Zanimiva reportaža z otočja Svalbard, kjer je globoko v permaforstu posebna semenska banka (Svalbard Global Seed Vault), v kateri lahko države shranijo semena rastlin, ki jih uporabljamo za prehrano. Banke naj bi bila zmožna ohrani semena za prihodnje generacije tudi v primeru, če za dlje časa zmanjka elektrike, saj so temperature v banki vseskozi naravno zelo nizke.
Way up north, in the permafrost, 1300 kilometers beyond the Arctic Circle, is the world’s largest secure seed storage, opened by the Norwegian Government in February 2008. From all across the globe, crates of seeds are sent here for safe and secure long-term storage in cold and dry rock vaults.
Na policah banke so tako skupaj zaboji s semeni iz Severne Koreje, ZDA in Južne Koreje. Če vas zanima, kaj je v semensko banko shranila Slovenija, lahko pobrskate po javnem indeksu: Seed Portal of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Iz Slovenije je trenutno v banki shranjenih 18,627 semen:
| Country name | : | Slovenia |
| Country code | : | SVN |
| Continent name | : | Europe |
| Number of accessions | : | 46 |
| Number of seeds | : | 18,627 |
| Taxa | : | 16 |
| Genebanks | : | 7 |
Do prvega dviga semen iz banke je zaradi vojne v Siriji prišlo leta 2015. Raziskovalci so potrebovali semena, ki bi jih sicer po bolj običajni poti dobili iz semenske banke v Alepu, a je ta trenutno nedostopna, zato so jih naročili iz Svalbarda.
Researchers in the Middle East have now asked to withdraw a range of drought-resistant crop seeds, including wheat, barley, and grasses, from the vault. They would usually get these seeds from a facility in Aleppo, Syria, but even though the seeds are still there and safe in cold storage, the scientists are unable to access them as a result of damage to the surrounding buildings caused by the war.
… The request was made by the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), which was originally based in Aleppo. In 2012 the Centre moved to Beirut in Lebanon to escape the conflict, but they don’t have access to their seed supplies, which is why they’ve asked to withdraw 130 of the 325 boxes that they dropped off to the vault before the war.
(vir: The Syrian war has caused the first-ever withdrawal from the doomsday seed vault – ScienceAlert)
