Svalbard Global Seed Vault receives more than 30,000 new samples

On October 23, a representative from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway announced that the facility received over 30,000 new samples from 21 countries. This marks the highest number of samples received since 2020.

Located in the Arctic permafrost of the Svalbard archipelago, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, often referred to as the “Doomsday Vault,” houses plant seed samples from more than 200 countries and regions around the world.

According to Reuters, Bolivia has contributed samples to the vault for the first time, with a local university assembling new samples from about 125 agricultural families. Additionally, Chad has stored over a thousand samples of sesame, rice, corn, and sorghum for the first time, while seed samples of vegetables, legumes, and other herbaceous plants have come from the occupied territories of Palestine.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which opened in 2008, was financed by the Norwegian government and operates in partnership with the Global Crop Diversity Trust based in Bonn, Germany, and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center in Alnarp, Sweden. To date, the vault houses over 5,000 different plant varieties.