By Laura Antoniazzi (Agroicone), Eduardo Malta Campos-Filho (Instituto Socioambiental – ISA), Daniel Luis Mascia Vieira (Embrapa Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia)
Direct seeding has expanded as a method for ecological restoration on degraded areas with low natural regeneration potential in Brazil. Results demonstrate ecological success and reduced costs, in addition to generating income and social opportunities for marginal communities that have preserved ecosystems and are now engaged in supplying seeds for a growing native seed market. In order to spread the use of this restoration strategy, a multiple-stakeholder initiative was created in 2019, focused on up-scaling adoption of the method and matching its growth with native seed production. Hence, we present the Seed Paths Initiative (Iniciativa Caminhos da Semente, in Portuguese), framing lessons learned and recommendations for structuring the seed production chain and expanding direct seeding adoption and its social benefits among restoration projects in Brazil.
Seeds for forest restoration in the Amazon, Mato Grosso state. Photo: Jeferson Prado/Caminhos da Semente.
Direct seeding is the method of sowing seeds in the field for restoration and ranges from direct seeding in pits, rows, or lines to broadcasting. In Brazil these techniques are popularly called “Muvuca de sementes” and have in common use of a mixture of high density of seeds of major functional/ecological groups (native and “green manure” exotics) sown in well prepared soil, pits, or lines. The method and its ecological outcomes are well documented in the literature (Campos-Filho et al. 2013; Freitas et al. 2019; Rodrigues et al. 2019). The main ecological advantage of a direct seeding compared to other methods is its similarity during development to naturally regenerating ecosystems in resilient areas. Direct seeded areas present high plant density across the entire successional spectrum from the very beginning and form forest structures with good size-class and niche heterogeneity. This enhances associated ecosystem services, such as carbon capture, biodiversity and pollination, as well as habitat for natural enemies. Thence comes the second major advantage, the acceleration of canopy closure, which reduces maintenance costs.
Young woman, member of the Xingu Seeds Network, collecting seeds in Diamantino, Mato Grosso. Photo: Jeferson Prado/Caminhos da Semente.
Direct seeding allows for simplified logistics, implementation, and maintenance, because it is similar to actual agricultural techniques and the same equipment may be used with little or no adaptation. In fact, landowners of different backgrounds and experiences can use the method with some adaptation for their context. Because farmers’ previous agricultural knowledge is relevant for direct seeding, their engagement in the planning and improving of restoration operations is enhanced. In comparison to transplanting seedlings, trees developing from direct seeding may have better-developed roots and resistance to drought. In addition, in these high density seedings, competition among individuals makes trees with taller trunks and, possibly, a selection of best fitted species and individuals to each ecological spot. On the other hand, direct seeding demands much more native seed per restored area.
Direct seeding broadcasting using a tractor and limer. Photo: Nina Jacobi/Caminhos da Semente.
A greater demand for native seeds can create social and economic opportunities for individuals with different capital and sociocultural backgrounds. Participation in the seed market has empowered women in Brazil, especially in indigenous communities, because native seed collection and processing are entirely compatible with the skills and traditional responsibilities of these women and represents a source of income for them. It also reflects on the health and nutrition of their families, largely due to improved diets and the addition of fruit pulp, a by-product of collecting seeds (Urzedo et al. 2015).
The potential for income generation from conserved ecosystems by seed collecting communities, is one of the brighter economic and social benefits of this restoration strategy. Organizing, collecting, and marketing seeds fosters new productive social and local arrangements and contributes to the sustainable social and economic development of marginalized populations, such as indigenous, riverine, quilombola (Maroon), periurban and other households surrounded by native environments. Traditional knowledge is valued together with scientific knowledge, resulting in rich cultural interactions and insights for ecological restoration.
An online/offline database has been developed collectively by a network of native seed networks in Brazil that will enable them to present all species, quantities, prices and delivery conditions for all projects and ecosystems in the market area, using smartphones and algorithms. This database, along with the seeds, will provide information on the source ecosystems/regions and a reference of matrices and practical knowledge on how to store, sow, care, prune and harvest each species.
The Seed Paths Initiative (Iniciativa Caminhos da Semente)
The Seed Paths Initiative was launched in early 2019 by preparing the Strategic Action Plan with dozens of private, public, and third sector organizations contributing. This involved listing and prioritizing the bottlenecks for upscaling direct seeding in Brazil. The result was an Action Plan with specific actions on five fronts: Multi-stakeholder’s Capacity Building, Knowledge Sharing, Technical Assistance (TA) for practical Direct Seeding, Organization of Seed Production, and Legal Regulation. Since September 2019, fifteen actions have been deployed.
The Seed Paths Initiative is coordinated by Agroicone in partnership with Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and Embrapa, with technical and financial support from the United Kingdom’s Partnerships for Forests (P4F) program, in addition to support from several partner organizations, with emphasis on WWF, Iniciativa Verde, Amaggi, AES Tietê and the São Paulo State Infrastructure and Environment Secretariat. These make up a Committee of Experts to evaluate, review, guide and strategically support the development of the action plan.
A key action of the Initiative is to assist direct seeding when done for the first time in a restoration project or a given ecosystem. Thus the Initiative capacitates more confident practitioners and provides learning sites and research areas, courses and study groups, and enhances the demand for seeds.
Seeds during an event of restoration in a sugar mill area organized by the Seed Paths Initiative. Photo: Nina Jacobi/Caminhos da Semente.
Until 2019, direct seeding was almost entirely restricted to the Brazilian Midwest. Establishing restoration sites in the Southeast is one of the Initiative’s goals, given that a great part of ecological restoration actually being done in Brazil is in that region. Thirty-eight direct seeding projects, totaling 136 hectares, in five states, were assisted in the Initiative’s first year. Shared responsibility arrangements were set between interested partners and the Initiative, where interested partners carried on all field operations, while the Initiative provided technical assistance and supplied the adequate seeds in terms of quantities and suitable species. Many of these sites were seeded through open field-days and other knowledge-sharing formats. The capacity building pillar is being taken seriously, with several on-site and remote courses executed. A remote e-learning course available on Embrapa's e-campo platform was developed for a broader audience (https://www.embrapa.br/en/e-campo/semeadura-direta-para-recomposicao-da-vegetacao-nativa) and a theoretical and practical course was held for sugarcane industry technicians in São Paulo.
Technical assistance was provided by Initiative technicians on-site, but also by telephone, WhatsApp, and e-mail during the implementation stages: diagnostic and planning, site preparation, seeding, managing, and monitoring.
Site preparation strategy is, on our experience, a key activity for direct seeding success. Results are often improved if it begins months before the sowing date. Nevertheless, advice on soil preparation and control of invasive grass species is usually provided remotely with follow-up as it entails common agricultural practices familiar to the farmers.
By the rainy season, the time for seeding, technicians usually visit the site with the selected seeds and demonstrate seed mixing and equipment calibration to regulate sowing density and seeding depth, particularly if it is the partner’s first direct seeding experience. Technicians and local partners carry on remote follow up and onsite evaluation carefully, especially during the first 4 months after the seeding date when maintenance operations require good timing.
The Initiative structured a virtual technical assistance (TA) group for sharing information and experiences among all supported partners. This approach fosters learning by all participants, not just from our specialist technicians, creating a community of practitioners. The group meets virtually on a monthly basis to deepen a given subject, such as machinery or monitoring protocols. Besides that, photos, videos, questions and answers are exchanged by Whatsapp. This remote TA base is important because restoration sites are distant from each other and travel resources are limited. Remote TA was even more necessary during the pandemic due to restrictions to face-to-face meetings and travel.
The knowledge accrued over a year of remote TA and gathering of data enabled creation of some support materials, grouped in the direct seeding “Toolbox” launched in December 2020. The tools are relevant materials for supporting restoration using direct seeding. Examples are the “Direct seeding guide for restoring forests and savannas” and the “Restoration monitoring protocol”, which includes a checklist for assessing the development of the restoration in its initial stages, indicating corrective stewardship actions (all available in Portuguese at www.caminhosdasemente.org.br).
The Toolbox includes online courses, learning sites and an unprecedented list of 837 species suitable for direct seeding in the Amazon, Cerrado, and Atlantic Forest biomes, including relevant characteristics and tips for their seed propagation. The list highlights field-tested species and other species available on seed networks operating in Brazil. The list is divided into species whose establishment ratio in the field has already been quantified (438 species) and those that have already been planted but whose establishment ratio has not yet been adequately quantified (394), indicating a path for research.
Dissemination materials, which are part of the knowledge sharing axis, include the “Map of direct seeding for ecological restoration in Brazil”, created to give visibility to the seed-based restoration chain. Ongoing projects, open Learning Areas, active seed networks and service providers with experience on direct seeding are available on the map in the Initiative's website. This site also features a library with a curated collection of articles, books, and guides on restoration with direct seeding, consolidating scientific and practical knowledge.
Within all five axes, the Seed Paths Initiative develops a communication plan to strengthen outreach and engagement with different target audiences, based on sectorial magazines and channels, newspapers, open television, social media (Instagram and LinkedIn), webinars, and monthly newsletters.
Technical visit to a seed house, part of Xingu Seed Network, in Diamantino, Mato Grosso. Photo: Jeferson Prado/Caminhos da Semente.
Availability of native seeds in both quantity and quality for new plantings is critical in order to scale up direct seeding adoption on restoration projects. More than technical information on how to collect seeds, it is necessary to structure community organizations in networks linked to the marketing channels. A community-based model was developed by the Xingu Seed Network Association (ARSX) in Northeastern Mato Grosso state, and it is now a reference for other seed networks in Brazil. In its 13 years’ of activity, it has produced 245 tons of seeds of 200 native species, generating more than R$ 5 million in income for about 560 seed collectors and contributing to the restoration of 6,000 hectares. In order to support professionalizing this type of enterprise, a Business Plan was developed, and priority actions of the Plan were carried out in 2020, with a focus on consolidating the commercial arena, increasing the number of customers, and beginning to offer forest restoration services, management process improvement, and support for development of the Network's governance. The experiences gained and some market opportunities are shared with other seed networks as a strategy for better supplying the demand and also to deal with annual market fluctuations. This results in improved financial resilience for all networks, greater knowledge sharing, and strengthening and integration of the network’s environmental, social, and economic activities.
A seed collector explains how to clean seeds to a journalist. Photo: Nina Jacobi/Caminhos da Semente
Lessons learned and the new paths
Producing, organizing, and disseminating knowledge on restoration is essential to provide on-the-ground support for different movements. Public policies, large scale programs, and small projects require organized and accessible knowledge to improve effectiveness. In addition to advances in research, knowledge must be presented in an educational manner and easily accessible, made available through rural extension systems – whether public, private, or partnerships. Agribusiness groups and infrastructure companies play a relevant role because they already invest in and conduct considerable ecological restoration.
Introducing innovation in restoration, such as the emergence of different direct seeding techniques and methods, makes it possible to reduce costs and increase social, economic, and ecological benefits. However, as in any case of innovation diffusion, improving the enabling conditions is fundamental. For example, public approval and private adoption are required to reach scale and mainstream new innovations into markets. A multi-stakeholder initiative, as the Seed Paths Initiative, enhances the chances of success by considering different perspectives of barriers and levers.
Keeping the collaborative approach, the Seed Paths Initiative will enhance capacity building and technical assistance activities, expanding the work by matching demand for seed-based restoration with seed producers, service providers, and researchers. We also work in the supply side to match seed production with seed demand on an annual basis.
Furthermore, the diffusion of direct seeding also faces the same fundamental difficulties as restoration as a whole: perceived high costs and low benefits (compared with alternative land uses) and low priority in political agendas. Yet, we understand the benefits of the method, especially the social advantages and the lower cost, may significantly help to foster restoration as a climate-friendly solution and to create viable economic models using native species at a large scale. Social and environmental goals must always be connected, as is the case of ecological restoration with direct seeding. As we stand here at the beginning of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration we hope our experience with direct seeding and seed networks in Brazil may inspire others around the world.
Literature Cited
Campos-Filho EM, Da Costa JNMN, De Sousa OL, Junqueira RGP (2013) Mechanized direct-seeding of native forests in Xingu, Central Brazil. Journal of Sustainable Forestry 32:702–727
Freitas MG, Rodrigues SB, Campos-Filho EM, do Carmo GHP, da Veiga JM, Junqueira RGP, Vieira DLM (2019) Evaluating the success of direct seeding for tropical forest restoration over ten years. Forest Ecology and Management 438:224–232
Rodrigues SB, Freitas MG, Campos-Filho EM, do Carmo GHP, da Veiga JM, Junqueira RP, Vieira DLM (2019) Direct seeded and colonizing species guarantee successful early restoration of South Amazon forests. Forest Ecology and Management 451:117559
Raupp PP, Ferreira MC, Alves M, Campos-Filho EM, Sartorelli PAR, Consolaro HN, Vieira DLM (2020) Directseeding reduces the costs of tree planting for forest and savanna restoration. Ecological Engineering 148:105788
Schmidt IB, de Urzedo DI, Piña-Rodrigues FCM, Vieira DLM, de Rezende GM, Sampaio AB, Junqueira RGP (2019) Community-based native seed production for restoration in Brazil – the role of science and policy. Plant Biology 21:389-397