault is approximately 27 metres (88.6 feet) long.

What is the name of the mountain housing the seed vault?

The mountain housing the Seed Vault is called “Platåberget,” or “plateau mountain” in English.

How many seeds will be stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault?

The Seed Vault has the capacity to store 4.5 million seed samples. Each sample contains an average count of 500 seeds, so a maximum of 2.25 billion seeds can be stored in the facility. The collection and storage of seeds will continue for some time. When just half of the first of three vault rooms is filled, it will hold the world’s largest collection of seeds.

How are the seeds stored?

The seeds are stored at minus 18°Celsius (minus 0.4°Fahrenheit). The seeds are sealed in specially-designed four-ply foil packages that are placed in sealed boxes and stored on shelves inside the vault. The low temperature and moisture level ensures low metabolic activity, keeping the seeds viable for decades, centuries, or in some cases thousands of years. The permafrost ensures the continued viability of the seeds if the electricity supply should fail.

Who owns the seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault?

Depositors retain ownership rights over the seeds sent to the facility. The boxes with seeds are sealed by the depositors and are not distributed to or given access to by anyone other than the depositors.

What type of seeds may be stored in the Seed Vault?

Priority is given to crops that are important for food production and sustainable agriculture. The facility started receiving security collections from the international CGIAR collections and certain key national genebanks. The focus is on safeguarding as much of the world’s unique genetic material as possible and avoiding duplication.

Why is the Seed Vault important to developing countries?

Food security is a challenge in many developing countries. Crop diversity is the resource to which plant breeders must turn to develop varieties that can withstand pests, diseases, and remain productive in the face of changing climates. It will therefore underpin the world food supply. Also, the Seed Vault ensures that unique diversity held in genebanks in developing countries is not lost forever if an accident occurs. A backup copy will exist in Svalbard.

What are the main differences between the Seed Vault and other genebanks?

Svalbard is a kind of insurance policy for other genebanks. Plant breeders and researchers depend on seed banks around the world to obtain varieties with useful traits that they need. If those seed banks later lose their own resources, because of natural or man-made disaster, the collections could be restored by getting the copies back from Svalbard.

Will genetically modified seeds be stored in the Seed Vault?

Norwegian law, promulgated prior to the establishment of the Seed Vault and intended therefore to apply more generally to research and use of genetically modified organisms in Norway, effectively prohibits importation of genetically modified seeds and their storage in Svalbard at this time.