Svalbard Global Seed Vault
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Norwegian: Svalbard globale frøhvelv) is a seed bank (a place where seeds are kept) in Norway. It is on the island of Spitsbergen, near Longyearbyen, in the Arctic Svalbard archipelago. It is about 1,300 kilometres (810 miles) from the North Pole.[4] Conservationist Cary Fowler worked with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR),[5] to start the vault.
| Svalbard Global Seed Vault | |
|---|---|
Svalbard globale frøhvelv | |
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| General information | |
| Status | Complete |
| Type | Seed bank |
| Location | Spitsbergen |
| Town or city | Longyearbyen |
| Country | Norway |
| Coordinates | 78°14′09″N 15°29′29″E / 78.235867°N 15.491374°E |
| Elevation | 130 m (430 ft) |
| Groundbreaking | 19 June 2006[1] |
| Opened | 26 February 2008[2] |
| Cost | 45 million kr (US$8.8 million, 2008) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 1 |
| Floor area | c. 1,000 m2 (c. 11,000 sq ft)[3] |
| Awards and prizes | Norwegian Lighting Prize for 2009 No. 6 TIME's Best Inventions of 2008 |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
The vault is there to save many different kinds of plant seeds. The seeds at the vault are copies of seeds from other places around the world. Copies of seeds are kept in case the seeds in other places are lost. Three organizations decided how to manage the vault. Those organizations were the Norwegian government, the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).[6]
The Norwegian government paid for building the vault. It cost about 45 million Norwegian kroner (US$9 million) to build.[7] Storing seeds in the vault is free. Norway and GCDT pay to operate the vault. GCDT gets money from organisations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and from different governments worldwide.[8]
References
change- ↑ "Work begins on Arctic seed vault". BBC News. 19 June 2006. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ↑ Mellgren, Doug (27 February 2008). "'Doomsday' seed vault opens in Arctic". Associated Press. Retrieved 3 July 2011 – via MSNBC.
- ↑ "Svalbard Global Seed Vault: The Location". Regjeringen.no. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
- ↑ Charles, Daniel (23 June 2006). "A 'Forever' Seed Bank Takes Root in the Arctic". Science. 312 (5781): 1730–1731. doi:10.1126/science.312.5781.1730b. PMID 16794050. S2CID 34138995.
- ↑ Siebert, Charles (July 2011). "Food Ark". National Geographic. 220 (1): 108–131. OCLC 741814684. Archived from the original on 2011-06-19. Retrieved 2017-02-24.
- ↑ "What is NordGen?". Nordgen.org. Archived from the original on 30 January 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
- ↑ "Svalbard Global Seed Vault: Frequently Asked Questions". Regjeringen.no. Archived from the original on 21 October 2011. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ↑ "Donors". CropTrust.org. Archived from the original on 11 January 2015. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
Other websites
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