After extensive work on the part of the Brazil FLOW team, the traditional agroforestry system of shade-grown Erva-mate in the Araucaria Forest of Parana, Brazil has been designated as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
From the FAO website: “For centuries, Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities in southern Brazil have cultivated erva-mate in shaded agroforestry systems rooted in ancestral and agroecological practices. By integrating food crops, native fruits, and forest products, the system strengthens biodiversity, food sovereignty, and cultural identity, while helping conserve the Araucaria Forest, one of the planet’s most endangered biodiversity hotspots and a vital reservoir of life.”
Read more on the FAO website about the global importance of this model of agroforestry, the food and livelihood security it provides and the agrobiodiversity it supports, the local and traditional knowledge systems that comprise it, the cultures, value systems, and social organizations with which it is intertwined, and the landscape and waterscape features that the erva-mate system shapes.
To see the erva-mate agroforestry system in images, view the GIAHS Flickr album.
