Many countries in Africa are suffering from a lack of investment in native tree nurseries, and of effective seed collection.Credit: daboost/ Getty Images
Seed shortage and weak supply systems could derail the forest landscape restoration (FLR) project across African countries a new study has found. Despite political will and major international support for its success, a study on native tree seed supply systems in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, and Kenya, showed that Africa is at risk of failing to meet FLR targets by 2030.
Chris Kettle, the study’s principal investigator, and a researcher at the CGIAR Initiative on Nature-Positive Solutions, noted that although the initiative has encouraged huge investments being made across Africa in tree planting, “there is often poor consideration of what is being planted and what it’s grown for”.
The four countries hold the highest biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa, with 60% of the population dependent on forests for food, timber and other essential ecosystem services. The high dependency has led to loss of about 10.4% of forests in Africa in the few decades, and massive degradation of other tree-dominated biomes. To tackle this biodiversity crisis, the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) was founded with the aim of restoring about 100 million hectares of degraded landscapes in Africa by 2030.
The researchers identified significant gaps in the native tree seed supply systems of the four countries, According to Kettle, this results from a lack of investment in native tree nurseries, and of effective seed collection. The findings showed that apart from degradation of habitat and forest that leads to native seed scarcity, the focus on exotic species and those that can be easily multiplied exacerbates the reduction in seed sources.
“We propose a multi-stakeholder approach and the application of online tools to improve seed systems to meet the demand for high-quality native tree seeds in order to enhance restoration outcomes,” said Kettle.
