The right tree in the right place for the right purpose: supplying high-quality tree planting material of native tree species (NTS) for landscape restoration in Sub-Saharan Africa (RTRP-Seed)

Planting native trees is recognised as important for reaching forest landscape restoration goals, but there is a significant gap between the aspiration to plant them and actual practice, where the use of a narrow range of exotic trees generally dominates. RTRP Seed project addresses deficiencies in the tree seed and seedling supply sector, an important contributor to the gap in native tree species planting within Sub-Saharan African countries. It supports the development of an enabling policy and institutional environment; builds capacity in native tree species seed and seedling delivery, including through developing new business models for tree nurseries; and engages in knowledge exchange to support scaling to other African nations and more widely. The result will support planting of more diverse, high-quality, seedlings of native tree species in large-scale forest landscape restoration programmes to better support biodiversity, carbon sequestration and livelihood development targets.