Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/norwegian-arctic-islands-hold-biodiversity-bank Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript A vault in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, contains samples of the world's most important seeds, protecting the world's biodiversity in the event of a major disaster. Independent Television News reports on the project. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: And finally tonight, another in our reports from the Arctic. Under the deep permafrost is a newly constructed vault containing every variety of seed from around the world. Tom Clarke of Independent Television News reports from the Norwegian Arctic islands. TOM CLARKE, ITV News Correspondent: Not much grows in the high Arctic, and what does ekes out a meager living during this short summer just a few hundred miles from the North Pole. But the very fact this landscape is frozen is why it's been chosen as the home of a global effort to protect the plants we're most directly dependent on for food.Carved into this mountain on the island of Spitzburgen is the entrance to a seed bank. At the end of this tunnel blasted out of frozen rock, three giant vaults are taking shape. Why here? Because it's cold and it's safe. DAG RINDAL BROX, Project Manager, Global Feed Bank: It's permafrost here, so you can store the seeds in minus 40 degrees Celsius. Temperatures will never rise beyond it. And it's an island that is a neutral island and that you know everybody who comes here will either come by plane or you come by boat. So you know every people who come up here.