We are honoured to have partnered with an incredible charity, Guyra Paraguay. Among many noble initiatives, they are actively working to preserve the San Rafael reserve, one of the largest remaining parts of the Mata Atlántica forest. It is one of the most biodiverse regions of the world and home to 7% of the flora and 5% of vertebrate species. Because of that, it has been declared a national park in Paraguay, but unfortunately the state doesn’t have the resources to buy it back from private owners who are cutting it down for timber.
The San Rafael reserve is also considered the as the “Tekoha Guasyu”, or the big home of the indigenous Mbyá Guaraní tribe, who have lived there for thousands of years. Guyra Paraguay is working together with the tribe to prevent illegal logging, amplify their appeal to the government to intervene in further forest destruction, and most importantly to create economic incentives that would create funds to acquire pieces of the land for the tribe. Their joint initiative now owns more than 7,200 hectares of the forest.
Guyra Paraguay have developed a unique, organic agroforestry model that uses Yerba maté to create an economic incentive towards the recovery of the national park San Rafel. In this initiative they are planting yerba maté trees in degraded areas of the forest and enrich it with native forest species and rich manures, with living barriers and absolutely no pesticides. This means that the land can be managed profitably and organically, promoting the conservation of the soil, the forest and biodiversity, all while recovering Yerba maté in the place it originally comes from.
In addition they are teaching local communities of farmers and indigenous populations how to grow maté in a new fair trade, organic model and helping them switch from less profitable mono-cultures. They help through the delivery of yerba maté seedings, technical visits, and training of plot management, harvest administration and financial advice.
https://guyra.org.py/san-rafael/