Which Norwegian island is home to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault?

Spitsbergen is the Norwegian island home to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

The vault lies near Longyearbyen, the largest settlement in Svalbard, on Spitsbergen. It opened in 2008 as a secure backup facility for seeds held in gene banks around the world. The collection is intended to safeguard crop diversity against war, disasters, climate threats, and failures at individual seed banks.

The facility is built into a mountain and uses the permanently cold Arctic environment as part of its protection system, with artificial cooling providing additional security. Svalbard is an archipelago, not a single island, and Spitsbergen is its largest island. A common mistake is to call the island Svalbard; Svalbard is the territory, while Spitsbergen is the specific island.