CATIE trains on mobile application "Seed Trace" to facilitate collection and traceability of forest seeds

• Initiative reflects work in the region for forest sustainability and responsible natural resource management

The CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center), in collaboration with the United States Forest Service, conducted the second workshop on the mobile application "Seed Trace" designed to facilitate the collection and traceability of forest seeds.

The main objective was to present the new functionalities and features incorporated into this mobile application developed by CATIE, which will soon be implemented by forest seed banks in Central America and the Dominican Republic.

In the application developed and designed by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Department of CATIE, data from seed trees such as latitude, longitude, diameter, health status, fruit kilograms, flowering evaluation, registration date, seed quality, germination percentage, among others, can be recorded. The locations of the seed trees in different life zones can also be viewed via GPS.

This joint workshop represents an important step in strengthening technological capacities in forest seed management in the region.

Katy Mazer, representative of the United States Forest Service, indicated that this alliance with CATIE has generated very positive results for seed banks in Central America and the Dominican Republic.

"It is very important to understand that this application is a tool that comes to help improve their functions and assist them in the resilience to climate change that is affecting Central American countries for better collection of forest seeds," she said.

Leonardo Aguilar, head of the Technology and Information Department, commented that workshop participants expressed their deep gratitude for this collaboration, as they will now have a technological tool that will significantly improve their seed collection and traceability processes.

Training

The training activities began with the presentation of each of the participants, welcome remarks, and a general explanation of the work done in recent weeks by the ICT area in the Costa Rica classroom of the Graduate School.

During the morning, they delved deeper into the context of the application, learned about the adjustments made, and the presentation of the new functionalities, as well as a demonstration.

After installing the application on their mobile phones, a field trip to the CATIE farm began to identify some trees and test the new functionalities.

Harriet López, from the Forest Seed Bank of Guatemala of the National Institute of Forests, commented that part of the objectives of using this mobile application will be to digitize all field information to have better records of the seed trees they collect.

"About the experience of visiting CATIE and having this training, it has been very positive, very enriching, as it strengthens us in knowledge and with CATIE, this exchange of experiences with other banks in the region is very important to improve our records of seed trees," she emphasized.

Porfirio Peralta, from the seed bank of the Dominican Republic, mentioned that they have known for many years the work carried out by CATIE in the field of seeds, as it is not the first time that similar projects have been undertaken.

"CATIE has a very large impact in the region. For our country, it has been very valuable, not only because of the projects, but also because of the number of professionals who have been trained or studied here in environmental or agricultural issues. So, this application is another impact of positive dimensions for all the countries of Central America and ours," he pointed out.

The commitment of CATIE and the United States Forest Service to forest sustainability and responsible natural resource management is reflected in this initiative, which seeks to promote the conservation and sustainable use of forests in the region.