Every tree was once a seed. The sumaúmas, the pink jequitibás, the brazil nut trees and the gameleira, giants of the Amazon rainforest, over 30 meters tall and hundreds of years old, all were once a tiny grain of life. This green expanse represents the hopes of the indigenous people, settlers, river dwellers and small farmers who collect native seeds in the forest of the Xingu River basin (in the states of Pará and Mato Grosso) and sell them through to Internet to groups planting trees in deforested areas. All of them hope for a better future.
These seed gatherers are part of the Xingu Seed Network, now in its tenth year of existence, which has has helped restore roughly 432 acres of deforested area in the Xingu and Araguaia River basins and in other parts of the Amazon and Cerrado biomes. The seeds, 193 tons of them, collected by 450 gatherers, generated R$2.5 million (or about $800,000 USD) for the cooperative. The network consists of 13 seed gathering centers across 16 municipalities in the Xingu and Araguaia basins, covering 15 rural settlements, a mineral extraction reserve, and 17 villages from seven indigenous tribes native to the area.
The initiative will soon broaden its impact even further. During the Rock in Rio festival, the social and environmental project Amazonia Live, created by the festival’s organizers, plans to raise money to plant 1 million trees in deforested areas. The project will focus on the headwaters of the Xingu River, and will use seeds marketed through the Xingu Seed Network.
During Amazonia Live’s first reforestation effort, in 2016, almost 10 tons of seeds were planted and 328 acres were reforested, roughly 4.4 times the size of the new Cidade do Rock.
The income generated by Amazonia Live’s project will stimulate the local economy in the Xingu region and help preserve its natural diversity. The effort will also contribute to curbing global warming, through the reduction of carbon gas emissions. It will also help preserve the rivers, reduce erosion, increase pollination and boost ecotourism.
Learn about the Seed’s Path and help plant a better future.