Brazil's Seed Networks

The Redário platform is “the national network of the seed networks” in Brazil. This platform provides instruments to co-produce communication channels and facilitate practices to advance restoration activities. This national network assists knowledge sharing between different organizations and actors by using digital technologies, including collaborative platforms and apps for seed supply planning, management, and commercialization.

The Arboretum is a forest restoration program that brings stakeholders together for seed collection, seedling production and restoration actions. The program is located in the middle of the Atlantic Forest Biome, between the South of the state of Bahia and the north of the state of Espírito Santo. This action was proposed by the Brazilian Forest Service in 2010 with the support of IBAMA using funding from fines applied to a forestry company.

The program has a Forest Conservation and Restoration Base, including a herbarium, seed laboratory, seed storage chambers, and seedling nursery.

The collaboration of multiple stakeholders resulted in the creation of the Cerrado de Pé Seed Collectors Association in 2012. This community-led seed supplier engages more than 60 households in 8 communities in Central Brazil. This network has advanced seed technologies and practices to supply diverse plant species for scaling-up restoration in the Cerrado region, including commonly neglected native grasses, forbs, and shrubs. The commercialization arrangements are supported by the Cerrado Seed Network which connects local seed collection groups with several regional restoration demands.

Learn more about the Cerrado de Pé and the Cerrado Seed Network.

The Xingu Seed Network is the largest native seed supplier in Brazil with a commercial production system (over 25 tonnes yearly) capable of contributing to meeting regional market demand in southeastern Amazonia. The community-based initiative was established in 2007 in a region with a high deforestation rate due to a history of intense and violent social conflicts between agricultural interests and Indigenous communities in the Amazon agrarian frontier.

Over more than one decade, the Xingu network has engaged more than 568 collectors and has created about US$ 1.4 million as household income. Local knowledge practices play a key role in promoting place-specific arrangements for collecting seeds of 220 native species, respecting sociocultural relations with the territories.

The Xingu network has helped stimulate demand for the native seeds that are offering new economic development opportunities for local communities, and the restoration experience in Xingu has been further shared and adopted elsewhere in Brazil, simulating the implementation of national restoration targets.

Check out more information on the Xingu Seed Network's webpage, or listen to our radio episode with Claudia Araújo.