Svalbard Global Seed Vault – a back-up seed bank for the world’s crop genetic resources Tore Skrøppa Nordic Genetic Resource Centre – NordGen

Vision - A global security net Safeguard a complete set of the world’s most important accessions of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture SGSV will provide the securest possible back-up site for a rational, effective, efficient and sustainable global system for conserving crop diversity and making it available

Opening 26 th of February 2008

Where? Svalbard, Norway 74-81° North, ° East

Why Svalbard Global Seed Vault? Good management to safely back-up unique collections Gene banks are vulnerable to - Civil strife and war - Natural disasters - Lack of adequate funding The time was ripe: The International Treaty provides a framework for collaboration.

A part of the global system In-situ Wild protected areas On-farm conservation Ex-situ  Gene banks (seeds and cryo preservation)  Field collections

International Policy Framework The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 1993 and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) 2004 Same objectives: Conservation, sustainable use and fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from their use

The Structure  Storage halls embedded in solid rock (120 m into the mountainside)  130 m above sea (above worst case climate change scenario)  Geologically stable location  Temperature maintained at -18°C  Permafrost provides natural freeze guarantee at -4 °C in the event of equipment failure  Monitoring and surveillance with gas-, temperature- and motion- detectors

The Organization The Norwegian government: the liable national authority NordGen: responsibility for the management and operation The Global Crop Diversity Trust: Funding the maintenance and operation. Funding shipment of seeds from eligible collections International Advisory Council oversees the operation of the Vault NordGen

Operation  PGR of importance to food security and sustainable agriculture  Accessions in two conventional long-term gene banks elsewhere  Build on in-trust collections (article 15 in ITPGRFA)  Expansion: Unique genetic material -avoiding duplication as far as feasible

Terms  Signing of Standard Deposit Agreement  Deposition consistent with international law

Conditions  Storage free of charge for public and private holders of PGRFA  Black box -will never be opened  Viability testing - regeneration – multiplication responsibility remains with the depositor  Information access on public online data portal  Withdrawal on request

Should seed lots of forest tree species be stored at SGSV? Purpose  Back-up storage for research to monitor long term changes in genetic diversity  Conservation of threatened populations - which species? - conifers or broad-leaved? - long term storage conditions?

View from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Seed Portal: Thank you!