A strategic reserve is the reserve of a commodity or items that is held back from normal use by governments, organisations, or businesses in pursuance of a particular strategy or to cope with unexpected events.
A document issued by the US Department of Defense in 2005 defines a strategic reserve as follows: ''"An external reinforcing force which is not committed in advance to a specific Major Subordinate Command, but which can be deployed to any region for a mission decided at the time by the Major NATO Commander."''
There are several national and international projects aiming to preserve the existing natural wealth and diversity in case of mass extinction or a global catastrophe.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault facility, opened in 2008, focuses on collecting duplicate samples of plant seeds from all around the world and currently contains close to 1 million different agricultural seed samples. The final storage capacity is said to be 4.5 million seed samples.
Another such institution,
Frozen Ark, concentrates on DNA preservation of
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...
animal species for generations.
Types of strategic reserve
A strategic reserve can be:
* Financial in nature such as
ring-fenced funding or
capital reserves of a large corporation.
* A commodity, such as
intervention stocks of food or petrol (see
security of supply and
strategic petroleum reserves)
* Specific machinery, such as railroad cars or
steam locomotives
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomo ...
, to be used in an emergency situation.
Examples of commodity reserves:
*
Global strategic petroleum reserves
**
Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve
*
Strategic uranium reserves
*
National Helium Reserve
The National Helium Reserve, also known as the Federal Helium Reserve, is a strategic reserve of the United States holding over 1 billion cubic meters (109 m3) of helium gas. The helium is stored at the Cliffside Storage Facility about northwe ...
*
Strategic grain reserve
*
Gold reserve
A gold reserve is the gold held by a national central bank, intended mainly as a guarantee to redeem promises to pay depositors, note holders (e.g. paper money), or trading peers, during the eras of the gold standard, and also as a store o ...
*
International Strategic Reserve of the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers
*
Strategic National Stockpile
The Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), originally called the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile (NPS), is the United States' national repository of antibiotics, vaccines, chemical antidotes, antitoxins, and other critical medical supplies. Its ...
– medical supplies in the U.S.
Certain countries create their own unusual strategic reserves of food or commodities they value the most, such as cotton, butter, pork, raisins or even maple syrup.
Energy strategic reserves
Strategic reserve can be also applied as an economic instrument in order to stabilize investments in a specific industry and provide sufficient investment incentive
as described in the following example. This time the strategic reserve is defined as a set of power plants or interruptible demand contracts, all controlled by the TSO (transmission system operator), that can be used during temporary lack electricity. The strategic reserve does not necessarily mean a change of available generation capacity, the TSO only takes the control over certain power plants or even averts some power stations from being decommissioned. The activation of such a strategic reserve due to shortage of generation volume at prices above the variable costs of the generation units can lead to a rise of the average electricity price and therefore spark more investments into the generation capacity sector, the main market purpose of the strategic reserve here consists of securing a corresponding investment incentive.
One of the main European TSO's is a Belgian company
Elia, that operates in Belgium and Germany.
References
{{Reflist
Strategy
Inventory
Disaster preparedness