"For me, seeds are about hope,” Ubalijoro said. “They’re about moving beyond survival, particularly when you come from places that have gone through really difficult times. When I think of my country of Rwanda and what happened in 1994, seed banks were critical when it came to rebuilding after the genocide.”
Can anyone elaborate on this? Why were seed banks so important after their genocide?
Whethers its because fields and granaries are burnt down, or because crops and seeds are eaten due to food shortages, during war or other disasters, seeds and crops can get lost. You might think you could just import seeds from abroad, and of course you can, but the problem is that those seeds are not accustomed to your local conditions like climate, soil, pests, etc. Local seeds have a higher chance of a succesfull harvest.
Thanks for sharing. I need positive conservation news to keep me sane.
I wonder what the power source for that vault is.
I don’t have a source, but I seem to recall it’s some form of geothermal.
What would they need power for?
I don’t know what the conditions are inside, but I’m assuming that people need light in there to work, and that if it’s designed to be disaster or attack resistant, there would be a need for climate control, ventilation and flooding mitigation. I get that the venue is chosen because it should keep everything frozen and preserved, it just depends how fragile / robust they’ve built it.
But I wondered because I can see light coming from inside and it looks like there’s a fancy light show on it.
Isn’t that the vault that is unstable as we underestimated climate change?
It is still one of our best bets which are somewhat publically accessible (as far as I understand)
Yes, if we don’t have need of the seeds within about a hundred years they’ll all be lost.
