The global seed shelter (SGF), which was established at a height of 130 meters on Swalbard Island in the north of Norway, continues to be the insurance against the disaster scenarios of humanity by backing up the 13,000 -year -old agricultural heritage. With more than 1 million 355 thousand seeds, shelter, which is the world’s largest gene bank, is equipped to protect the agricultural diversity against the risk of wars, climate crisis and natural disaster for centuries. As in the past, as in the Syrian Civil War in the past, SGF offers a unique assurance for humanity by playing a critical role in revitalizing the disappeared agricultural resources. There are examples from Türkiye in the shelter. Here are the details of the shelter that will be the hope of people in a global food crisis.
1 million 355 thousand seeds
The Svalbard Global Seed Shelter (SGF) is hidden at a height of 130 meters on Spitsbergen Island of Norway in the world’s northernmost Norway. The shelter contains more than 1.3 million seed samples than 13 thousand years of agriculture history. The shelter, which was opened in 2008 and established by the Norwegian government with 45 million crown investments (4 million 475 thousand dollars), aims to back up against natural disaster, war, sabotage, technical fault, fund deduction and other disasters. The shelter is also known as the seed bank to keep humanity alive if agriculture disappears. As of 2025, 1 million 355 thousand 591 different seeds in the shelter are protected in natural biological environments.
Black box protocol
The Svalbard Seed Shelter is ruled by a tripartite agreement between the Norwegian Government, the Global Plant Diversity Foundation (Crop Trust) and the Scandinavian Genetic Resources Center (Nordgen). The ownership of the stored seeds can only access sender gene banks to the seeds of the country or institutions that send them completely. The “Black Box” protocol is valid in the system; In other words, the Norwegian shelter operates, but the legal ownership of the seeds does not change.
Safety for centuries
The first experimental storage in a former coal mine in Svalbard, which started in 1984, became official in 2004 with the entry into force of the International Plant Genetic Resources Agreement. Started in 2006 and The shelter opened in 2008 hides the seeds of -18 degrees in three -storey aluminum bags, in an environment where oxygen is limited. Thanks to Spitsbergen’s earthquake risk and permanent frost layer (permafrost), the shelter can maintain low temperature protection for centuries, even if there is a power outage. Norway undertakes all construction costs and maintenance of the shelter.
Art Work Architecture
The 130 -meter height of the SGF was chosen to protect the facility at sea level. The polar light, which has a fiberoptic structure and is accepted as a work of art in architecture, reflects the polar light from the roof to its entrance to the place of the shelter can remain visible even miles away.
The biggest support from Mexico
Species stored in the shelter; It covers a wide range of fundamental grains such as wheat, rice and corn to potatoes, legumes and local plants. Mexico (with 187 thousand examples) and Philippines (with 133 thousand examples). US National Plant Gene Resources System stands out with 157 thousand, Germany 69 thousand and Canada with 35 thousand examples. In SGF, seed samples are also stored from Türkiye.
Used in Syria
In 2015, SGF was actually used for the Syrian civil war in 2015. The International Agricultural Research Center (ICARDA), headquartered in Beirut, headquartered in Lebanon, lost the gene bank in Aleppo at this time, pulled the spare seeds in Svalbard and put it into reproduction in Lebanon and Morocco.
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