SVALBARD GENE BANK - ‘DOOMSDAY SEED VAULT’

Dr Suman Sahai examining the agro biodiversity collection inside the Seed Vault of the Svalbard Gene Bank in the Arctic. Svalbard is the Norwegian Government’s effort to conserve the genetic diversity of the crop plants of the world in a ‘Doomsday Seed Vault’ in the permafrost region, located in Longyearbyen, at 78 degrees North , in the Arctic region.

The Svalbard Gene Bank was set up in February 2008 and the first anniversary of the Bank was celebrated by a high level international symposium on 26 February 2009, to focus on the importance of agro biodiversity to global food security. Dr Sahai was invited to present Gene Campaign’s work on conserving agro biodiversity in Zero Energy Village level Gene-Seed Banks. Photo credit: Aftenposten, 8 March 2009