A deposit of seeds representing 19 African tree species — including the iconic baobab and the nitrogen-fixing Faidherbia albida — has been made to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault by the World Agroforestry Center (CIFOR-ICRAF). The deposit, made in February 2025 C.E., brings the institution’s total to 180 species stored in the Arctic vault, protecting irreplaceable genetic diversity against an uncertain future.
At a glance
- Svalbard Global Seed Vault: Located deep in Arctic permafrost on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, the vault now holds duplicates of 1.3 million seed samples from nearly every corner of the world.
- African tree species: Of the 19 species deposited, 13 are native to Africa — including the baobab (Adansonia digitata), which communities across the continent rely on for food, shelter, and habitat.
- Genetic diversity conservation: CIFOR-ICRAF scientists collected seeds from wild populations and farmers’ fields, often working with Indigenous groups and local seed networks to capture the full range of genetic variation within each species.
Why these trees matter
The baobab is one of Africa’s most recognized trees — its fruit and leaves are eaten across several countries, and its massive trunk creates microhabitats for birds, insects, and small mammals. But the deposit is not only about famous species.
Faidherbia albida may be less well known outside farming communities, but it is arguably just as valuable. Its roots fix nitrogen in the soil. Its leaves serve as fertilizer and livestock fodder. It can shade crops like coffee, provide fuel from its branches, and even offer seeds for food during the dry season — all from a single tree.
The six non-native species included in the deposit reflect how African communities and ecologies have adapted these trees into their own systems over generations, making them equally worth protecting.
The threat driving this work
Africa loses nearly 4 million hectares of forest every year to unsustainable harvesting and agricultural expansion, according to Ramni Jamnadass, principal scientist and senior adviser at CIFOR-ICRAF. Urbanization fragments remaining forest patches, and climate change shifts the zones where trees can viably grow.
“This combination threatens not just forest cover but genetic diversity itself, as localized adaptations and unique traits disappear with each lost population,” Jamnadass told Mongabay.
That distinction — between saving a species and saving genetic diversity within a species — is at the heart of this effort. Drought-tolerant ecotypes, disease-resistant landraces, trees adapted to specific soils: these traits are the product of both natural selection and traditional land management, often guided by Indigenous knowledge accumulated over many generations. Once a local population disappears, those adaptations cannot be recreated.
What makes Svalbard different
Community-level seed storage across Africa faces serious challenges. Abasse Tougiani, a researcher at Niger’s National Institute of Agronomic Research, has worked on multiple reforestation projects in the Sahel. He points out that traditional storage facilities often fail to maintain stable temperatures, reducing seed viability and germination rates over time.
Scientific institutions face their own pressures. High maintenance costs, continuous regeneration needs, and staffing requirements make long-term seed conservation difficult even for well-funded research centers.
The Svalbard vault addresses all of this. No power cuts. No temperature fluctuations. Regular viability checks. Nestled in permafrost designed to keep seeds frozen even in the event of a power failure, it offers a level of security that no local facility can match.
CIFOR-ICRAF was the first institution to deposit tropical tree seeds at Svalbard — a landmark in itself, given the vault’s original focus on agricultural crops. This latest deposit continues that mission, extending the safety net to trees that feed, shelter, and sustain communities across an entire continent.
An incomplete picture, but a meaningful one
Seed banking is not a substitute for protecting living forests. The genetic material stored in Svalbard is only useful if the knowledge, land, and ecosystems needed to restore these trees still exist — and in many places, those are under pressure too. The CIFOR-ICRAF team acknowledges that the vault complements, rather than replaces, on-the-ground research and reforestation work.
Still, as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault approaches 1.4 million samples stored, each new deposit represents a hedge against futures we cannot predict — and a recognition that the trees communities have cultivated and adapted over centuries are worth the effort to protect.
The collaboration with Indigenous groups and local seed networks in some of this work also points toward something important: the genetic wealth being preserved was, in many cases, shaped by those communities in the first place. Their knowledge and stewardship are part of what is being saved alongside the seeds themselves. Ensuring those communities benefit from any future use of this material remains an area where international frameworks are still catching up.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Mongabay
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Indigenous land rights recognition reaches 160 million hectares ahead of COP30
- U.K. cancer death rates fall to their lowest level on record
- The Good News for Humankind archive on biodiversity
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