The seed bank is the initiative of the Norwegian government, which provided the six million euros for its construction, and of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which is affiliated to the United Nations and led the planning and design of the complex. The Gates Foundation donated half a million euros to help developing countries and international agrarian research centres provide seeds for the project.
Biodiversity
The aim of the seed bank is not only the preservation of biodiversity, but also the protection of the world's food stocks. Roel Hoekstra is curator of the Dutch Gene Bank, one of the first national seed banks which is allowing Spitsbergen to store a duplicate of its collection. He explains why the world needs the Svalbard Global Seed Vault:
"Many countries' seed banks are kept in poor conditions. Samples are often not able to be preserved at minus 18 degrees Celsius, the required temperature. The seeds banks are sometimes located in war zones and risk being destroyed. If they have deposited duplications of their collections in a safe place, they can always restock after a catastrophe."
Nuclear shelter
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault makes one think of a nuclear shelter, completely disaster-resistant. It would be affected by neither explosions nor radiation: the entrance tunnel is just under 100 metres long! What's more, the construction is housed in an earthquake-proof sandstone mountain. Thorough geological research has shown the area to be free of any kind of seismic activity.
Sea level
Rising sea levels have also been considered. The cavern is about 120 metres above sea level: even were the entire polar ice caps to melt, its entrance would remain dry. The 
A final safety measure is the local sourcing of coal to provide energy for the refrigeration equipment which keeps the temperature in the complex at between minus 20 degrees and minus 30 degrees Celsius. This rules out the risks involved in gas or oil being supplied from elsewhere.
One thousand years
Before its construction, research had demonstrated that the vault could preserve seeds from the most important food crops for hundreds of years and a number of varieties of grain for more than 1,000 years. It is estimated that one and a half million different sorts of seeds are being kept in national collections worldwide. How many of these specimens will end up in the vault in Spitsbergen depends on how many countries take part in the project. There is, in any event, no shortage of room in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault: it can store no less than four and a half million specimens.
* RNW translation (mw)
Tags: biodiversity, Dutch Gene Bank, Gates Foundation, Global Seed Vault, Norway, seeds, Spitsbergen, Svalbard