The University of Western Australia has launched an innovative new spin-out company that aims to rehabilitate degraded landscapes with a key focus on reinstating biodiversity using native seeds.
Emergence Ecotech was founded on innovative technologies developed by researchers at UWA's Centre for Engineering Innovation: Agriculture & Ecological Restoration (CEI:AgER), in association with Kings Park Science, and includes the Seed Flamer, a tool that makes native seeds easier to handle and sow; and the Mega Sweeper, a precision seeding device designed for native seeds.
Associate Professor Andrew Guzzomi, Director of CEI:AgER, Dr Todd Erickson, CEI:AgER Eco-restoration Theme Lead, and Dr Monte Masarei, CEI:AgER Eco-tech Lead, are the founding inventors of the technology that provides restoration solutions for land disturbed by human activity such as mined or agricultural land.
The team will lead Emergence Ecotech in partnership with UWA and Biologic Seed – a local company focused on implementing native seed use at scale through a variety of direct seeding and biodiverse planting programs.
"We are combining our state-of-the-art seed enhancement technology with our purpose developed precision delivery systems," Associate Professor Guzzomi said.
Globally 20 to 40 per cent of land, or between 2.6 to 5.2 billion hectares, is degraded and in Australia at least 52 million hectares is degraded.
Existing methods of large-scale land restoration are insufficient – native land restoration has less than five per cent success rate of plant establishment and use of non-native plants fails to restore critical biodiversity.
"We can provide a complete land restoration solution that significantly improves native plant establishment from direct sown seed, increasing seedling emergence from less than five per cent to levels ranging between 40 and 80 per cent," Dr Erickson said.
Emergence Ecotech would like to see the technologies adopted by mining partners and rehabilitation practitioners across the State – especially in regions where many mines are rapidly approaching closure and have a major need for scaled efficient seed use.
"Our research will provide industry partners access to technology that can bring damaged and degraded land back to life," Dr Masarei said.
"With our company now formally up and running we are looking forward to working with industry to scale up biodiverse restoration."
Image above: Professor Anna Nowak, Dr Monte Masarei, Associate Professor Andrew Guzzomi, Ms Kim Giddens MLA and Dr Todd Erickson.
