A recent study found that collectors of seeds of native plant species in Brazil lack the legal framework needed to achieve the nation’s large-scale reforestation goal. Last month, Brazil announced a reforestation plan for 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of degraded land over the next five years, an area half the size of the U.K. And while tons of seeds will be required to meet this goal, local seed networks say the collectors working on the ground are yet to see an increase in demand. Brazil’s legislation doesn’t yet support a sustainable native seed market that can keep pace with its restoration goals, study lead author Rodrigo Dutra-Silva, an agent at Brazil’s federal environmental agency IBAMA, told Mongabay by phone. Dutra-Silva and his colleagues looked at how collection of native species seeds is structured in countries such as Australia, Chile, Germany and the U.S., to propose a better framework for Brazil’s seed laws, identifying crucial bottlenecks and gaps. “When we talk about demand, for example, the United States is the largest buyer of native seeds in the world. Why? Because they use them to restore public lands,” Dutra-Silva said. But there’s no stable demand in Brazil, he added, suggesting the country’s government could drive consistency by purchasing seeds to restore its conservation areas. In Brazil, the seed collection market also functions through grassroots structures rather than formal government institutions, and suffers from poor legislation and lack of long-term support, the study found. While some states offer temporary tax exemptions…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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