Living Seed Bank

Status: 
current

Seed banks are genetic stockpiles that safeguard the future of important plants by preserving and reproducing their seeds.  Camino Verde's Living Seed Bank goes a step further, by planting and protecting living trees that provide seeds each season for future reforestation efforts.

The ongoing Living Seed Bank project (LSB) has the following goals:

  1. To act as a botanical garden representing the broadest variety possible of useful trees _ for medicine, fruit, timber, crafts materials, ornamental horticulture, and more.  To date the LSB includes over 250 tree species.
  2. To emphasize key trees including over-exploited and endangered Amazonian species, especially those that have not been reforested in the past.  These Heritage Trees are planted in large numbers (50 or more) to ensure a diverse genetic stock from which to draw seeds, as wild populations dwindle and suffer genetic erosion.
  3. To study the growth and characteristics of these species in a cultivated setting, identifying trees that show promise for widespread or commercial reforestation.  This includes the domestication of wild fruits.
  4. To research and develop multi-species agroforestry systems that provide local subsistence farmers with an economically viable tree-based alternative to slash-and-burn.

The Living Seed Bank at a glance:

  • over 250 total tree species planted to date (as of 6/2011)
  • over half of the top thirty timber species from the region represented
  • 7 hectares (17.5 acres) of trees planted to date (as of 6/2011)
  • nearly 70 different fruit tree species
  • over 40 ornamental flowering species

For more information on the trees we plant and protect, please visit our Trees Database.