In February 2020, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault welcomes over 60,000 unique seed deposits from 35 seed-saving institutions for safekeeping. Out of the 35 institutions, seven will make their first-ever deposit—including the Cherokee Nation, which represents the first Native American tribe to store its biodiverse seeds in Norwegian facility.
“This group of depositors is nearly as diverse as the seeds in their shipments,” says Cierra Martin, Spokesperson for the Crop Trust. “This is the largest number of depositors to send seeds at one time since the Seed Vault opened in 2008.”