The webinar, “From Seeds to Success: Digital Tools for Planning and Managing Forest Restoration,” brought together 95 participants from across Asia and beyond, reflecting the growing demand for practical digital solutions to support forest restoration. The event was jointly organized by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, the Millennium Seed Bank at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Forest Restoration Research Unit (FORRU), Chiang Mai University. The webinar arose from two collaborative initiatives involving FORRU-CMU and its partners: Seed to Trees and the Global Tree Seed Bank Unlocked project. The programme featured live demonstrations of five innovative digital tools, developed to support restoration planning, seed sourcing, and project management, followed by an interactive discussion in which participants explored their applications, strengths, and future development.
The event was heavily over-subscribed and we intend to rerun it, particularly to accommodated New World participants at a civilized time of day (date TBA). If you are interested please register using this form .
The opening session was chaired by Kate Hardwick (Millennium Seed Bank, Kew), with the discussion moderated by Dr Stephen Elliott (FORRU-CMU) and concluding remarks delivered by Dr Chris Kettle (Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT).
Presentations
Dr Tobias Fremout (Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) introduced Diversity for Restoration (D4R), a freely accessible decision-support tool that helps practitioners select tree species and seed sources best suited to restoration objectives, local environmental conditions and future climate scenarios. The presentation demonstrated how the platform integrates species distribution models, functional traits and seed-zone mapping to generate evidence-based recommendations that improve the resilience and long-term success of restoration projects.
This video shows D4R Thai version being demonstrated at FORRU-CMU's workshop for forest officers earlier this year
Dr Chris Kettle (Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) presented MyFarmTrees, a digital platform that tracks restoration activities from seed collection through nursery production to field establishment. Using QR-coded seed lots and mobile technology, the system improves traceability, monitoring and data management while supporting community participation and enabling future payment-for-ecosystem-services schemes. Practical examples from Kenya, Cameroon, Malaysia and Indonesia illustrated the platform’s growing impact.
This video teaches local community members how to use the Thai language version of MFT.
Naomi Carvey (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) introduced SeedPOD (Seed Portal for Online Data), a new global platform scheduled for launch later this year. SeedPOD will provide open access to information on native seed collections, germination data, storage information and seed availability from multiple organizations worldwide. The platform is designed to complement other restoration tools by making high-quality seed data easier to discover and share while promoting responsible management of sensitive species information.
Dr Jan Sala Vila (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) demonstrated the Germination Experiment Assistant (GIA), an AI-assisted recommendation system that predicts germination requirements and generates practical protocols for species with little or no published germination information. By combining experimental data with predictive modelling, GIA provides restoration practitioners with detailed, step-by-step germination procedures tailored to both research laboratories and operational nurseries, helping bridge one of the major bottlenecks in native species propagation.
Kiran Dhanjal-Adams (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) presented the Wyse–Dickie Seed Storage Behaviour Predictor, a model that predicts whether seeds are likely to be orthodox (desiccation tolerant) or recalcitrant (desiccation sensitive). The presentation explained how the model uses species traits, taxonomy and environmental variables to guide seed storage decisions. Current work is focused on updating and expanding the model, using improved datasets and community contributions to increase prediction accuracy.
Discussion
The discussion highlighted the considerable interest in integrating these digital tools into a coherent restoration support system. Participants asked how seed zones are generated within D4R, prompting an explanation that they are based on clustering climate and soil variables, to represent areas of similar environmental adaptation for seed sourcing. Questions were also raised about how the platform accommodates local endemic species, with the presenter acknowledging current limitations where insufficient occurrence data exist and outlining future improvements.
Several participants asked whether MyFarmTrees could be accessed through a standard web browser rather than only a mobile application, whether it was free to use, and how future maintenance would affect accessibility. The developers confirmed that the platform operates as a Progressive Web App, can be used on desktop computers, and is currently available free of charge, following registration.
A recurring theme was the need to link the various tools together. Participants proposed integrating SeedPOD with seed-zone maps, combining restoration planning, seed sourcing, nursery management and monitoring into a connected digital ecosystem. Speakers agreed that interoperability between platforms would greatly increase their value and emphasized that application programming interfaces (APIs) and emerging AI technologies could facilitate seamless data exchange.
The discussion also identified remaining gaps in restoration decision support. Participants highlighted opportunities for future tools covering restoration approach selection, natural regeneration potential, fruiting phenology, seed collection planning and field establishment. There was broad agreement that future development should focus not only on creating additional tools but also on improving their integration and accessibility for practitioners.
Concluding remarks
In his closing reflections, Dr Chris Kettle emphasized that the webinar demonstrated how successful forest restoration depends on making informed decisions throughout the entire restoration pipeline, rather than simply planting trees. He noted that each digital tool addressed a different stage of the restoration process and collectively represented an emerging ecosystem of complementary technologies.
He stressed that the greatest future challenge is ensuring these tools work together rather than becoming isolated solutions, allowing information to flow efficiently between species selection, seed sourcing, nursery management, monitoring and restoration outcomes. Equally important, he argued, is making these technologies readily accessible to the people carrying out restoration on the ground, particularly community organizations, indigenous groups and smallholder farmers. He concluded that the webinar had laid the foundations for stronger collaboration among developers and users and represented an important step towards a more integrated, evidence-based digital infrastructure for global forest restoration.
If you are interested in any of the above apps and would like to adapt any them your local conditions, please drop a message into the "contact us" tab and we'll put you in touch with the developers.
