Season 3, Episode 5 - “Resilient Communities for the Future”: A GIAHS Designation for Agroforestry in Brazil"

Featuring Dr. Evelyn Nimmo

In this episode of Handpicked: Stories from the Field, we sit down with Dr. Evelyn Nimmo, a Research Associate with the LCSFS and the President of the Center for the Development and Education of Traditional Erva-mate Systems (CEDErva) in Paraná, Brazil. Dr. Nimmo shares the ongoing process of applying for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designation for the traditional agroforestry practices of growing erva-mate in Brazil. She shares the community-focused process, and how this designation might positively affect the practice on the ground.

 

Contributors 

Co-Producers & Hosts: Laine Young & Amanda Di Battista  
Producer: Charlie Spring
Sound Design & Editing: Narayan Subramoniam 

 

Guests

Dr. Evelyn Nimmo

 

Support & Funding
Wilfrid Laurier University
The Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems
Balsillie School for International Affairs

 

Music Credits

Keenan Reimer-Watts

 

Resources 

Moving Beyond Acknowledgments- LSPIRG
Whose Land
Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems

UNESCO Chair on Food, Biodiversity & Sustainability 

CEDErva: Center for the Development and Education of Traditional Erva Mate Systems

GIAHS: Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems

Voicing Change: Co-Creating Knowledge and Capacity for Sustainable Food Systems

 

Connect with Us: 

Email: [email protected]

Twitter/X: @Handpickedpodc

Facebook: Handpicked Podcast

 

Glossary of Terms

Season 3, Episode 5 – “Resilient Communities for the Future”: A GIAHS Designation for Agroforestry in Brazil" 

  
Featuring: Dr. Evelyn Nimmo 

 

Glossary of Terms  

 

Agroecology 
“Agroecology is a holistic and integrated approach that simultaneously applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable agriculture and food systems. It seeks to optimize the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment while also addressing the need for socially equitable food systems within which people can exercise choice over what they eat and how and where it is produced.” 

 

https://www.fao.org/agroecology/overview/en/ 

 

Agrobiodiversity 

“Agrobiodiversity is the result of the interaction between the environment, genetic resources and management systems and practices used by culturally diverse peoples, and therefore land and water resources are used for production in different ways. Thus, agrobiodiversity encompasses the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms that are necessary for sustaining key functions of the agro-ecosystem, including its structure and processes for, and in support of, food production and food security (FAO, 1999a). Local knowledge and culture can therefore be considered as integral parts of agrobiodiversity, because it is the human activity of agriculture that shapes and conserves this biodiversity.” 

 

https://www.fao.org/3/y5609e/y5609e01.htm#:~:text=%5BBox%202%5D%20A%20DEFINITION%20OF,%2C%20livestock%2C%20forestry%20and%20fisheries. 

 

Agroforestry 

“Agroforestry is a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately used on the same land-management units as agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence. In agroforestry systems there are both ecological and economical interactions between the different components. Agroforestry can also be defined as a dynamic, ecologically based, natural resource management system that, through the integration of trees on farms and in the agricultural landscape, diversifies and sustains production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits for land users at all levels. In particular, agroforestry is crucial to smallholder farmers and other rural people because it can enhance their food supply, income and health. Agroforestry systems are multifunctional systems that can provide a wide range of economic, sociocultural, and environmental benefits.” 

https://www.fao.org/forestry/agroforestry/80338/en/ 

 

Araucária 

“The Araucaria moist forests ecoregion spans the mountainous areas of Southern Atlantic Brazil and extends into northeastern Argentina. It is a coniferous forest ecoregion of the Atlantic Forest biome”  

https://lacgeo.com/araucaria-moist-forests  

“The Araucária Forest once covered 40% of the territory of Paraná... following centuries of unrestrained timber extraction and misguided political decisions, the forest only has an unbelievable 3% of its original area”  

https://www.restaurabrasil.org.br/en/our-projects/araucaria-forest/  

 

Community of Practice 

“A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic and who come together to fulfill both individual and group goals. Communities of practice often focus on sharing best practices and creating new knowledge to advance a domain of professional practice. Interaction on an ongoing basis is an important part of this. Many communities of practice rely on face-to-face meetings as well as web-based collaborative environments to communicate, connect and conduct community activities.” 

 

https://www.communityofpractice.ca/background/what-is-a-community-of-practice/ 

 

Conscientization  

“The process of developing a critical awareness of one’s social reality through reflection and action.  Action is fundamental because it is the process of changing the reality.  Paulo Freire says that we all acquire social myths which have a dominant tendency, and so learning is a critical process which depends upon uncovering real problems and actual needs.” 

 

https://freire.org/concepts-used-by-paulo-freire  

 

Dynamic Conservation Plan 

“Dynamic conservation strategies which are designed to create, retain or enhance habitat in temporary and adaptable ways, can reinforce the value of protected areas and help species persist in a changing world. Developing and deploying dynamic conservation strategies is especially important for migratory species, marine systems and for adaptive management of climate change-driven species redistributions. Dynamic conservation strategies will become increasingly important for biodiversity conservation, especially as a means of facilitating adaptation to climate change and its concomitant variability and extremes, such as extended drought.” 

 

https://www.scienceforconservation.org/science-in-action/dynamic-conservation-story#:~:text=Adaptable%20solutions%20are%20needed.,persist%20in%20a%20changing%20world. 

 

Erva Mate/ Chimarrão (Portuguese) / Yerba mate (Spanish) 

 

“Erva-mate (Ilex paraguariensis) is a tree that grows naturally in the Araucaria Forest, which is part of the Atlantic Forest biome, an ecosystem that is at risk of extinction. Within the region known as the Rio de la Plata Basin, where important Brazilian rivers flow, such as the Paraná, Iguaçu, Uruguay and Paraguay Rivers, erva-mate is linked to the traditions of the original inhabitants of southern Brazil. A key element in the Araucaria Forest, erva mate is cultivated and harvested to provide nutritious and delicious teas and infusions that are part of indigenous and settler food ways and cultures.” 

 

https://www.cederva.org/en/sistemas-de-producao 

 

Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) 

 

“Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) are agroecosystems inhabited by communities that live in an intricate relationship with their territory. These evolving sites are resilient systems characterized by remarkable agrobiodiversity, traditional knowledge, invaluable cultures and landscapes, sustainably managed by farmers, herders, fisherfolk, and forest people in ways that contribute to their livelihoods and food security. Through the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has designated over 60 sites around the world.” 

 

https://www.fao.org/giahs/en/ 

 

Industrial Agriculture System 

Large scale, intensive agriculture or animal production systems that rely on chemical fertilizers, and practices that lack diversity, such as monocropping and genetic modification. These systems are built to maximize production and profit, often at the expense of biodiversity and the health and wellbeing of animals. 

 

 

Discussion Questions

 

 

Season 3, Episode 5 – “Resilient Communities for the Future”: A GIAHS Designation for Agroforestry in Brazil" 

 
Featuring: Dr. Evelyn Nimmo 

 

Discussion Questions 

 

 

1.     How might the GIAHS designation (and project activities like creating digital narratives) help convince young people to stay in their communities and farm using traditional systems? Why is this a goal for the project? 
 

2.     Dr. Nimmo talks about the “human elements” of the erva mate system, why are those just as important as the biophysical elements? What might this mean for our understanding of ‘conservation’? 
 

3.     A goal of the project is to help traditional farmers recover autonomy and recognition, to challenge the invisibilization of the farmer in the supply chain of erva mate. Can you apply this idea of invisibilization to your own experience of accessing food? Do you know of concepts, social movements or business approaches that attempt to increase democracy in food systems? What is the role of consumers in all of this? 

 

4.     How does the work of CEDErva, and the erva mate growers, challenge common perceptions of what is meant by “modern” and “innovative” when it comes to food systems?  

 

5.     What role does farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing, and recognition of the role of Indigenous knowledge, play in a process of reconciliation in settler-colonial contexts like Brazil (and other places)?