Arctic ‘doomsday vault’ stocks up in case of global catastrophe
- Vault built to protect world’s food supplies, preserve biodiversity of crops
- Will contain 1 million seed varieties with Tuesday’s additions
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.
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 1,300km (about 800 miles) from the North Pole.
The “Noah’s Ark” of food crops is set up to preserve plants that can feed a growing population facing climate change.
“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 large scope of today’s seed deposit reflects worldwide concern about the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on food production.”
The head of the genetic bank of the Nordic nations, Lise Lykke Steffensen, said every single seed in the vault “holds potential solutions for sustainable agriculture”.
