Nature & Environment

Svalbard's 'Doomsday Vault' still going strong with 7,800 new additions

By T.K. Randall
February 27, 2026 ·  13 comments

Image: Svalbard Seed Vault
Credit: Einar Jorgen Haraldseid / CC BY-SA 2.0 (adapted) Built in 2008 around 810 miles from the North Pole, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is an underground depository that preserves food crop seed samples in case of a global disaster.

While it hasn't featured in the news as much in recent years, the vault is still going strong, with the depository now boasting an impressive 1,386,102 types of seeds.

Most recently, 7,800 new seeds were added including olives from Spain, grains from Africa and crops from Guatemala.

The seeds are kept underground at a temperature of -18 degrees Celsius.

"Backing up seeds in Svalbard is one of the easiest and most effective steps the world can take to protect the foundation of agriculture," said Crop Trust Executive Director Dr Stefan Schmitz.The vault had previously reached the milestone of 1,000,000 seeds just before its 10th anniversary in 2018.

"Hitting the million mark is really significant," senior scientist Hannes Dempewolf said at the time.

"Only a few years back I don't think we would have thought that we would get there."

Eventually, the total number of seed varieties stored at the vault could exceed two million.

"The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is an iconic reminder of the remarkable conservation effort that is taking place every day, around the world and around the clock - an effort to conserve the seeds of our food crops," said former Crop Trust executive director Marie Haga.

Source: Mail Online | Comments (13)

Tags: Svalbard