Longyearbyen (AFP)
Primroses of Prince Charles, sacred corn of the Cherokee Indians ... Nestled in the Arctic, the world's largest seed reserve welcomes on Tuesday a large shipment of seeds, a form of life insurance for biodiversity in the face of dangers, including climatic .
Owned by 36 regional and international institutions, more than 60,000 seed samples will join this "Noah's Ark" buried in a mountain near Longyearbyen, capital of the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard (Spitzbergen), 1,300 kilometers from the Pole North.
"As the pace of climate change and biodiversity loss increase, a new urgency is emerging in efforts to save food crops from extinction," said Stefan Schmitz, director of the Crop Trust, one of the partners of the project.
The ultimate safety net for some 1,700 genetic banks around the world, the Svalbard reserve aims to preserve plants capable of feeding a growing world population against the backdrop of climate change.
In the batch of seeds deposited at the end of the afternoon, there are staple crops such as Andean potatoes, wheat and rice, but also less common wild varieties such as the European apple tree.
The list of depositors includes the Cherokee nation, the first American Indians to abound the Svalbard reserve with seeds of beans, squash and corn, in particular corn said White Eagle, the most sacred variety in their eyes.
Prince Charles sent seeds of 27 wild plants, including primroses and orchids, collected in the meadows of Highgrove, his country residence.
"It has proven to be an exhausting and often demoralizing task to persuade people of the absolutely essential role played by all this diversity in maintaining vibrant and healthy ecosystems," said the Prince of Wales in a statement.
"It is more urgent than ever to act to protect this diversity before it is really too late," he added.
- A million varieties -
The new arrival will bring to 1.05 million the number of varieties stored at an optimal temperature of -18 ° C in three underground alcoves which can accommodate 4.5 million.
Outside, nothing betrays the presence of this vital granary for humanity, except its monumental entrance: emerging from the earth's entrails, two high gray walls surmounted by mirrors and metallic parts form a prism that stands out in the darkness of the polar winter.
Reaching two or three million samples "would be a good thing to make the future of human nutrition even more secure," Stefan Schmitz, bundled up to withstand the prevailing -16 ° C, told AFP. in Longyearbyen.
Inaugurated in 2008 thanks to Norwegian funding, the structure initially wanted to be a safeguard solution in the face of natural disasters, wars and the imperatives of men, which earned it the other nickname "vault of the Last Judgment".
If the message is now less alarmist, the usefulness of the reserve was bluntly highlighted by the Syrian conflict: the researchers were thus able to recover the duplicates of seeds disappeared in the destruction of the gene bank of the city of Aleppo.
More than 5,000 plant species are now stored on the Arctic archipelago where, paradoxically, almost nothing grows due to the high latitudes.
Another paradox, the vault supposed to be a parade against climate change has itself been the victim of global warming.
In 2016, it underwent water infiltration at the entrance tunnel due to the melting of the permafrost, this soil supposed to be permanently frozen but nevertheless victim that year of the rise in the thermometer.
Norway has since spent 20 million euros on works to increase the resistance of the reserve, in particular with a new sealed access tunnel, in an ever warmer and wetter environment.
Scientists say the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the entire planet.
© 2020 AFP