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Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
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News articles

  • Photo: Ragnhild Utne/Management Consultant

    15-year-olds in Svalbard celebrates the “15 year old” Svalbard Global Seed Vault on 28 February 2023

    The 15-year-olds in Svalbard assisted when new 20,000 seed samples from 20 gene banks from all over the world were ...

  • After 15- Years: Aiming to Secure Seeds Representing Every Important Crop Variety Available in the World Today

    In February 2023, it will be 15 years since the Svalbard Global Seed Vault was opened. Over the last 15 ...

  • Ju Hee Rhee, Director and Choo Gyu Take, Genebank Manager of the National Agrobiodiversity Center Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea while depositing two of the five seed boxes that arrived from their institution to Svalbard this week. Credit: NordGen/Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

    Two Newcomers Join Svalbard Global Seed Vault for Final Opening of 2022

    The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is set to accept new seed shipments from 12 genebanks around the world this week, ...

  • Bronislovas Gelvonauskis from State Forest Service, Angeles Gomez Borrego and Luis Guasch Pereira from the Spanish genebank at CSIC bringing their first seed boxes at the Seed Vault.
    Bronislovas Gelvonauskis from State Forest Service, Angeles Gomez Borrego and Luis Guasch Pereira from the Spanish genebank at CSIC bringing their first seed boxes at the Seed Vault.
    Photo: NordGen

    Spain and Lithuania depositing seeds for first time

    Two genebanks joined the growing number of depositors to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault this week and varieties of rice ...

  • The Package of hope consisted of seed samples originating from a dozen Arabic countries conserved in the ICARDA genebank in Lebanon
    Photo: NordGen

    Svalbard Global Seed Vault 07.06.2022

    Michael Haddad - reachning the seed vault with seeds of Arabic countries and book of hope from the Pope

  • Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust and Minister of Agriculture and Food Sandra Borch. Photo: Dagmara Wojtanowicz.

    Seeds of 150 New Species Safeguarded in the Seed Vault

    Around 150 species are deposited for the first time in the Seed Vault. Most of these are deposited by the ...

  • Nanofilm will safeguard identity of the more than 1 mill seed samples in the Seed Vault

    For the first time film strips that hold information on seed identity and other valuable information will be attached to ...

  • Illustration - seed delivery
    Photo: Svalbard Global Seed Vault

    Dates for Seed Deposits in 2022

    The Seed Vault will be opened for seed deposits on the following dates in 2022: Week 7 (14.-18. February) Week ...

  • Photo: seedvault.no

    Two new first-time depositors welcomed to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

    Seeds from the gene banks in Serbia and Latvia were among the total of 14 011 seed samples that were ...

  • Illustration - seed delivery
    Photo: Svalbard Global Seed Vault

    Announcing Support for Genebanks to Back-up Crop Collections in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

    Because seeds don’t last forever, not even in genebanks, the Crop Trust and partners will help genebanks in their efforts ...

  • her lastes frø
    Photo: Svalbard Global Seed Vault

    More than 30 000 new seeds arrive at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

    In June 1st, 2021, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault received its highest number of seed deposits since February 2020 – ...

  • New seed boxes waiting to be put in place on the shelves
    Photo: Åsmund Asdal/NordGen

    Seeds from Strawberries Deposited at the First Seed Vault Opening of 2021

    FAO’s International Year of Fruits and Vegetables is being recognized all around the globe—including at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. ...

  • genebanks participated in a major seed deposit in February 2020

    In 2020: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault Welcomes Record Number of Depositors

    After the completion of the technical upgrade of the Seed Vault in late 2019, new and old depositing genebanks participated ...

  • Dates for Seed Deposits in 2021

    The Seed Vault will be opened for seed deposits on the following dates in 2021:​ ​Week 7 (15.-18. February)​ Week ...

  • Seven genebanks deposited
    Photo: NordGen

    October Deposit Carried out as Planned Despite the Pandemic

    Despite the global pandemic, genebanks efforts to secure duplicate seed samples at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault are still ongoing. ...

  • Seed Summit, 25 February 2020. Photo: Cierra Martin for Crop Trust
    Photo: Cierra Martin for Crop Trust

    The 2020 Svalbard Seed Summit – Genetic diversity for more resilient food systems

    The global community has committed to end hunger by 2030 and has identified genetic diversity as an important target. Most ...

  • NordGen staff labelling seed boxes from ICARDA
    Photo: Svalbard Global Seed Vault/Riccardo Gangales

    The Seed Vault inspires world leaders to champion the safeguarding of the world’s seeds

    The Svalbard Global Seed Vault received the largest seed deposit since its 2008 opening on February 24, 2020. In recognition ...

  • Cherokee Nation safeguards its seeds in the Seed Vault

    The Cherokee Nation – both its people and its tradition – were part of the 24 February seed deposit at ...

  • genebanks participated in a major seed deposit in February 2020

    First time deposits of seeds primarly maintained in natural meadows

    For the first time, seeds of species maintained in situ in meadows have been deposited in the Svalbard Global Seed ...

  • Norwegian Minister Olaug Vervik Bollestad and Slovakian Minister Gabriela Matecna depositing the first box of Slovakian seeds into Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

    First Slovak seeds deposited in Seed Vault

    This time of year, the last rays of sun give Svalbard a magical blue light. And both the Slovak and ...

  • Henryk Bujak, head of IHAR, signed the depositor’s agreement with NordGen director Lise Lykke Steffensen, acting on behalf of the Norwegian Ministry for Agriculture and Food.
    Photo: NordGen

    “New chapter in history” as Poland signs depositor’s agreement

    The Polish flag next to the Norwegian, thick agreement papers and a room full of anticipation. As the head of ...

  • Seed Vault named one of the 50 most influential projects

    The organisation Project Management Institute has named Svalbard Global Seed Vault the 10th most influential project during the last 50 ...

  • Withdrawal of ICARDA Aleppo seeds accomplished

    By mid-August, the third and last part of the seeds deposited by the ICARDA gene bank in Aleppo, Syria were ...

  • Second seed deposit from SPGRC this year

    After depositing 1158 new seeds accessions this week, the SPGRC gene bank has secured in total 5244 seed samples in ...

  • Long travelled seeds in place in the Seed Vault

    The second regular Seed Vault opening this year was accomplished during the first week of June. Two gene banks deposited ...

  • Åsmund Asdal, Seed Vault Coordinator at NordGen, depositing seeds from Margot Forde Germplasm Center

    Seeds from unique forage collection deposited in the Seed Vault

    Seeds from the world’s arguably most diverse and unique forage collection were deposited in Svalbard Global Seed Vault today. In ...

  • Seed handling at SPGRC in Zambia

    SPGRC in Zambia Urge all the World’s Gene banks to Use the Seed Vault

    This week, NordGen carried new seeds into the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The deposit comes from the regional gene bank ...

  • Close to 90% of the ICRISAT collection duplicated

    ICRISAT is among the gene banks that have deposited the largest numbers of seed samples in the Seed Vault. “At ...

  • India eager to deposit more seeds in Svalbard

    India has one of the largest plant germplasm collections in the world, hosted in the National Gene Bank at ICAR ...

  • National Plant Genetic Resources Center under establishment in Thailand

    Four gene bank collections in Thailand have deposited seeds in the Seed Vault. Thailands Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has ...

  • The largest diversity of crop species in the Seed Vault

    The German Genebank Department at the IPK in Gatersleben organizes regularly the so called Vavilov seminars for employees and guests. ...

  • Seed Vault openings 2019

    The Svalbard Global Seed Vault will be opened for regular seed deposits three times during 2019; in March, in June ...

  • Seeds from four continents

    Seeds from six gene banks were deposited in the Seed Vault this week; the International CGIAR centres in Peru (CIP) ...

  • Vegetable seeds from UK deposited

    Next week the first seeds from the UK Vegetable Genebank at the University of Warwick will be deposited in Svalbard ...

  • Merge of gene bank institutes in Portugal, Chile and Australia

    Reorganisation of reseach institutes holding gene bank collections affects also the formalities and seed statistics at the Seed Vault. During ...

  • NordGen celebrates its 10 year anniversary

    NordGen was formed in 2008, as a Nordic centre for conservation and use of genetic resources within plants, domestic animals ...

  • Seed Vault construction improvements proceed as planned

    Work underway at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault to build a new, water-resistant access tunnel to the seed storage area ...

  • New Depositor Agreement signed as Thai Gene Banks Visited NordGen

    This week representatives from two different Thai gene banks visited Sweden and NordGen to sign a new Svalbard Global Seed ...

  • Seeds – theme of the year at Oxford Symposium

    The Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery has been organized every or every second year since 1983. The main theme ...

  • The Seed Vault presented at FutureFest in London

    The FutureFest is one of Europe’s largest festivals exploring ways to shape a better future, organized in London on the ...

  • Threatened Myanmar orchids conserved in the Seed Vault

    Seeds of more than 400 endangered orchid species native to Myanmar rain forest are conserved in Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

  • Strengthened cooperation between the Plant Treaty and the Seed Vault

    – No country can possibly maintain its own food security by itself. We have to all work together, says Christine ...

  • The Seed Vault Summit calls for action to save crop diversity

    The Svalbard Global Seed Vault Summit organized at the 10 year anniversary concluded with recommendations to governments to tackle three ...

  • Forgotten stories of frozen seeds

    Over the last four years, the biodiverSEEDy project has been researching and working to advance the conservation of agricultural biodiversity.

  • Frozen Songs – from Svalbard to Belgrade and Paris

    A well filled up audience at Svalbard Culture house, with locals and Seed Vault anniversary visitors, attended the dance and ...

  • One million seed samples deposited

    Significant numbers of seed samples were deposited during the 10 year Seed Vault anniversary. The last updates of the Seed ...

  • Important crops and seeds highlighted

    New seeds were added to the “Seed Vault Foundation Stone” during the 10 year anniversary in Longyearbyen by the end ...

  • A 100 million NOK upgrade of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault suggested

    After ten years of operation, technical improvements will now be carried out at  Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

  • Seed Vault Summit

    Policymakers, scientists, seed bank experts and other guests have been invited to Svalbard for the 10 year anniversary, to participate ...

  • Svalbard Seed Vault 2008–2018 Anniversary

    In February 2008, the eyes of the world focused on a frozen mountainside on an archipelago in northern Norway – ...

  • Towards a watertight access tunnel

    Due to incidents of water intrusion in periods of heavy rainfall in Svalbard, the Norwegian government is now in the ...

  • Svalbard Global Seed Vault presented at Plant Treaty meeting in Kigali, Rwanda

    Representatives from all over the world met in Kigali the first week in November for the 7th Governing Body meeting ...

  • ICARDA seeds safe back in Lebanon and Morocco

    Due to the conflict in Syria, ICARDA in 2015 became the first gene bank to withdraw seeds from their deposit ...

  • Seed bank in Winter

    The International Advisory Panel meets in February

    The management of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is overseen by an International Advisory Panel. The Panel consists of representatives ...

  • New seeds from three gene banks in October

    At this years’ last Seed Vault opening now in October, seed deposits were made by the International Center for Tropical ...

  • Svalbard Global Seed Vault – a new video

    Way up north, in the permafrost, 1300 kilometers beyond the Arctic Circle, is the world’s largest secure seed storage. A ...

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Grethe Helene Evjen
Ministry of Agriculture and Food

 

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