The Vision

The Bosque Semilla Project (“The Seed Forest”) is a living seed bank and cultural food forest restoration hub being established in the Andean foothills of the Ecuadorian Amazon, near the Colonso-Chalupas Biological Reserve.

The project will exist to support long-term, seven years to date of collaboration between Yakum & Indigenous Kichwa, Siekopai and Cofán communities working to restore biodiversity, strengthen food sovereignty and recover traditional ecological knowledge through culturally rooted forest garden systems.
Bosque Semilla aims to become one of the most diverse living collections of useful tropical food and medicinal plants in the region, focused on species important for Indigenous food systems, to support hyperdiverse ecological restoration for an unpredictable future.

Background & Challenges

Across the Amazon, many traditional food plants, medicinal species and forest management practices are rapidly disappearing as forests are fragmented, younger generations lose access to knowledge, and communities become increasingly dependent on imported foods.

At the same time, restoration initiatives across the region often lack access to diverse native seed sources and propagation systems adapted to local ecological and cultural realities.

Many important Amazonian plants are poorly represented in projects despite their ecological, nutritional and cultural importance, because the diversity can be overwhelming.

The Bosque Semilla Project was created to help address this gap through a living system of seed conservation, propagation, food forests and community exchange.

The Solution

The site will function as a living seed vault, propagation and distribution centre and inspiration/training space supporting communities and restoration initiatives across the western Amazon.

Alongside conserving rare and culturally important species, Bosque Semilla will produce seeds, seedlings and knowledge for food forests, restoration corridors and community agroforestry systems.

The project will include:

• Living collections of more than 800 useful tropical tree species

• Seed and seedling production systems

• Community nurseries and propagation infrastructure

• Training and exchange spaces

• Food forest demonstration systems

• Seed collection and biodiversity monitoring

• Cultural food and medicinal plant gardens

Yakum and its Indigenous partners have already assembled a living collection of hundreds of species and varieties of fruit trees, palms, perennial vegetables and medicinal plants that now urgently require their permanent planting space in Alto Pano, Napo, Ecuador.

How We Regenerate

Yakum works through a methodology “Cultural Food Foress” (concept diagram codesigned with 3 indigenous nations attached)

The approach combines ecological restoration, revitalization of Indigenous food systems, soil restoration and long-term community stewardship into living regenerative landscapes.

Rather than separating conservation, livelihoods and culture, we work to weave them together through diverse food forests centred around culturally important species and practices.

This includes:

• Restoration with native and useful species

• Recovery of traditional foods and recipes

• Women-led food & cooking initiatives

• Amazon-wide seed exchange networks

• Community nurseries

• Non-timber forest product harvesting and processing from forest canopy

• Medicinal and nutritional biodiversity research

• Long-term ecological stewardship

The project also seeks to create meaningful economic opportunities linked to regenerative forest systems, while strengthening local autonomy and reducing pressure on remaining primary forests.

Tracking Impact

Yakum and its Indigenous partners have already planted more than 450 hectares of cultural food forests and restoration systems across the Ecuadorian Amazon using more than 400 species of trees and perennial crops.

Bosque Semilla will support:

• Increased access to diverse restoration seed

• Conservation of rare and threatened useful species

• Expansion of Indigenous-led food forests

• Protection of the entry point to Colonso Chalupas Ecologcial Reserve

• Community seed sovereignty

• Restoration of degraded landscapes

• Training opportunities for Indigenous youth and communities

• Long-term biodiversity monitoring and propagation

Impact will be monitored through seed production, species survival, restoration area, community participation and biodiversity tracking systems developed together with Indigenous partners.

Our Experience

Fundación Yakum is an Ecuadorian non-profit organization working with Indigenous nations in the western Amazon to strengthen food sovereignty, biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration.

Over the last seven years Yakum has collaborated primarily with Siekopai, Cofán and Kichwa communities to establish diverse food forests, native plant nurseries and restoration systems centred around culturally important food and medicinal species.

The organization has also supported the creation of community-based food processing laboratories focused on palms, oils, flours, nuts and other non-timber forest products.

Bosque Semilla represents the next evolution of this work: a long-term living seed sanctuary and regenerative hub supporting restoration and biocultural resilience across the western Amazon.

Use of Funds

Funding raised through this campaign will support:

• Land access and legal costs

• Nursery establishment

• Seed collection logistics

• Seed transport and storage

• Planting systems and propagation infrastructure

• Initial restoration plantings

• Basic access infrastructure

• Community training and seed exchange activities

• Development of the living seed bank systems and collections

The project is currently in its founding phase and early support will directly help establish the physical and ecological foundations of the seed sanctuary.