Description of the project: This project empowers women, vulnerable groups, agrarian reform settlers, people in traditional communities and youth groups through conservation, forest restoration and sustainable management in permanent preservation areas. The sustainable use of seed as a non-timber product promotes forest conservation standing and adds environmental value, provides farmers a source of employment, thus is an income generator, and also improves their quality of life. The actions become generators of confidence as they organize their social groups. In addition to the empowerment of women and youth, there was income generation for sustainable use of seed as non-timber product. This process promotes forest conservation standing and adds environmental, social and economic value due to the seed harvest.

Climate Impact: Its main innovation is to generate management technologies and conservation of forests with the participation of communities and applying unconventional restoration techniques, both innovations that join the restoration and conservation with small producers. The subproject “Morizukuri – creating forests” applies innovative practices of forest restoration accelerating ecological processes and generating ecosystem services in 10 years, a process which normally would take 20 years. Restoration plantings in innovative models have a capacity of up to 50% higher atmospheric carbon rescue, greatly contributing to the control of carbon emissions near large urban areas.

Gender Impact: In the communities of Capão Bonito SP, Paraty-RJ and Cotijuba (PA) before the intervention of the SEMEAR group, women worked in domestic services while their husbands worked in the fields. After the training actions and participatory management, women began to work in the harvest and sale of seeds for seedlings production purpose and its management as non-timber product. In Xingu River, we helped organize a group of indigenous women as seed collectors.