Little betrays the huge size of this granary for humanity on the icy mountainside except for its distinctive entrance: two towering grey walls emerging from the bowels of earth, topped with mirrors and pieces of iron creating a reflection that glimmers in the darkness of the polar winter.
The seed bank has the capacity to hold up to 4.5 million samples.Īround 2 or 3 million samples "would be a good idea to make the future of the food of mankind even more secure," Stefan Schmitz told AFP in the freezing cold of Longyearbyen. The latest shipment will bring the number of seed varieties, stored in three underground alcoves at an optimum minus -0.4 degrees Fahrenheit, to 1.05 million. "It's more urgent than ever that we act now to protect this diversity before it really is too late," he added. "It has proved to be an exhausting and often demoralizing task to persuade people of the utterly essential role played by all this diversity in maintaining vibrant, healthy ecosystems that sustain both people and our planet," the Prince of Wales said in a statement. "The large scope of today's seed deposit reflects worldwide concern about the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on food production," Schmitz addedĪ total of 36 regional and international institutions have contributed to the 60,000 samples that were to be deposited later Tuesday.Īmong the seeds are beans, squash and corn from the Cherokee Nation - the first Native American group to send crops to the vault - including their sacred White Eagle corn.īritain's Prince Charles, who is known for his environmental advocacy, sent the seeds of 27 wild plants, including cowslips and orchids collected from the meadows of Highgrove, his country home. "As the pace of climate change and biodiversity loss increases, there is new urgency surrounding efforts to save food crops at risk of extinction," said Stefan Schmitz, who manages the reserve as head of the Crop Trust. The "Noah's Ark" of food crops is set up to preserve plants that can feed a growing population facing climate change. Mounting concern over climate change and species loss is driving groups worldwide to add their seeds to the collection inside a mountain near Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen Island in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, about 800 miles from the North Pole. LONGYEARBYEN, Norway (AFP) - A "doomsday vault" nestled deep in the Arctic received 60,000 new seed samples on Tuesday, including Prince Charles' cowslips and Cherokee sacred corn, increasing stocks of the world's agricultural bounty in case of global catastrophe.
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