To All Nations and Corporations of Mundus
In recent years we have seen just how quickly the world can change. With global warming, natural disasters, man made tragedies and various other threats to the world we put ever growing pressure on our ecosystems. During the tragedy that befell Uppsala we saw the loss of the Nordic Seed Bank, one of the worlds largest depositories of genetic seed material designed to ensure the long term diversification of genetic groups, many of which we depend upon for our food. With this in mind we have completed the construction of a new seed bank for our nation, the Jaholm Seed Bank, however with thought of a future global tragedy we have made it far bigger than it needs to be for our own nations use. It is with this in mind we propose that the Jaholm Seed Bank become a backup of national seed banks, and thereby becomes the worlds largest collection of seeds. We therefore propose to form the Global Seed Bank Organisation (GSBO)
The vault is state of the art and built into a mountainside in a former mine shaft, the vault is "Doomsday Proof" and temperature controlled to ensure that seeds can be stored for extensive periods of time with little worry. We shall offer use of the Seed Bank to all corporations and nations who agree to abide by our organisations charter.
We look forward to working with the world in order to preserve our planet and who knows some of these seeds may one day find themselves taking their species into the stars.
Dr.Ulf Gren
Manager of the GSBO
Aims of the GSBO
1. To preserve for future generations genetic diversity in plant and crops species.
2. To reference the seeds of Mundus
3. To create a fall back collection of seeds for use after natural disasters.
In Order to achieve this the following is agreed.
1. The GSBO HQ in Jaholm shall be the propery of the Nya Åland government. They shall assume all maintainence and upkeep costs.
2. Any national government willing to abide by this charter is permitted to store seeds at the facility without fee.
3. Any corporation willing to abide by this charter is permitted to store seeds at the facility for a fee of $1 per seed per year.
4. Any seeds stored within the facility shall remain the property of the nation or corporation who deposited them.
5. The Global Seed Bank Organisation reserves the right to access 5% of any nation or corporations seeds. These may only be used for non-profit purposes.
6. No genetically modified seeds may be stored at the facility.
7. All seeds shall be stored in batches of approximately 100 in specially designed test tubes. These shall be vacuum packed inside foil containers and stored at temperatures below -18 degrees Celsius.
8. Batches of seeds may be of any size wished by their owners however may not exceed more than 1000 of any one type per nation/corporation.
9. A nation/corporation may withdraw their seeds at any time by sending a representative with a written request to the facility.
10. The GSBO shall maintain a list of which seeds are stored at the facility in the public domain. This list will not however declare who owns the seeds.
11. The GSBO will facilitate requests from researchers to access the samples stored. No seeds will be released for study however without consent from their owner.
