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ICARDA News International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria Phone: (963-21) 2213433, 2213477, 2225112, 2225012 Fax: (963-21) 2213490, 2225105; E-mail: ICARDA@CGIAR.ORG Website: www.icarda.org
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Svalbard
Global Seed Vault Inaugurated
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The
Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened on 26 February on a remote island
in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million
seeds that originated in over 100 countries. The Svarlbard Seed Vault
is a joint initiative by the Norwegian Government (which funded the
construction), the Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Nordic Gene
Bank.
At the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister of Norway, H.E. Mr Jens Stoltenberg, unlocked the vault and, together with the African Nobel Peace Prize-winning environmentalist, H.E. Ms Wangari Maathai, he placed the first seeds in the vault. The President of the European Commission, H.E. Mr José Manuel Barroso, and a host of dignitaries and agriculture experts from around the globe deposited seeds during the ceremony. A variety of Norwegian musicians and choirs also performed in the opening ceremony held 130 metres deep inside the frozen mountain. Dr Ken Street represented ICARDA at the inaugural function and placed the first box containing ICARDA germplasm in the vault. ICARDA's entire collection will be placed in the vault, in stages, over the next 3 years. The first shipment arrived in Svarlbard on 14 February. It contained 30,567 accessions: around 1.2 tons of seeds of our mandate crops, securely packed in specially designed boxes. Dr Street was interviewed by several international media organizations like NBC and documentary makers who are developing feature length films on the importance of genetic resource conservation. Built near the village of Longyearbyen on the island of Spitsbergen, the vault at its inception contains 268,000 distinct samples of seeds-each one originating from a different farm or field in the world. Each sample may contain hundreds of seeds or more. In all, the shipments of seeds secured in the vault today weighed approximately 10 tonnes, filling 676 boxes. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere in the world. The opening of the seed vault is part of an unprecedented effort to protect the planet's rapidly diminishing biodiversity. The diversity of our crops is essential for food production, yet it is being lost. This "fail-safe" facility, dug deep into the frozen rock of an Arctic mountain, will secure for centuries, or longer, hundreds of millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today. As well as protecting against the daily loss of diversity, the vault could also prove indispensable for restarting agricultural production at the regional or global level in the wake of a natural or man- made disaster. Contingencies for climate change have been worked into the plan. Even in the worst-case scenarios of global warming, the vault rooms will remain naturally frozen for up to 200 years. "With climate change and other forces threatening the diversity of life that sustains our planet, Norway is proud to be playing a central role in creating a facility capable of protecting what are not just seeds, but the fundamental building blocks of human civilization," said Norway's Prime Minister Jans Stoltenberg. "Crop diversity will soon prove to be out most potent and indispensable resource for addressing climate change, water and energy supply constraints, and for meeting the food needs of a growing population," said Dr Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust. |
About
ICARDA: Established in 1977, ICARDA (www.icarda.org) is one of the 15
international research centers supported by the Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). ICARDA serves the entire
developing world for the improvement of barley, lentil, and faba bean;
and dry-area developing countries for the on-farm management of water,
improvement of nutrition and productivity of small ruminants (sheep and
goats), and rehabilitation and management of rangelands. In the Central
and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region, ICARDA is responsible for
the improvement of durum and bread wheats, chickpea, pasture and forage
legumes and farming systems; and for the protection and enhancement of
the natural resource base of water, land, and biodiversity.
The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
(www.cgiar.org) is a strategic alliance of countries, international and
regional organizations, and private foundations supporting15 international
research centers that mobilizes cutting-edge science to promote sustainable
development by reducing hunger and poverty, improving human nutrition
and health, and protecting the environment.