“Nendo Dango” Workshop, or Fukuoka Method, in Seville: Seed Bombs for the Guadalquivir

On the occasion of European Maritime Day, we held a workshop for families at the Seville Port Activity Center. In the pursuit of sustainability and innovation, there is a fundamental pillar that is often underestimated but is key: getting the community involved. It’s not only about turning private sector practices into sustainable ones, but about ensuring that those practices have a positive impact on the community’s present and future. That was the aim of the nendo dango workshop, or seed bombs.

Accompanied by the APS, the Chair of Climate Change at UMA, and the Seville-based agency Engranajes Culturales, the goal of the workshop was to bring participating families closer to their environment and to ecological restoration techniques such as the Fukuoka method.

Additionally, this activity served as a guiding thread to connect traditional knowledge with environmental innovation. Through this workshop, we were able to explain to attendees what the BIOECOREST-SAFARI ecological restoration project is about—one in which we collaborate with APS, UMA, and other entities.

What is nendo dango?

Nendo dango (“seed bombs” in Japanese), or the Fukuoka method, is a technique for ecological restoration that involves making small clay balls composed of soil substrate and clay, in which various seeds compatible with the environment are embedded.

It is also known as the Fukuoka method because it was developed and standardized by Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese biologist and philosopher who began his career as a scientific researcher specializing in phytopathology (the study of plant diseases). When he was still very young, he left academia and returned to the family farm to experiment with techniques he coined as “natural farming.”

The result was the development of a method that maximizes the land’s well-being while minimizing the work needed to cultivate it, as the aim is to recreate as closely as possible the natural conditions of the terrain (something it shares with other Japanese reforestation and cultivation methods, such as the Miyawaki method). One of the core practices of that method is nendo dango, which eliminates the need to disturb the soil for planting and cultivation.

How are seed bombs made?

The process is simple (and fun): it just requires sufficient knowledge of the local environment to choose the right seeds and the following materials: clay, mud or sludge, compost, water, and a cardboard surface.

• First, mix clay and compost in a bucket (we used 300 grams of compost for every kilo of clay).
• Then, gradually add water until the mixture forms a firm, moldable mass.
• Once it has the right consistency, we add the seeds. In our workshop, we used a mix of Mediterranean aromatic and herbaceous plants that can thrive not only along the banks of the Guadalquivir, but also in pots, gardens, or vacant lots in the area.
• Mix the dough with the seeds until it’s homogeneous.
• Form the balls by hand. They should be approximately one and a half centimeters in diameter (or fit comfortably in the palm of your hand).
• Let them dry in the shade, on the cardboard.

A workshop to connect the community with its environment

European Maritime Day is an event that celebrates the sea, ports, and the sustainable opportunities they offer. And what better context than that to work with the families attending the workshop on a way to engage with their environment without invading it—instead, helping to improve it.

Through the hands-on nendo dango experience, we were able to share our research and innovation work with clay-based technologies, currently being developed through the BIOECOREST-SAFARI project.

We share with Fukuoka not just the material we work with, but the foundational belief that nature itself holds the solutions to problems caused by human activity. During the workshop, we explained to attendees how Compressed Earth Blocks (CEB)—which we’re developing to stabilize and revegetate the port’s banks—function without the need for machinery or invasive intervention in an already degraded ecosystem.

The workshop allowed participants to experience firsthand the impact natural resources have on the environment we live in. After all, the Port of Seville is the only inland port in Spain, and the connection between the people of Seville and the river is direct and constant. Helping neighbors understand the importance of the river’s health—and the port’s role in it—is the first step toward ecological restoration. The dynamics of this workshop allowed us to show how that restoration can be carried out in a participatory and collective way.

Each workshop participant finished the experience with between three and five seed bombs, which they could either take home or donate for future reforestation campaigns. We also reflected on the places—especially the younger attendees—would choose to throw their clay balls, thereby fostering awareness of their surroundings.

It was a very rewarding experience, thanks to the Port Authority of Seville, the Chair of Climate Change at UMA, and Engranajes Culturales, but above all, thanks to the families committed to and responsible for the environment, who came to enjoy and learn. We hope the experience was as rewarding for them as it was for us!