Thousands of seeds from native African tree species and indigenous varieties of crops have been deposited in the cold, dry rock vaults of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the permafrost of northern Norway.

Established by the Norwegian government and opened in 2008, the vault provides backup storage for countries’ own seed banks. Its purpose is to safeguard biodiversity, build climate resilience and preserve crop diversity. It receives deposits three times a year. The latest African deposit was made at the end of February through the World Agroforestry Center (CIFOR-ICRAF), based in Nairobi. A total of 120,000 seeds from 13 African tree species, including the baobab, Adansonia digitata and white acacia, Faidherbia albida, were deposited in the icy chambers.

This year’s deposit was CIFOR_ICRAF’s seventh since 2008, bringing the total to more than 1.1 million seeds from 177 African species, including a deposit of ancient sorghum varieties rescued from Sudan’s national genebank. According to the Crop Trust, a German-based NGO that focuses on preserving food crop diversity, ancient sorghum is significant to Sudan’s food security and cultural heritage. It was at risk after the Sudanese national gene bank, that had conserved more than 17,000 seeds, was raided and its freezers looted during the country’s ongoing civil war.