Can we have leadership without a leader? With the right ideas and ideals, yes.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway received on October 22, 2024 a deposit of more than 30,000 new seed samples from 21 countries, including seven international genebanks. This deposit is huge in scope and brings to light the urgency of the global effort to conserve crop diversity in the face of escalating climate change, anthropogenic conflicts, and other crises. Svalbard is the focal point of this initiative.
Where and what is Svalbard?
It’s likely you’ve never heard of Svalbard. Eighteen of the 20 adults I surveyed didn’t. (They were, incidentally, 13 Americans, four EU citizens, two Asians, and one South American. The two who knew were Europeans, One, an American, was sure she knew it was a cheese and one other European thought it was a soccer club.) Yet very quietly, Svalbard holds a position of immense import to, literally, every human on this planet and every human to come, not to mention other herbivores.
Located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago, the Seed Vault provides long-term storage for duplicates of seeds from around the world, conserved in what are known as genebanks. There are some 1,700 genebanks around the globe; Svalbard is the largest repository of all.
The urgency of species extinction
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reports that around 40% of plant species globally are currently considered at risk of extinction, classified as critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable. Factors such as habitat loss, climate change, over-exploitation, invasive species, and pollution are identified as chief causes.
Studies suggest that plant species are going extinct at approximately 500 times the natural or background rate of extinction. This has become known as the “global extinction crisis,” in which plants are disappearing far more rapidly than they would naturally, largely due to human activity.
Svalbard: An abridged chronology
The idea was first discussed in the 1980s in Norway. In 1984, the Nordic Gene Bank (now NordGen) had established a back-up seed storage facility in an abandoned coal mine. In 2001, negotiations led to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and that led to to signatures by national governments.
The Seed Vault was opened in February 2008 in the presence of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway, President José Manuel Barroso of the European Union, Director-General Jacques Diouf of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai.
When Svalbard began operations, it housed seeds of 320,549 species. As of May 2024, the Seed Vault conserves 1,280,677 accessions – quadruple the initial amount – representing more than 13,000 years of agricultural history.
Whose idea was Svaldbard?
Who thought this up? Who was the pioneer? Who led us to and through Svalbard? Casual research will not uncover that or those name or names, which is exactly the point here. But under the approving eye and the guiding hand of royalty, diplomacy, and science – on a truly global basis – we find ourselves recognizing a genuinely great idea and following the leadership not of a leader but of a lofty ideal.
The answer to the opening question above is yes.