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Direct seeding is considered a feasible alternative for large-scale forest restoration, but little is known about the successional trajectory of tropical forests restored through direct seeding. To validate this method, we must understand how it changes forest structure and species richness and shapes the community trajectory as compared to the standard methods of natural regeneration and seedling planting. We evaluated restoration sites up to 10 years old in the Xingu river basin in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Our objectives were to: (i) describe changes in vegetation structure and richness in restored forests within the first decade; (ii) compare the outcome of restoration by direct seeding (broadcast seeding, sowing in rows, or placing seeds in holes) to seedling planting and natural regeneration; (iii) evaluate the influence of environmental variables (annual precipitation, soil phosphorus content, sand percentage, and soil base saturation) and the direct seeding technique on forest structure. We assessed species richness, density of individuals per size class, basal area, canopy height, aboveground biomass, and canopy cover. We sampled 72 direct-seeded sites between 1 and 10 years old, three seedling planting sites and six natural regeneration sites aged 7 to 9 years old. Community structure attributes changed over time, with the exception of the density of regenerating individuals. After four years, direct-seeded sites had formed a multi-layered canopy and were starting to be colonized by non-planted species. In general, direct-seeded sites had high aboveground biomass, but there was high variability among sites, especially after age six years. Sites with higher phosphorus content had more tree density, basal area, and biomass compared to the others. Broadcast seeding sites had higher seedling and sapling densities than sites that received other restoration methods. In conclusion, direct seeding was a successful method for the initial phase of forest restoration, promoting a structure that was more similar to resilient natural regeneration sites than to non-resilient natural regeneration sites and seedling planting sites.

The UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration is poised to trigger the recovery of ecosystem services and transform structural injustices across the world in a way unparalleled in human history. The inclusion of diverse Indigenous and local communities to co-create robust native seed supply systems is the backbone to achieve the goals for the Decade. Here we show how community-based organizations have co-developed native seed supply strategies for landscape restoration from the bottom-up. We draw on the interconnections over two decades of seed networks in Brazil and the emerging Indigenous participation in native seed production in Australia. From an environmental justice perspective, we provide a participatory seed supply approach for local engagement, noting local geographical, social and cultural contexts. Meeting large-scale restoration goals requires the connection between local seed production and collaborative platforms to negotiate roles, rights and responsibilities between stakeholders. An enduring native seed supply must include a diversity of voices and autonomy of community groups that builds equitable participation in social, economic, and environmental benefits., Funder: European Research Council (ERC) Award number: 866006

Large-scale restoration programmes in the tropics require large volumes of high quality, genetically diverse and locally adapted seeds from a large number of species. However, scarcity of native seeds is a critical restriction to achieve restoration targets. In this paper, we analyse three successful community-based networks that supply native seeds and seedlings for Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado restoration projects. In addition, we propose directions to promote local participation, legal, technical and commercialisation issues for up-scaling the market of native seeds for restoration with high quality and social justice. We argue that effective community-based restoration arrangements should follow some principles: (i) seed production must be based on real market demand; (ii) non-governmental and governmental organisations have a key role in supporting local organisation, legal requirements and selling processes; (iii) local ecological knowledge and labour should be valued, enabling local communities to promote large-scale seed production; (iv) applied research can help develop appropriate techniques and solve technical issues. The case studies from Brazil and principles presented here can be useful for the up-scaling restoration ecology efforts in many other parts of the world and especially in tropical countries where improving rural community income is a strategy for biodiversity conservation and restoration.

Forest and landscape restoration are emerging globally as a major challenge for development and conservation in the twenty-first century. With a restoration market providing demand for participation in supplying products and services, such as native seed, Indigenous communities have experienced new opportunities for cash income and livelihood improvements. This chapter explores the ways different Indigenous populations in Brazil have engaged in the native seed trade for restoring degraded lands, and the outcomes of their participation. We cover a case study based on one decade’s experience of the Xingu Seeds Network, focusing on challenges faced by 232 Indigenous people, mostly women, from 13 villages of Ikpeng, Kawaiwete, Matipu, Panara, Wauja, Xavante and Yudja ethnicity in the southeastern Amazon. Indigenous communities have engaged in the activity mainly to secure current and future access to natural resources. Although communities have shown a large fluctuation in their seed production and cash income over the years, these collectors have produced 6.7 tonnes of seeds from 159 species leading to US$ 65 thousand cash income for households. Native seed production is strongly aligned with traditional knowledge with outcomes related to women’s empowerment, opportunities for young people, territorial mapping, and building local organizations. However, communities have faced constraints in adapting ethnic institutions to business management requirements mainly due to scales of production, language difficulties and lack of accounting skills. Therefore, institutions must be developed acknowledging Indigenous knowledge and culture for building a more inclusive and flexible approach to support Indigenous groups to adapt to participation in markets.

Large-scale ecological restoration programs across the world involve a voluminous demand for native seeds of diverse native plant species. In this article, we explore how institutional systems have operated and impacted native seed supply in Brazil. Native seed supply for restoration is essentially a community-based activity which faces broad barriers to operating within regulations because of requirements for excessive and costly technical documentation, scarcity of seed laboratories, and lack of instructions for native seed quality testing. Although decentralized seed networks have stimulated arrangements for local organizations to promote seed supply, policies constrain the development of local capacities and the ongoing sustainability of these organizations. These conditions have resulted in a vast network of informal collectors and producers who are largely “invisible” and unknown to the regulatory authorities. Policies have decentralized responsibilities from the state without devolving decision-making power to the multiple stakeholders engaged in policy elaboration. The policies maintain the centralized regulation of native seed supply. After examining Brazilian seed networks’ experiences and conducting discussions with stakeholders and experts, we suggest adapting the current regulations to more local level contexts, encompassing the following strategies: (1) ensuring native seed origin and identity; (2) relaxation of the laboratory accreditation process for native seed quality assurance; (3) fostering seed markets for restoration; (4) research to provide technological innovation; (5) supporting local, diverse, and small seed-based businesses.

Over the last few decades, numerous initiatives have advanced forest landscape restoration in the Amazon, and in 2015 the Brazilian government set an ambitious, still-valid, target to restore 4.8 million hectares of degraded Amazonian land by 2030. This has contributed to an emergent global restoration network that connects multiple stakeholders and processes for funding, implementing and monitoring restoration actions in such a way that prepares various ecosystem services for market integration. The network arose in tandem with the evolution of an institutional framework that includes regulatory requirements within Brazil, global commitments linked to climate change mitigation, corporate sustainability strategies, and the growth of crowd-sourcing activism. This paper presents restoration activities as embedded within a Global Production Network (GPN) for an ecosystem service, which we use as a heuristic device to inform our understanding of emergent environmental governance structures. The resulting multi-scalar, networked mode of environmental governance is presented as a web-like structure co-created by institutional evolution, actor-specific strategies, and interactions between firms and non-firm actors. The article pays particular attention to a case study of how the restoration network manifests territorially in the Upper Xingu region of the Brazilian Amazon. Despite the strong North-South orientation of dominant funding relationships, network governance is also seen to be relational. This is evident from the dissemination of ideas, supply models and seeding techniques from Upper Xingu to other regions of Brazil. These insights could be applied to improve landscape restoration outcomes, and indeed the provisioning of ecosystem services more broadly.

In this paper, we explore how diverse community networks in Brazil have locally advanced seed production and institutional systems to enhance a restoration economy. By focusing on the experiences of the six major native seed suppliers in Amazonia, the Cerrado, and the Atlantic Forest, we estimate the capacity to scale-up community-based systems to meet a large-scale restoration target as a rural development strategy. Over one decade, 1016 collectors traded 416.91 tonnes of native seeds representing, on average, 31.41 kilos yearly and USD 256.5 as household income. Based on this well documented empirical evidence, we estimate that Brazil&rsquo, s restoration goal would require from 3.6 to 15.6 thousand tonnes of native seeds depending on the share of each restoration method adopted with potential work opportunities for 13.2 to 57.1 thousand collectors yearly and total income from USD 34 to 146 million. We argue that community networks represent feasible arrangements for increasing the availability of plant material sources which provide high socio-economic benefits. For scaling up native seed sources, we suggest the following key strategies: (i) government incentives and subsidies, (ii) enforcement of ecosystem restoration, (iii) community participation, (iv) adaptation of the seed regulations, (v) technological development, and (vi) seed market diversification.

SUMMARYGovernment regulations have created new markets for non-timber forest products such as tropical forest seeds for ecological restoration and agroforestry in Brazil. This paper examines whether and how participation in the seed market has affected assets that will shape households’ ability to pursue new livelihood opportunities. These impacts may vary across different dimensions of capital and among sociocultural groups. Impacts were characterized through semi-structured interviews following the sustainable livelihoods approach; 40 producers in the Xingu Seed Network, from settler farmer, urban and indigenous groups, were interviewed. The groups differed in perceptions of impacts on their natural, social and human capital, which could be related to the sociocultural background and vulnerability context of each group. Communities that were already organized were most likely to strengthen their social capital through participation. Cash income earned from sale of seeds was correlated with household-reported gains in financial capital, but not correlated with changes in other dimensions of capital. Contrary to expectations, sociocultural groups less integrated with the market achieved better livelihood outcomes through participation in the seed market.

South Amazon forests have been highly deforested, including the legally protected riparian forests. The Xingu watershed restoration program used direct seeding of native trees to restore 5000 ha of forests from 2006 to 2018. Direct seeding is a low cost method, easy-to-implement at large scales. The literature on this method concludes that only a few species manage to establish successfully, resulting in an impoverished forest. In this study, we aimed to (i) assess changes in species composition over a 10-year chronosequence in direct seeded sites, (ii) evaluate life-history traits of direct seeded and colonizer species, and (iii) investigate whether colonizer arrival is influenced by landscape structure and dispersal syndrome. We sampled 72 1–10 year-old direct seeded sites along a latitudinal gradient of 600 km, at the Upper Xingu Basin, state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. From the 152 direct seeded species, 90 species established themselves, and 67 new species colonized the restored sites. Succession started off dominated by a single pioneer species; then shared dominance with five other light-demanding species, while slow-growing species were present in the understory. Direct seeded and established species are disproportionately more orthodox, wind-dispersed seeds, usually dispersing during the dry season. Colonizer species are similar to the ones found in reference forests, regarding the proportion of animal-dispersed and recalcitrant seeds. We found no relationship between forest cover and colonizer richness. Direct seeding imposes a functional diversity filter due to the short period of seed harvesting, storage limitations, and field emergence. However, established species comprise diverse successional classes, which form an initial structure that facilitates species colonization, reducing the biodiversity filters caused by the direct seeding method over the years.

The Y Ikatu Xingu Campaign brought together indigenous people, farmers, researchers, governmental, and non-governmental organizations seeking riparian forest restoration in the Xingu watershed, in west-central Brazil. Forest restoration is challenging in the region because of scarce nurseries, long distances, and high costs associated with the usual technique of planting nursery-raised seedlings. This article describes mechanized direct seeding and compares it with the planting of seedlings, in terms of cost and tree densities at ages of 0.5 until 5.5 yr after planting. Direct-seeding was mechanized using common agricultural machines designed for sowing cereals or grasses, which were loaded with 200,000 seeds of native trees and 150,000 seeds of annual and sub-perennial legumes, plus 50–150 kg sand ha−1. The Campaign restored more than 900 ha by direct-seeding and 300 ha by planting seedlings. The great demand for native seeds was met by the Xingu Seed Network, formed by Indians, small landholders, and pe...