Native Seed Bank
One of the initiatives we are excited to start this year is a community-run Native Seed Bank that is owned and operated by local beneficiaries from our reforestation project. The main goal of this project is to collect and propagate native species of trees that are found in the different ecosystems of Lake Atitlán.
We plan to work with tree species from Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests, Coniferous Forests, and Cloud Forests. Safeguarding the genetics of these trees will allow us to further diversify our reforestation program as well as be able to exchange seeds with other communities.
Many reforestation programs in Guatemala only have 3 to 5 species of trees that they are planting; we want to facilitate a shift so that more communities have improved access to native trees which are acclimatized to their ecosystems.
To further facilitate access to a diversity of native species, this program also seeks to map out the locations of the “mother trees” where we source our seeds and create an open source digital database. This will allow other people to collect seeds of different tree species. This will be implemented as a part of our ARCGIS dashboard, both storing and providing a clear overview of the data.
Integrating the Native Seed Bank into our reforestation program brings everything full circle, with a large beneficiary network in over 8 towns, a tree nursery, and a means to safely store and propagate native species of trees.