Context
Seeds carry the accumulated knowledge of generations of farmers who selected, adapted, and exchanged them across centuries. Yet over the past half century, this living heritage has been systematically eroded. An estimated 75% of crop genetic diversity has been lost since the early twentieth century, the result of deliberate policy choices: the industrialization of agriculture, the concentration of commercial seed markets in the hands of a small number of corporations, and legal frameworks that have progressively restricted farmers' rights to save, exchange, and reproduce their own seeds.
In Lebanon and Tunisia, these dynamics have played out with particular force. In Tunisia, local seeds made up 65% of all seeds in the 1970s , today they represent only 5%. Fifty indigenous varieties across fourteen governorates are at risk of extinction, and eleven have already disappeared. In Lebanon, an ongoing parliamentary debate around seed governance and the emergence of a new agroecology coalition have opened a rare window for policy intervention.
At the same time, farmers, particularly women, have never fully surrendered their seeds.
Informal exchange networks, seed festivals, and quiet acts of cultivation have kept local varieties alive despite hostile legal and economic conditions. This project builds on that resistance.
About the Project
Local Seeds, Local Power (LSLP) is a new initiative of ARI's Environmental Politics Program, working with farmers, agroecology networks, legal experts, civil society organizations, and policymakers in Lebanon and Tunisia to advocate for seed sovereignty; the right of farmers and communities to save, replant, breed, share, exchange, and sell their own seeds, and to participate in decisions about the laws that govern them.
The project grows directly from ARI's existing food sovereignty research and regional stakeholder engagement, translating years of policy mapping and community consultation into direct advocacy and legal reform work. It runs from November 2025 to April 2027.
Objectives
To equip civil society organizations, agroecology networks, and food sovereignty movements with the tools and knowledge to influence the reform of national seed governance in Lebanon and Tunisia.
To provide parliamentarians and ministries of agriculture with expert guidance and civil society input for drafting new seed legislation in Tunisia and amending existing seed laws in Lebanon.
To increase public awareness of the importance of indigenous seeds, farmers' rights, and agricultural biodiversity, making accessible the political stakes of a debate too often confined to technical and legal language.
Main Activities
Research and Policy Briefs Two country-specific policy briefs, co-produced with researchers, farmers, legal experts, and civil society actors, will analyze the current legal landscape, map key stakeholders, and set out priorities for advancing seed sovereignty in each context.
Legislative Drafting and Advocacy In Tunisia, ARI will work with a coalition of legal scholars, agroecologists, and farmers to draft a new law on local seeds, developed through an inclusive consultation process and disseminated to parliament and the Ministry of Agriculture. In Lebanon, ARI will support the drafting of a proposed amendment to existing seed legislation, coordinating with the national agroecology coalition and presenting findings to MPs and the public.
Public Consultations In both countries, consultation processes will bring together farmers, cooperatives, civil society, and legal experts to shape the final legislative outputs, with particular attention to the participation of women farmers and women-led cooperatives.
Media Engagement The project will collaborate with Lebanese and Tunisian environmental journalists to produce accessible media content on seed policy reform, op-eds, digital storytelling, and a campaign showcasing the experiences of farmers who have resisted seed dispossession.