Economy of Svalbard

[4] Agriculture in Svalbard – the archipelago containing the world's northernmost permanently inhabited settlements – has a short history, and remains a minor economic factor, but has nonetheless had a culturally and socially significant role, as well as an ecologic impact.

Svalbard is home to the Global Seed Vault, which serves to protect the world's biological and agricultural diversity.

[7] Establishing a brewery on the Svalbard archipelago required a change of Norwegian law, which prohibited commercial production of alcoholic beverages there until 2014.

The islands are, unlike the Norwegian Antarctic territories, part of the Kingdom of Norway and not a dependency.

Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani, a subsidiary of the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry, operates Svea Nord in Sveagruva and Mine 7 in Longyearbyen.

There have previously been performed test drilling for petroleum on land, but these did not give satisfactory results for permanent operation.

The Norwegian authorities do not allow offshore petroleum activities for environmental reasons, and the land formerly test-drilled on has been protected as natural reserves or national parks.

[1] The world's northernmost blues festival, Dark Season Blues, is an annual event in late October in Longyearbyen, and marks the beginning of the dark season when daylight and the sun is about to leave Svalbard for four long winter months.

[14] The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) in Longyearbyen was established in 1993 and offers undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate courses to 350 students.

A cooperation between the Government of Norway and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the vault is cut into rock near Longyearbyen, keeping it at a natural −6 °C (21 °F) and refrigerating the seeds to −18 °C (0 °F).

Off-road motorized transport is prohibited on bare ground, but snowmobiles are used extensively during winter—both for commercial and recreational activities.

[22] There are heliports in Barentsburg and Pyramiden, and helicopters are frequently used by the governor and to a lesser extent Arktikugol.