The FloraBank project seeks to improve the availability and quality of native seed and plant material for revegetation and conservation purposes in Australia. It provides support, advice and assistance to collectors, seedbank managers and distributors of native seed and plant material. FloraBank seeks to enhance existing networks between seedbanks and plant collections . The project will assist with training and provide guidelines for the collection, storage and handling of seed to local, regional and community-based seedbanks and groups. FloraBank encourages practices that protect Australia's biodiversity.
This document summarises the findings of a national survey of seed collection and storage in Australia and proposes draft recommendations to address issues and needs arising from the survey. The survey looked broadly at seed collection and storage but the focus was on the needs and issues of the community seed sector: that is, the seed collection and storage operations of community groups and landholders involved in landcare and revegetation initiatives.
Your comments are a valuable part of developing recommendations that are useful to the community. All comments received will be considered in developing final recommendations by FloraBank to Environment Australia in February 1999. These recommendations are also of wider relevance to the Commonwealth, to state and territory governments, local government and many other organisations, groups and interested parties.
Comment is invited on this draft by 29 January 1999 and should be forwarded to:
FloraBank Coordinator
PO Box 74, Yarralumla ACT 2600
Phone: 02 6281 8585
Email: greenaus@ozemail.com.au
Copies of this document and a fact sheet about the FloraBank project may also be obtained from the above address or, alternatively, may be viewed or downloaded from the FloraBank web site (www.floraban k.org.au).
The findings of the national survey are presented in full in the report Native Seed in Australia: A survey of collection, storage and distribution of native seed for revegetation and conservation purposes.
Copies of the report are also available from the above sources. The national survey was undertaken to determine the status of
seed collection and storage operations in the comm unity. It was conducted from March to September 1998 and comprised three parts:
• a national tour involving visits to seedbanks, and discussion forums
• a questionnaire distributed nationally to collectors, seedbank operators and seed users
• a literature review.
Forty-nine seedbank operations were visited and structured discussions were held with operators and managers. A further 20 major structured consultations were held during the tour involving key seed users and those with a good knowledge of revegetation initiatives at regional and
state levels. Eleven forums were organised for informed discussion of needs and issues between key people involved with native seed.
About 1,500 questionnaires were distributed to stakeholders in each state. The national response to the questionnaire was good, with 325 returned- a response rate of 20%. The questionnaire provided a sample of stakeholders at the national and state levels, according to broad groupings of respondents .
A brief review of recent literature was undertaken. The review concentrated on previous surveys and description of seed collection and storage practices in Australia, of which there are few. Current initiatives in this area were also reviewed and contact made with their principals where possible.
Native seed sector
Main seed users
Nationally, indications are that the mining sector uses as much as 70% to 80% of all seed collected for mine site rehabilitation. Almost all the seed they use is either collected or supplied by commercial operators. The next largest users of seed are the revegetation projects of community groups and landholders (including some state government involvement) which consume perhaps 10% to 20% of all seed collected . A large part of this seed is supplied by community collection and storage operations.
Lesser seed users are roadside and reserve revegetation, and forestry and bush food operations, which are also supplied by commercial operators.
At the state level, this ranking of users also occurs in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. These are all states in which there are regions (Central Queensland, Hunter Valley, Gippsland, Pilbara and south-west Western Australia respectively) where the mining industry uses native seed extensively. In South Australia and the Northern Territory there is comparatively little mining activity and the community seed sector and bush food operations are the major users. In Tasmania, forestry and the community seed sector are the big users of native seed.
In revegetation, most seed is planted by mining companies using direct seeding methods. However, the area covered is small compared to that covered by revegetation through landcare which, for the most part, still relies heavily on planting seedlings (tubestock).
Comparatively little seed but a much larger range of species is typically used by nurseries to produce tubestock. Direct seeding typically uses a limited number of species (usually less than 25) selected for their site worthiness, availability and ease of establishment.
One implication is that most of the seed collected across Australia represents only a tiny proportion of the total flora and its biodiversity.
Another implication is that most seed is consumed in revegetating a small part (mine sites) of the total area revegetated each year. This raises questions about the efficiency of use of an often scarce resource and whether direct seeding and mine site rehabilitation may be affecting the availability of seed. Commercial suppliers commented that seed available on the commercial market is frequently left over from contracts with mining rehabilitation and other large commercial projects.
Commercial seed
Native plant seed of many species is readily available on the commercial market.
Commercial seed suppliers have the potential to collect and supply seed from anywhere to anyone. It must be logistically possible and profitable to do so, and there must be adequate prior notice for collectors to find and harvest seed.
The physical quality of seed available commercially (but not necessarily genetic quality and known provenance) is generally good and the prices generally low, considering the cost of collection and storage. There is currently no native seed certification system operating in Australia to regulate or standardise seed quali ty.
Community operations
Many people in the community collect native seed. The survey indicated that, of these seed collectors:
• most also clean and store seed
• of those who store seed, the primaty purpose for storage is either for use in specific replanting projects or to distribute (non-profit) for revegetation
• community operators are much more likely to distribute seed for free than sell it
• community operators distribute seed (in order of importance) to community groups, farmers and landholders, direct seeders and community nurseries
• most are also involved in the use of native seed and raise seedlings for replanting, which most carry out themselves
• about half are also involved in direct seeding and a little more than half in managing natural regeneration.
Where landcare and community revegetation projects continue to create demand, it is very likely that the trend for increased seed collection in the community will also continue unabated. Wherever there is increased effort in revegetation, or a switch from tubestock to direct seeding, increased community seed collection capacity will be required unless commercial operators are willing to supply locally collected seed back to that area.
Indigenous seed
Seed that is indigenous to the local area of the user, however, can be much more difficult to obtain commercially. Seed users are increasingly unwilling to use seed of unknown or far-off origins and there is a strong trend in the community to specify local indigenous seed for revegetation. This trend is commendable and should be supported. Indigenous plants are often better adapted to perform in the local environment and it is better practice for conserving biodiversity.
There is frustration among community seed users at the difficulty in obtaining sufficient information about the origins of seed available commercially. This is particularly true of respondents to the questionnaire in Queensland and New South Wales but less so for respondents from Tasmania, South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Seed users must trust that the seed purchased from their supplier comes from the locality claimed, for there is no other practical way of determining seed origins.
Commercial suppliers have been quick to respond to tender specifications that increasingly call for indigenous seed collection and supply for projects, for example, roadworks, mining rehabilitation and major infrastructure projects. Commercial suppliers, however, have been slow to respond to the increasing demand for local indigenous seed by community groups and landholders for their revegetation projects. It is very likely to be uneconomic for commercial collectors to collect a range of local indigenous seed for all regions of a state.
The logistical and environmental difficulties involved in collecting seed across vast areas are formidable . In addition, the demand in terms of volume of seed may be small and profit margins may be non-existent.
Most commercial suppliers consider that better planning in community projects to provide a longer lead-time for seed collection is essential to improving the commercial availability of local seed.
However, this is likely to make a difference only where demand is sufficient to interest commercial collectors in the first place.
Regional availability
Consequen tly, many community seed users are unable to source any local indigenous seed for revegetation projects (especially small projects). Others have difficulty obtaining a reasonable range of species in the quantities required . The survey indicated that South Australia is the easiest state in which to source local seed (from any source) and the Northern Territory and Queensland are the most difficult.
In most states, indications are that the availability of seed varies from region to region. Indigenous seed is generally available for some regions but not others, and within all regions there are local areas for which little or no local indigenous seed is available. The nearer you are to the collection areas of commercial suppliers, the easier it will be to obtain local indigenous seed commercially. There are still many areas where commercial suppliers simply do not operate or do not supply indigenous seed.
Even where commercial suppliers are willing to collect local indigenous seed, there may be collection difficulties, such as:
• lack of vegetation
• seasonal scarcity of seed
• logistical, climatic and environmental difficulties in seed collection
• the need for constant surveillance of seed set
• the need for good timing for collection when seed is mature.
All these factors may vary greatly between regions and contribute greatly to regional scarcity. Determining exactly which regions experience scarcity of local indigenous seed is a considerable undertaking. While there are some indicators, a definitive assessment of regional scarcity was not undertaken during the survey.
Seed resource
The seed resource available in the bush is poor over large areas of Australia, though good in other areas. There is a lack of remnant vegetation and small numbers of plants left to collect from in many areas. In many remnants the seed resource is all but gone or is inadequate from a genetic viewpoint. This is largely a consequence of the combined effects of human presence, our land use and land management, and general decline of the vegetation, especially the understorey.
We need to better understand the genetic resources of remnant vegetation. As a priority, access to seed should be improved in areas where seed is scarce in the bush, rather than in well-vegetated regions where seed is more abundant. Restricted access to highly diverse bushland reserves and national parks also causes concern to questionnaire respondents, especially where these may be the only sources of seed available in a region .
Provenance
There is a trend in the revegetation sector to specify a desired provenance of seed. Almost always this is simply specified as seed indigenous to the local area. This is especially evident among some of the big seed users in mining, landcare and government . The definition of 'local' varies but is expressed most often as a distance (for example, a 15-kilometre radius) from the planting site, or in terms of catchment, land system, bioregion or even local and state government boundaries. This sort of approach is a 'best guess' and almost never based on understanding of the actual genetics of plant communities. Another motivation is to collect seed locally for use locally and so that biodiversity may be protected and enhanced.
It is of great importance that more is done to improve understanding and reduce doubt and uncertainty about the provenance boundaries of common plants used in revegetation. How local should 'local' be?
A workable system for describing broad provenance areas and promoting it in the community is needed. Such a system may reduce over-zealous or too tight a provenance specification for seed used in revegetation. It may also ensure that adequate provenance specification is used. There are numerous vegetation classifications and existing information on which the development of a rudimentary provenance system could be based. There is also a system of 62 forest provenances developed by Forestry Tasmania and used in Tasmania that may provide a basis for development.
Imported native seed
There were reports of native seed being imported into Australia for revegetation at very low prices from overseas suppliers.
While the cost may indeed be lower, there is widespread concern and condemnation in the community and among commercial and government suppliers about this practice.
Overseas seed is reported to be inferior and often poorly identified and labelled, or in seedlots where species are intermixed and contaminated with other seed. There are concerns about the genetic origins and hybridisation of such seed, and the possible effects of such introductions on biodiversity and the introduction of plant pathogens as yet unknown. Revegetation seed needs should and can be met from within Australia, with an increasing emphasis on matching known provenance to the area of use.
Seed storage
In general, we store seed to maintain it in a viable condition from the time of collection until the time of sowing. Storage time varies according to the purpose for which you store seed. In revegetation work, for example, seed is generally collected with the aim of sowing it as soon as possible in the next growing season. A storage period of 2 or 3 years is typical, with a maximum storage time of perhaps
5 years. In comparison, the conservation of a species through storage of seed may involve periods in excess of 25 years, over which viability must be maintained.
Commonly in Australia, the length of time in storage is classified as short term (up to 5 years), medium term (5 to 25 years) and long term (more than 25 years). Remember that the longer you need to store seed, the more expensive it becomes.
What's difficult about collecting and storing seed?
Anyone can readily collect a few cupfuls of seed from a eucalypt or acacia in their backyard in a matter of minutes and use it to propagate thousands of seedlings. It sounds easy and it is. But to do this on any scale, do it in every season, for a wide range of local plants, and ensure the best quality possible is demanding and not an endeavour to be taken lightly. To do it cost-effectively adds an extra element of difficulty. You can spend a lifetime learning to do it in one region, and only a handful of people can do it for the plants of their whole state or for Australia.
Newcomers must overcome considerable hurdles, such as:
• accurately identifying flora in the field
• understanding seed biology and ecology
• learning when and where to collect seed
• learning the secrets of germination and viability testing.
Seed drying, extraction, cleaning and storage are technical disciplines in the wider agricultural seed industry in which technicians may spend a lifetime at work. These disciplines are much less well understood for native seed than for agricultural seed. In some cases this knowledge is hard won and closely guarded by commercial seed collectors, merchants and native plant nurseries.
Collecting seed for long-term conservation purposes adds to this complexity still further, with the requirement for scientific rigour in the way that genetic parentage is understood and documented, seed is handled, treated and stored, and viability is monitored. It is generally only the major academic and research facilities in Australia that are capable of operating long-term
low-temperature and cryogenic storage.
Regulations
Frequent concerns were raised at discussion forums and by questionnaire respondents about the problems of regulation, royalty and permit systems and their significant impediment to seed collection. Many expressed concern at the generally counter productive trend to 'lock up' seed resources and increasingly restrict access to them.
There is a recent trend for local authorities to also introduce restrictive seed collection policies on collectors, regardless of their reasons for collection or technical competence.
Considerable differences in regulatory approaches are apparent between the states. Seed collection may fall under the jurisdictions of land management and flora protection legislation, forest production… [See PDF to Read More]