"Chile Vicuna, the birthplace of Chile's first Nobel Laureate, writer Gabriela Mistral, is a dusty little town in the north of the country with colourful facades and cracked cobblestone squares. The breeze fans its streets, billowing curtains out across empty sidewalks, and street sellers shrink away from the oppressive desert heat, taking their jams and sugar-coated papaya slivers into the shade of covered markets."
""The most important thing for a seed bank is to be away from large populations, because the idea is to save the seeds from catastrophes like wars, among other things," said Ana Sandoval, a researcher who has worked at the center for more than a decade. "That's why we're in a remote place, far from big cities, near a little town." The thick concrete walls are earthquake-proof, and the seeds are stored in a walk-in freezer, kept at -4 degrees Fahrenheit and 15% humidity."
Vicuna in northern Chile is a small, dusty town near the Atacama Desert with colourful facades, cracked cobblestone squares, and quiet markets. A few miles outside the town a research facility called the Initihuasi seed bank is dug into a hillside and camouflaged against a reddish-brown slope. The facility stores Chile's flora under strict conditions: earthquake-proof concrete, aluminum pouches, and a walk-in freezer at -4°F and 15% humidity. Researchers collect and preserve seeds, including specimens once declared extinct and rediscovered wild plants. The bank aims to safeguard plant diversity from catastrophes and long-term loss.
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