The Crop Trust Foundation, a partner in the project, announced on Wednesday that more than 30,000 samples coming from a record number of 23 organizations from 21 countries had joined the massive collection in the archipelago. Svalbard Norwegian.
Svalbard World Reserve aims For seeds Which is located in tunnels dug in a mountain a little more than a thousand kilometers away in the North Pole, to protect Biodiversity In anticipation of Disasters Natural, wars or Climate change And diseases.
Currently, the reserve, which was opened in 2008 thanks to Norwegian funding and consists of three cold, hard rooms, contains about 1.3 million samples that their owners can retrieve when they want, for purposes related to preservation.
Among the seeds added Tuesday were samples of 21 types of Palestinian origin (vegetables, millet, and herbs) provided by the Union of Local Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), a non-governmental association.
According to the Crop Trust Foundation, a new batch of seeds from… Sudanthe country experiencing war And famine also.
The foundation’s director, Stefan Schmitz, said: “Climate change and conflicts threaten infrastructure and affect… Food security For more than 700 million people in more than 75 countries in the world.”
“Genebanks are stepping up their efforts to protect seed collections, and we are proud to support them by providing a safe haven on Svalbard,” he added in a statement.
The seed reserve, far from conflict zones and located at an altitude that protects it from rising ocean levels, was designed to withstand disasters.
Its location under permafrost deep in the mountain ensures suitable thermal storage conditions, even in the event of a malfunction in the cooling system.