Leveraging Traditional Agroforestry Practices to Support Sustainable and Agrobiodiverse Landscapes in Southern Brazil

Abstract

Integrated landscape approaches have been identified as key to addressing competing social, ecological, economic, and political contexts and needs in landscapes as a means to improve and preserve agrobiodiversity. Despite the consistent calls to integrate traditional and local knowledge and a range of stakeholders in the process of developing integrated landscape approaches, there continues to be a disconnect between international agreements, national policies, and local grassroots initiatives. This case study explores an approach to address such challenges through true transdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder research and outreach to develop solutions for integrated landscapes that value and include the experience and knowledge of local communities and farmers. Working collaboratively with small-scale agroforestry farmers in Southern Brazil who continue to use traditional agroecological practices to produce erva-mate (Ilex paraguariensis), our transdisciplinary team is working to collect oral histories, document local ecological knowledge, and support farmer-led initiatives to address a range of issues, including profitability, productivity, and legal restrictions on forest use. By leveraging the knowledge across our network, we are developing and testing models to optimize and scale-out agroforestry and silvopastoral systems based on our partners’ traditional practices, while also supporting the implementation of approaches that expand forest cover, increase biodiversity, protect and improve ecosystem services, and diversify the agricultural landscape. In so doing, we are developing a strong evidence base that can begin to challenge current environmental policies and commonly held misconceptions that threaten the continuation of traditional agroforestry practices, while also offering locally adapted and realistic models that can be used to diversify the agricultural landscape in Southern Brazil.

Oral history and traditional ecological knowledge in social innovation and smallholder sovereignty: a case study of erva-mate in Southern Brazil

“…These laws place significant restrictions on the amount and type of management that can occur in forests on private property. Although these and other environmental laws have not altogether stopped deforestation, as is clear from recent devastation in the Amazon forest from 2019, in Southern Paraná and Northern Santa Catarina States there is a higher incidence of forest cover than other areas of these states and much of this is related to traditional land-use through agroforestry erva-mate production (Marques 2014, Lacerda et al 2020. However, farmers feel that they are being disproportionately affected by the law; unlike the large-scale agribusinesses that are responsible for much of the deforestation that has occurred, they lack the legal and economic resources to fight the fines they may incur if they harvest their forest resources, despite the fact that these practices are based on deep knowledge of the environment and generations of shared knowledge and practice.…”

“…As Persson et al (2018) have noted, this "practical experience, and local knowledge more generally, should be integrated early on in the research process" and it should not be used to simply verify more scientific evidence, but rather to understand how people experience their environment. Researchers from one of the project's key partners, Embrapa Forestry, are leading this aspect of the project and have begun to leverage information from the oral history interviews, field visits, and knowledge sharing workshops to test and replicate multispecies productive agroforestry systems based on traditional knowledge that can be extended to other land uses to restore degraded areas or to transition from monoculture systems (see for example , Lacerda 2019a, b, Lacerda et al 2020. The legal regulations that severely limit the use of forested areas (Legal Reserves and Areas of Permanent Protection) on rural properties have made increasing forest cover across the landscape extremely difficult because landowners view forested lands as worthless and untouchable.…”

“…Thus, innovative productive systems are needed that not only restore diverse and resilient ecosystems, but also generate income for the farmer. The successful implementation of such systems across 50 small-scale farms in the region (Lacerda et al 2020) is providing information to update current environmental policies that threaten the continuation of traditional agroforestry practices.…”

“…1) still largely maintain the agroforestry systems in which erva-mate has been cultivated for generations. It is no coincidence, therefore, that although the region has undergone significant anthropogenic interventions in the last century, which have resulted in a drastic reduction in the original forest cover (Castella andBritez 2004, Vibrans et al 2012), it is precisely in this region where patches of forest are still found (Lacerda 2016, Lacerda et al 2020. These systems occur mainly on small family farms where agroforestry systems are integrated with a variety of food crops and other nontimber forest products, including erva-mate, native fruits, corn, beans, rice, and vegetables, as well as pigs, cattle, and chickens.…”

“…Maintaining forest cover is a key aspect of these agroforestry systems, particularly in terms of erva-mate production because the species naturally grows well in the forest understory (Oliveira and Rotta 1985), and shaded conditions tend to produce a product of better quality, i.e., less bitter and with greater leaf area (Marques 2014). Forests are not only important for the properties themselves because they protect local biodiversity (e.g., by providing natural pest control), but also offer other ecosystem services, including the availability of clean water and air, climate regulation, among others (Hauer 2009, Marques 2014, Lacerda et al 2020. Traditional erva-mate systems have a wide diversity of forest species that ensure nutrient cycling (Ilany et al 2010) and maintaining forests helps mitigate climate shocks such as extreme temperatures, as well as assisting in regulating water cycles during times of water stress or excessive rainfall (HLPE 2017, FAO 2019.…”