Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Brazil's indigenous seed collectors in demand for forest restoration
by Laurie Goering | @lauriegoering | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Friday, 3 July 2020 17:47 GMT
An award-winning seed collection network in Brazil's Amazon is improving incomes and food security - and may be cutting prejudice
By Laurie Goering
LONDON, July 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - By law, builders of roads and dams and others who destroy forests in Brazil's Amazon are required to replant an equivalent area of trees elsewhere.
To do that they need the right seeds - and collecting those has turned into valuable business for indigenous communities in the Xingu basin of Mato Grosso state, as well as for other indigenous groups around Brazil.
Since 2008, more than 560 collectors - most of them women - have gathered almost 250 tonnes of seeds from 220 native species as part of an effort now known as the Xingu Seed Network.
The work has helped them earn an income, reconnect with their forests and restore more than 6,600 hectares of degraded land, according to Ashden, a British charity that this week awarded the group one of its sustainability prizes for 2020.
More:
https://news.trust.org/item/20200703170237-vx6r6/
