Ecowatch: Safeguarding Malaysia’s heritage seeds

The futuristic-looking Svalbard Global Seed Vault is built into the permafrost, which keeps its temperature naturally at 18°C without any need for powered cooling. — Mardi

MALAYSIA has successfully deposited heritage seeds and traditional varieties of plants, including rice, eggplant, and long beans at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on Longyearbyen Island, Norway.

According to a Facebook post by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) on March 1, 2025, the initiative is part of the Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development (BOLD) Project, funded by Crop Trust, an international nonprofit organisation known officially as the Global Crop Diversity Trust which conserves the world’s crop diversity for food security.