At Terraformation, restoring biodiverse native forests is our top priority. It’s not enough just to plant trees — the world needs biodiverse, resilient forests, which sequester more carbon and deliver a host of benefits for people and the planet. Lack of biodiversity represents a monumental issue for global reforestation efforts. Right now, many tree-planting efforts rely on monoculture plantations that can pollute water and soil and destroy habitats for wildlife and threatened species.
Our mission — combating climate change through natural carbon capture — begins with planting biodiverse forests.
But it all starts with seeds. Without intervention to collect and store seeds, we won’t have the biodiverse native forests needed to sequester carbon effectively and mitigate climate change. As our CEO, Yishan Wong, explained, “Our ability to preserve and restore biodiversity depends essentially on seeds and seed collection.”
That’s where seed banking comes in. Seed banking is the process of cleaning, drying, storing, and testing seeds to maintain their viability — and grow the forests of tomorrow — but restorationists need the infrastructure to do it. We also need to engage local people in restoration efforts. In many of the world’s most promising reforestation sites, Indigenous peoples and local communities have been acting as stewards of the land for generations, and their knowledge is invaluable. By tapping into their leadership and ensuring that reforestation brings sustainable jobs and economic opportunity, we are much more likely to ensure that forests survive and thrive in the long run.
The single biggest obstacle to the rapid restoration of biodiverse forests is early-stage financing. We surveyed global forestry teams to understand just how prevalent the finance problem was, and the results showed that an astounding 95% of the worldwide forestry teams we surveyed didn’t have the funding they needed to get to scale. To address this challenge, we have launched the Seed to Carbon Forest Accelerator, the world’s first biodiversity-focused forest accelerator. The accelerator connects the most promising forest restoration projects to carbon markets, which directs funds to projects during their critical early phases. By prioritizing biodiversity and selecting a geographically diverse portfolio of projects, the accelerator reduces risk and helps ensure that forests flourish and capture carbon for years to come. Our projects support a greater species variety than the majority of the world’s carbon projects. In our pilot stage, we have helped partners plant a total of 445,000 native trees and shrubs in just over a year — and they’re on track to reach one million plants in the ground by the end of 2023. 
One of Terraformation’s partners is the women-led organization Kilimanjaro Project, whose team is restoring native forests in Tanzania.
The global biodiversity stage of COP15
At the UN biodiversity conference COP15, which took place in Montreal, Canada, in December, Terraformation Science Director Dr. Shobha Maharaj spoke on why biodiverse forests must be prioritized, as well as the unique island hotspots that are at risk due to climate change.
A greater focus on seeds would:
- Mobilize governments to fund the establishment and maintenance of seed banking infrastructure to preserve native species for restoration;
- Catalyze nations to support seed bank training and education to build a workforce for the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration;
- Prompt greater innovation from the public and private sectors for low-cost and decentralized seed processing and storage solutions that support nature restoration teams; and
- Encourage businesses to include support for local community seed banking and seed supply systems to achieve nature-positive goals.
Learn more about our work in the video below. For the latest Terraformation news, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and We Don’t Have Time, and subscribe to our newsletter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_1gPmh_4IY
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56 w
Biodiverse and resilient forests will definitely save our climate a huge deal
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65 w
Our forests are the most important part of our climate. Impressive work
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67 w
This is amazing! Keep up the good work
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67 w
I appreciate your great work work and the process of seed banking... well-done and keep it up!
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67 w
Great work
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67 w
Great efforts!
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67 w
truly important!
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67 w
Terraformation work is very important
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67 w
It's amazing to see the work done by Terraformation's partners! I was especially wowed by this part of the article " [Terraformation] partners plant a total of 445,000 native trees and shrubs in just over a year — and they’re on track to reach one million plants in the ground by the end of 2023."
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67 w
@ford_brodeur_ Their hardwork and commitment will surely get them their.