Strengthening Plant Conservation in Latin America Through Collaborative Seed Banking

Project Status: Ongoing (01 October 2025 – 30 September 2027)

Funded by: Darwin Initiative

Project partners: José Celestino Mutis Botanic Garden, Humboldt Institute, National Herbarium of Bolivia and La Paz Botanic Garden, CECON USAC Botanic Garden and Colombian Botanic Gardens National Network

Introduction

Latin America is an extraordinarily diverse region in biological, geographic, political, social and cultural dimensions. Unfortunately, the region is experiencing rapid degradation and loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, often outpacing our ability to understand their full complexity and value. Seed banks have proven to be a successful strategy for the conservation of plant diversity, offering immense potential for enhancing community wellbeing and resilience. While many seed banks in Latin America are focused on protecting crop diversity to ensure food security and build agricultural resilience, there are fewer examples of seed banks playing a role in the conservation of threatened wild species and supporting ecological restoration programmes. Botanic gardens in the region play vital roles in conserving plant diversity in their countries, however, they face significant limitations due to the lack of advanced technical expertise and sufficient seed bank infrastructure.

This project will strengthen seed banking capacity & capabilities for four institutions in Latin America: José Celestino Mutis Botanic Garden (Colombia), Humboldt Institute (Colombia), National Herbarium of Bolivia and La Paz Botanic Garden (Bolivia) and CECON USAC Botanic Garden (Guatemala).

These seed banks will serve not only as pivotal resources for plant conservation and restoration but also act as nodes for the training of local communities with skills needed to support their livelihoods and food security.

Project Goals

The following outputs will be implemented during the project lifetime:

• Functioning seed banks established and strengthened at project partners institutions.
• Increased technical capacity among project partners and conservation professionals in Bolivia, Colombia and Guatemala in seed banking, propagation of native plant species and Train-the-Trainer techniques.
• Increased capacity among local communities for seed collection and processing as well as propagation of native plant species for its use in restoration.
• Native Seed Bank Network of Bolivia, Guatemala and Colombia launched and functioning as knowledge-sharing hub.

These collaborations facilitated by BGCI will create the Native Seed Bank Network with the long-term goal of expanding to other countries in Latin America. This collaborative Native Seed Bank Network will bolster plant conservation efforts by sharing knowledge with local communities to support ecological restoration and promote sustainable livelihoods in the region. Furthermore, this project will serve as a model for replication in other countries across the region, expanding its impact and providing a platform for collaborative discussion and development of conservation strategies tailored to the unique plant diversity of Latin America.

This project is supported by the UK government Darwin Initiative Capacity & Capability Fund Round 31.