Amazonía Emprende will restore 150,000 hectares in the Colombian Amazon by 2031 with a Native Seed Center

Acumen has invested in the establishment and operation of a Native Seed Center in Caqueta, Colombia, to be carried out by Amazonia Emprende — an organization founded in 2020 focused on the recovery of degraded or deforested ecosystems and providing sustainable solutions for local communities. This work is supported by Fundación Bancolombia, USAID, IDB Lab – the innovation and venture capital arm of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, and the Multi-Donor Trust Fund at the Amazonia Forever initiative, and in collaboration with Acumen’s Trellis initiative anchored by the U.K.’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

The Amazon is known worldwide as the “lungs of the world,” as it encompasses eight countries and contains almost 30% of the world’s biodiversity. Its biome produces 20% of the planet’s oxygen and acts as a carbon sink, storing nearly 76 billion tons of CO₂. However, its existence is in danger. 

A recent study by the Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG) states that between 2001 and 2020, the Amazon lost more than 54.2 million hectares, almost 9% of its forests – a territory equivalent to the size of France. In a pessimistic scenario, in just five years at the current rate of deforestation, the largest tropical forest in the world could lose half of what it has already lost in the last 20 years.

This concern, which is latent across entities in both the public and private sectors, and has negative consequences for rural communities in Colombia, has led Acumen to invest in Amazonía Emprende – a Colombian social enterprise founded in 2020 by Julie Hernández and Julio Andrés Rozo, which seeks to provide sustainable solutions for the restoration of ecosystems that generate economic opportunities for local communities.

“With this new investment, we will strengthen our Native Seed Center. This will allow us to restore biodiversity in the Amazon, by rescuing the seeds of native forest species together with local communities,” says Julie Hernández, co-founder and executive director of Amazonía Emprende.

The Native Seed Center is a new business unit that will supply high quality seedlings of diverse native species, especially endangered ones. It will also contribute to scientific resources to establish selection, germination, and planting protocols for ecosystem restoration projects with public and private entities.

In addition, the investment will promote the creation of a network of seed tree owners and nurseries managed by local farming communities. This will provide seedlings of native species crucial to biodiversity and ecosystem health, creating new sources of income for local farmers.

“It helps us understand how, in areas affected by conflict, private capital can contribute to generate additional and more stable income, as well as increase the climate resilience of the population in these territories, contribute to the protection of the environment and biodiversity, and strengthen the social fabric,” says Elvia Gómez, associate director of Acumen Latin America.

She emphasizes how, in addition to the Native Seed Center’s incentives to protect the environment and biodiversity of the Colombian Amazon, it offers a legal economic alternative to illegal activities such as the growing of illicit crops and illegal logging and mining, which are drivers of deforestation and propel the cycle of violence in these rural areas.

“We will create a formal network of seed suppliers, training rural and indigenous families in seed harvesting and management techniques. This training will include the supervision and documentation of seed trees, ensuring that harvesting complies with current regulations. In this way, local capacity will be strengthened and the quality of the seeds collected will be guaranteed,” says Julio Andrés Rozo, co-founder and strategy director of Amazonía Emprende. 

Amazonía Emprende is setting a precedent for how innovative and collaborative solutions can address the environmental crisis while improving the economic conditions of vulnerable communities. This action is critical. Colombia’s Minister of Environment, Susana Muhamad, has stressed that, should the Amazon exceed 20% of deforestation, it will reach a point of no return, meaning it will no longer have the capacity to regenerate.