S V A L B A R D A N D T H E G L O B A L S E E D V A U L T

C A R Y F O W L E R
D E S I G N B Y D O Y L E P A R T N E R S P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y M A R I T E F R E
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 PREFACE

Closer to the North Pole than to the Arctic This box

from an
Circle, remote and rocky Plateau Mountain international
facility in
in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard Aleppo is part
of a globally
seems an unlikely spot for any global effort, i mportant

much less one to safeguard agriculture. collection of

wheat, barley,

In this frigid and dramatically desolate and legumes,

protected from

environment, no grains, no gardens, no trees the war in

Syria by the

can grow. Yet at the end of a 130-meter- Seed Vault.

long tunnel chiseled out of solid stone is a

room filled with humanity’s most precious
treasure, the largest and most diverse seed
collection ever assembled: more than a half
billion seeds.
A quiet rescue mission is under way. With growing evidence that
unchecked climate change will seriously undermine food production
and threaten the diversity of crops around the world, the Svalbard
Global Seed Vault represents a major step toward ensuring—you
might even say guaranteeing—the preservation of hundreds of
thousands of unique crop varieties. This is a seed collection, but more
importantly it is a collection of the traits found within the seeds: the
genes that give one variety resistance to a particular pest and another
variety tolerance for hot, dry weather. Plant breeders and farmers
will draw upon this diversity to help crops keep pace with a warmer
climate and ever-evolving pests and diseases. Virtually everything,

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 every trait we might want our crops to have in the future—all the options—can be found in
this genetic diversity. And the lion’s share of the world’s crop diversity, the “stuff” that will
enable crops to evolve and adapt for as long as human beings have agriculture, can be found in
the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Simply put, the mission of the Seed Vault is to safeguard the diversity of our agricultural
crops in perpetuity. It exists to conserve the seeds that contain this diversity. Formally, the Seed
Vault is a noncommercial international partnership between the Royal Norwegian Ministry of
Agriculture and Food, the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (Alnarp, Sweden), and the Global
Crop Diversity Trust (Bonn, Germany). But the partnership extends far beyond that to include
Above:
the many genebanks that have sent seeds to Svalbard for safekeeping, and beyond that to the Local wheat
farming communities and ultimately the consumers they serve—in other words, to all of us. varieties in
test plots
Few people will ever see or come into contact with the contents of this vault. In sealed boxes,
at the Ejere
behind multiple locked doors, monitored by electronic security systems (not to mention the Farming
occasional visit from indigenous polar bears), enveloped in frigid below-zero temperatures, Com munity
Seed Bank in
and surrounded and insulated by tons of rock, hundreds of millions of seeds are protected in Ethiopia.
their mountain fortress. Frozen in such conditions inside the mountain, seeds of most major
Below:
crops will remain viable for hundreds of years, or longer. Seeds of some are capable of retaining
In the Vault
their ability to sprout for thousands of years. Room, the
This book is about the Seed Vault and the remarkable effort to save the past and the future Canadian
national
of agriculture in an enchantingly beautiful place that I have come to love, and that Mari Tefre, collection
the principal photographer for this book, both loves and has called home. It is about hope and can be seen
on the left.
it is about commitment—about what can be done if countries come together, shed suspicion
In the middle
and cynicism, and work cooperatively to accomplish something significant, long lasting, and row are boxes
worthy of who we are and wish to be. Look deeply into the photos, read between the lines of containing
rice, wheat,
text, and you will discern the stories of farmers, scientists, and those of us who persisted in barley and
pursuing the dream of establishing a global seed vault. legumes
from two
Turn the pages and you will also be given your own guided tour, as the Seed Vault—or the
international
“doomsday vault” as the media often terms it—is not open to the public. From groundbreaking genebanks.
to finished seed repository, from the entrance door to the frozen, off-limits seed storage rooms,
we’ll show you the Seed Vault in its arctic context, the splendor of Svalbard. As we do that,
we’ll address the questions everyone seems to have: Why was it constructed? Who was behind
it? How does it operate? Why was it built in such a cold and remote place? What kinds of
seeds are inside? Where did they come from? Why is it important to save all these seeds?
What does the Seed Vault really do? And how, exactly does it do it—how will it be used?
What will this accomplish?
Seeds on Ice is my plea for the conservation of crop diversity, the biological foundation of
agriculture and arguably humankind’s most important natural resource. It is also a tribute

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 to our farming ancestors—yours and mine—as well as to today’s
farmers, for it is farmers, past and present, who have developed and
nurtured this diversity. This book is a love letter to Svalbard and its
beauty and majesty, to the Seed Vault, to the people involved, to the
community of Longyearbyen, and to the belief that the biodiversity
the Seed Vault protects is a common heritage of all humanity. By
default and necessity, we are its guardians.
Lastly this book is a testimonial to unvanquished optimism, to my
conviction and my experience that global problems, even huge ones,
can be solved through trust, good will, cooperation, and perseverance.

Left:
Grains and
legumes for
the basis
for many of
the world’s
agricultural
systems.

Right:
The entrance
of the Seed
Vault as
seen from a
helicopter.

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 The Nordic countries store some of
their seed samples in glass ampules
such as these, rather than foil packets.
These two samples are used for
demonstration purposes at the Vault and
are not part of the official collection.
National Geographic photographer Jim
Richardson snapped this image at almost
-40C and with a stiff wind in the face.
I have rarely been colder.

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