Presentation by: Marie Haga SESSION I: PLENARY – OPENING AND INTRODUCTION 1.2 Opening keynotes

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The Svalbard Global Seed Vault
A Lifesaver in the Arctic

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Longyearbyen, Svalbard

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A bigger picture…

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World Population Growth
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Climate Change
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People fed per
hectare
1960
2 people
2005
> 4 people
2030
> 5 people
Increasing Pressure
on Land
Land
Degradation
Urbanization
Alternative uses: Biofuel

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Produce more food
More nutritious food
On less land
With less water
The Challenge Ahead
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With less pesticides
With less fertilizer
With less environmental With less
water
footprint

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It starts with a seed…

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…millions of varieties

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• Natural diversity as a raw
material for crop improvement
via traditional breeding
• Several million crop
varieties worldwide (cultivars,
traditional landraces, wild
relatives)
The Importance of
Crop Diversity
ALL are important because ONE might have
the trait to adapt to a changing climate,
increase nutritious value, fight disease, or
produce higher yields
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CROP
IS A PREREQUISITE FOR FOOD SECURITY
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Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition,
and promote sustainable agriculture
2.5: By 2020 maintain genetic diversity of seeds, cultivated plants, farmed and
domesticated animals and their related wild species, including through soundly managed and
diversified seed and plant banks at national, regional and international levels, and ensure
access to and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic
resources and associated traditional knowledge as internationally agreed
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
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• China lost - 90% of rice varieties since 1950
• Mexico lost - 80% of corn varieties since 1900
• India lost - 90% of rice varieties since 1900
• USA lost - 90% of fruit and vegetable varieties since 1900
• …..
Diversity Already Lost
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We can’t retrieve what we have
lost, but we can protect what
we have - and make it available.
Collecting Crops in
Genebanks 25
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Collected from our farmer’s fields…

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…and collected naturally in the wild

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Collected and sorted

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Which are then grown out

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Or bred to withstand climatic changes

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Duplicates made

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Shared with farmers

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To improve productivity

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…and improve resistance to drought and
disease

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…or improve taste

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…and to be
conserved
forever in
genebanks

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A cost-effective, rational,
and global system for the
conservation of crop diversity.
The Global System has three
pillars.
The Objective
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• More than 750,000 varieties
held in trust for the
international communities
• 11 collections worldwide
The International
Collections

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International Genebanks
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• National and regional
collections of global
significance
National Collections

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• Information on each variety
can be used to breed better
crops
• Sharing and making this data
available is tricky and needs
to be done well
Data

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The Svalbard Global Seed Vault
• A safety backup of the
world’s crop collections
• The insurance plan for
collections globally
A Global Backup

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We need backups
Fire, Philippines National Genebank

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Duplicates are prepared

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… and put in boxes

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Maize and Wheat
The Maize and Wheat Improvement Center

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Rice
The International Rice Research Institute

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Beans
The International Center for Tropical Agriculture

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Shipped to Svalbard

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Scanned for security
purposes

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Brought to the vault

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Deep inside the mountain

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Placed on the shelves

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…and safeguarded forever.

56. THANK YOU
WWW.CROPTRUST.ORG
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