Seeds of Norway spruce and Scots pine from the Nordic countries were brought into the seed vault at Svalbard by Dan Jørgensen, Sven-Erik Bucht and Sylvi Listhaug, Ministers of Food and Agriculture in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
The work on conservation of forest tree seeds at Svalbard was initiated in 2008 when the Nordic Ministers responsible for forests met at Selfoss, Iceland. Here, the so called Selfoss-declaration was conceived, where the importance of tree‐breeding, including genetic adaptation to climate change was underlined, and the preparation of storing forest seeds in the permafrost had started.
Conservation of forests is the backbone in conservation of genetic variation in forest trees. Deposit of seeds at Svalbard adds a new layer to gene resource conservation and gives the possibility of monitoring genetic changes in natural forests and breeding populations, using the Svalbard seed as a reference.
Deposit of forest tree seeds at Svalbard is also a political recognition of the fundamental importance of forest trees for nature and society, for genetic variation, and reflects expectations to forest and wood-based products in the future bioeconomy.
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