Biodiversity's treasure chest

Svalbard belongs to Norway; the archipelago is about the size of Belgium and Switzerland combined. All that's visible are small, flattened hilltops. Trees? Forget about it! But the air is crystal clear, the sky deep blue. It's a breathtaking landscape. During summer, it's light out 24 hours a day - while in winter, it stays in darkness, and the temperature drops to minus 25 degrees Celsius.

Over the past few years, the region has become a hub for international Arctic research. Marine biologists, meteorologists, geologists, geophysicists and ice researchers carry out their scientific activities on and around Svalbard.

There are about 350 glaciers on Svalbard, but they have started to show signs of climate change: The summer ice cap may disappear completely by the end of this century. The number of fish and bird species that are not native to the region has risen. For example, mackerels from warmer parts of the ocean can nowadays be found near the Svalbard coast.

About 2,500 people live in Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard. The small village, with its colorful wooden houses, used to be a coal town - mining started there in 1906. Today, only a few remaining coal shafts bear witness to former industrial boom times.

What does remains is the massive logistical effort that comes with life on Svalbard: Every light bulb, every apple, every piece of steel needs to be flown in, or travel 950 kilometers by ship from the Norwegian mainland to the archipelago.

About a kilometer from Longyearbyen is the entrance to the treasure chest. From the outside, the only thing visible is a narrow concrete entrance that seems to grow out of the snow-capped mountain.

Behind the entrance is a tube-like tunnel, leading 120 meters slightly downhill into the earth. A shimmering silver wiring system, including cooling, is attached to the ceiling. The temperature in the tunnel remains at a constant minus 7 degrees Celsius - in summer and winter alike.

At the end of the tunnel is the door to the vault. The Arctic cold of Svalbard is supposed to serve as a natural protection for the seeds. The idea behind the seed vault is to have a backup for biodiversity - no one is sure how heavy loss of crop diversity might affect humankind.

Svalbard is an ideal storage place for seeds, for a number of reasons: Norway is not involved in any war. According to the Svalbard Treaty signed in 1920, Svalbard is a demilitarized zone. The region is geomorphically stable; there are no earthquakes or volcanoes. In addition, the seed vault is located 130 meters above sea level, which protects it from floods.

Three times a year, the place bustles with activity when seeds are delivered and stored inside the mountain. There's space for 4.5 million different types of crop plants, and about 500 seeds per species are storied in the vault. This means that there is room there for more than 2.25 billion seeds. At the moment, only one of three vaults is in use.

These seeds from Germany are stored in hermetically sealed aluminum packaging. At the moment, Svalbard is storing 865,000 seed samples covering 5,103 different plant species from all over the planet. From Afghanistan to the Central African Republic, the official catalog lists seeds from just about every country in the world.

Recently, for the first time in history, an organization reclaimed its seeds: After the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas in Aleppo, Syria, had been destroyed, it asked to get back grain seeds specially adapted to drylands farming. The organization reopened its headquarters in Beirut, and is trying to rebuild its seed stocks.