Norwegian government has built and maintains
a seed vault One thousand miles north of mainland Norway. Seeds are sent from all over the world.
"All seeds stored in the Seed Vault remain the property of the country
or institution which sent them. There is no change of ownership;
though, in any case, any seeds accepted for storage at the Vault must
be freely available under the terms of the
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources.
In other words, there are no seeds stored at the Seed Vault which would
not be easily accessible simply by directly contacting the genebank
which sent them.
These institutions send their seed collections to the Seed Vault in
order to benefit from the safety and insurance this provides - storing
seeds in the Vault is entirely free to them, and voluntary. The
depositing institution signs a
contract
with NordGen, the genetic resource centre of the Nordic countries,
which is responsible for the management of the Vault. Neither the
managers of the Seed Vault, Norway, the Trust, nor anyone else has any
right even to open the boxes in which the seeds arrive and are stored.
Information about which countries have sent seeds, and the seeds which
are already stored in the Vault, is all public.
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