Ukraine safeguards seeds in Arctic vault amid war
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Ukraine deposited 773 seed samples in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located in Norway, to protect its biodiversity from damage caused by the ongoing war with Russia.
The Svalbard vault, buried in tunnels under a mountain over 1,000 kilometers from the North Pole, serves as a global repository aiming to preserve plant genetic diversity against disasters.
Ukraine, known as the “breadbasket of Europe,” holds a significant genetic collection of 154,000 samples representing around 2,000 species, but its primary gene bank in Kharkiv suffered damage from Russian shelling. The country moved to bolster its seed preservation by sending samples to the Svalbard vault, which now holds over 1.4 million samples in three cold chambers. The vault is designed to withstand disasters, including climate change and equipment failure, due to its location in permafrost.
Though the vault experienced water infiltration in 2016, necessitating 20 million euros in repairs, it remains a crucial resource for safeguarding plant life.
