Since 2008, CIFOR-ICRAF has duplicated tree genetic resources in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, and its total deposits there exceeded 1.1 million seeds from 177 species after a 25 February 2025 deposit of 120,000 seeds from 13 native African tree species, including baobab; the organization describes this as its latest contribution to a backup system in Arctic permafrost designed to safeguard biodiversity.[4][6] The related CIFOR-ICRAF tree genebank also reports 1,954 accessions representing 197 agroforestry tree species deposited at Svalbard.[5]
The technical significance for the Ark is that this is not just storage of crop staples but of tree genetic diversity, including species adapted to African restoration, biodiversity recovery, and climate adaptation; these are high-value assets for post-disaster ecological reconstruction and resilient land-use systems.[1][2][4] Svalbard’s role as a backup facility for external seed banks shows a layered redundancy model that the Ark should mirror: geographically isolated, cold-stored, and duplicated across institutions to reduce single-point failure.[6][7]
Ark priorities are to track which tree species are being safety duplicated, especially recalcitrant or hard-to-store taxa, and to study the preservation constraints implied by seed biology, regeneration cycles, and duplication logistics.[13] The Ark should also integrate a policy for continuous accession refresh, cross-site duplication, and targeted capture of species with restoration value, because CIFOR-ICRAF’s program shows that long-horizon resilience depends on repeated deposits, not one-time archiving.[4][6]