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Paper short abstract:

The conventional agricultural logic of maximizing yields threatens forest ecosystems in which traditional erva-mate systems occur. Conflict arises between dominant agricultural narratives of productivity, and the environmental subjectivities, affect, and local ecological knowledge, held by farmers.

Paper long abstract:

Erva-mate (Ilex paraguaienses) is a key economic/cultural element of Indigenous and traditional communities, and many small-scale family farmers in Center-South Paraná state, Brazil. In traditional agroforestry systems, erva-mate is cultivated in fragments of Araucaria Forest (a threatened ecosystem in the Atlantic Forest), with a wide diversity of other species and non-wood forest products. Despite the different contexts and realities of the social actors that constitute these systems, erva-mate assumes a fundamental importance in the environmental and cultural identities of the people who continue these production systems and the forest with which it is associated. However, there is growing pressure on farmers to adopt high-intensity systems to increase production as a means of ‘modernization’ and rural development. The conventional agricultural logic of maximizing yields threatens the forest ecosystem in which traditional shade-grown systems occur. Conflict thus arises between dominant agricultural narratives of productivity espoused by the state and industry, and the environmental subjectivities, ecological knowledge, and affect for the forest held by small-scale farmers and traditional communities. This paper will consider a set of actions that a multidisciplinary team of researchers, farmers, and practitioners has been developing within the scope of the “Observatory for Traditional and Agroecological Erva-mate Production” – a multisectoral network of more than 30 institutions working to value and support the continuation of such systems – aimed at greater autonomy within the production chain and appreciation of the key role erva-mate producing communities have in preserving the forest environment and the knowledges associated with traditional agroforestry production systems.