The Svalbard Global Seed Vault

It is a secure seed bank on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago.

Conservationist Cary Fowler, in association with CGIAR, started the vault to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds that are duplicate samples, or "spare" copies, of seeds held in gene banks worldwide.

The seed vault is an attempt to ensure against the loss of seeds in other genebanks during large-scale regional or global crises. The seed vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement among the Norwegian government, the Crop Trust, & the Nordic Genetic Resource Center