This provides security of the world's food supply against the loss of seeds in genebanks due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, war, sabotage, disease, and natural disasters.

The Seed Vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement among the Norwegian government, the Crop Trust, and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).

[9] A team led by conservationist Cary Fowler actively campaigned for the development of the Seed Vault and approached the Norwegian Government.

[9] The FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture endorsed the initiative[12] and in October 2004 the Norwegian Government committed to fund the Seed Vault and begin the construction.

[15] As of this anniversary, the Seed Vault contained samples from approximately one-third of the world's most important food crop varieties.

[17] Also as part of the anniversary, experts on food production and climate change met for a three-day conference in Longyearbyen.

In October 2016, the Seed Vault experienced an unusually large degree of water intrusion due to higher than average temperatures and heavy rainfall.

[30] Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland's prime ministers ceremonially laid "the first stone" on 19 June 2006.

[1] The seed bank is 130 m (430 ft) inside a sandstone mountain on Spitsbergen Island,[31] and employs robust security systems.

[31] Locally mined coal provides power for refrigeration units that further cool the seeds to the internationally recommended standard of −18 °C (−0.4 °F).

[32] If the equipment fails, at least several weeks will elapse before the facility rises to the surrounding sandstone bedrock's temperature of −3 °C (27 °F),[5] and is estimated to take two centuries to warm to 0 °C (32 °F).

[34] Running the length of the facility's roof and down the front face to the entryway is an illuminated artwork named Perpetual Repercussion by Norwegian artist Dyveke Sanne that marks the location of the vault from a distance.

KORO, the Norwegian State agency overseeing art in public spaces, engaged the artist to propose an artwork for the Seed Vault.

While the popular press has emphasized its possible utility in the event of a major regional or global catastrophe, the Seed Vault will be more frequently accessed when genebanks lose samples due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, and natural disasters.

[33] According to The Economist, "the Svalbard vault is a backup for the world's 1,750 seed banks, storehouses of agricultural biodiversity.

[37] The adjacent Arctic World Archive provides a similar service for data, which is etched as code into reels of film.

[38] The Seed Vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement among the Norwegian Government, the Crop Trust, and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).

The samples stored in the genebanks will, in most cases, be accessible in accordance with the terms and conditions of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, approved by 148 countries or parties.

[52] The seeds are stored in sealed three-ply foil packages and then placed into plastic tote containers on metal shelving racks.

[54][43] Initially the Seed Vault would have some minor water intrusion at its entrance during the annual spring permafrost thawing.

The Crop Trust provides most of the annual operating costs for the facility and has set aside an endowment fund to do so,[57] while the Norwegian government finances upkeep of the structure itself.

[70] In 2020, the Cherokee Nation became the first US tribe to deposit when it safeguarded nine samples of heirloom food crops which predate European colonization.