QUICK & PULSE

Community projects and forest defense initiatives in countries such as Colombia, Chile, and Argentina demonstrate the importance of these ecosystems for the feeding of communities, mainly indigenous ones.

Chagraselva is an initiative in the Colombian Amazon for sustainable agriculture that has provided autonomy to communities through the production and marketing of food.

A Mapuche community in Chile's Araucanía region has managed to explore ways to regenerate their forests, despite the impacts of tourism and extractivism.

In the Argentine Chaco, environmentalists are waging a legal battle to defend communities from deforestation in the second largest forest ecosystem in South America.

In a world where over 5 billion people rely on forests and their resources for survival, the value of these ecosystems increases, as they are essential for accessing food and livelihoods. This is the theme chosen by the United Nations Organization to commemorate the International Day of Forests in 2025: forests and food.

Mongabay Latam shares experiences of community leaders, environmentalists, and lawyers in the utilization, knowledge, and defense of these ecosystems, which help to understand the role these ecosystems play in people's daily lives, especially in communities that depend on them.

Chagraselva, exploiting and caring for the Amazon rainforest

One of these efforts takes place in the Colombian Amazon, on the border with Peru and Brazil. It is Chagraselva, a sustainable agriculture project for the subsistence of indigenous groups in the region, mainly from the ticuna, yagua, and cocama peoples, who exploit these areas of cultivation –also known as chagras– without deforesting the jungle.

“The idea is that people plant the products and after harvesting, on the same land, they go on to reforest fruit trees and trees that are used for construction, for housing and furniture. That families take ownership of the entire system,” says Abidjan Fernández Barrera, a member of the ticuna people who carry out this activity in 14 communities,

Fernández explains that the management of the chagras is in charge of family groups, who decide the percentage of products they will use as food and the ones they will sell to other people or communities.

So far, more than 250 families in 14 communities are working with the Chagraselva initiative in Colombia. Photo: courtesy of Abidjan Fernández Barrera

In her case, she also promotes the sale of natural plant oils native to the region, mainly to tourists, as she believes that her work also conveys a message of adaptation and mitigation in the face of the climate crisis.

“Everything we do in agroforestry systems is to help mitigate a bit of climate change. The idea of this project is also that families do not practice monoculture,” the farmer explains, who has been working with the Caminos de Identidad Foundation for nearly 8 years, which implements agroforestry systems and promotes the exchange of seeds, as well as the production of fertilizers.

In this area of the Amazon, products from pancoger (crops that satisfy part of the food needs of a specific population) are generated every three months, among them, chili peppers, corn, watermelons, cucumbers, and some types of vegetables.

“We have another type of fruit trees, such as native mangoes, cashew, acai, aguaje, umari, carambola, cocoa, copoazú, zapote, and other types that we manage within our shabras,” he says.

The management of the chagras is under the responsibility of family groups, who decide the percentage of products they will use as food. Photo: courtesy of Abidjan Fernández Barrera

Fernández explains that various varieties of cassava are also produced, which they seek to exploit not only as food but also to produce starch and biopackaging that can replace disposable dishes.

In Colombia, between 2021 and 2023, the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity was 30.7%, affecting more than 16 million people, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

In 2022, the cost of a healthy diet in Colombia was an average of 4.13 dollars per person per day, so 36.6% of the population (19 million people) did not have access to a healthy diet, according to the international organization.

In this sense, the sustainable agriculture project in indigenous populations of the Amazon has become important. So far, more than 250 families in 14 communities have been working with the Chagraselva initiative and they are the ones who determine the location, size, and composition of their crops.

"For me, it has meant raising awareness, sowing hope. Seeds are the synonym of hope for a future. We are the protectors of nature, so that the world continues to breathe," she affirms.

In addition to fruit trees, the chagraselvas produce paprika, corn, cucumbers, and some types of vegetables. Photo: Courtesy of bidjan Fernández Barrera

Mapuche memory to regenerate the forests

Much more to the south, in the Araucanía region of Chile, the indigenous community of José Luis Caniulef maintains a process aimed at regenerating their forests, linking biocultural memory, and facing challenges related to the tourist impact and extractivism of their ecosystems.

This 560-hectare nothofagus forest territory –temperate rainforest– saw the arrival of outsiders to the Mapuche community over a 20-year period, which impacted the conservation dynamics of the forest, says Alexis Catalán Caniulef, a leader of this community.

"The tourist interest in the existence of Lake Villarrica and Calafquen, as well as the Araucaria Forest, makes this territory depopulated of the people who have lived here for generations," he maintains. "At the same time, new inhabitants come from the city, and this has led to a very profound transformation of the lifestyle that has meant the exploitation of the forest to build vacation homes," he adds.

In the absence of an authority that could plan this rural territory, the Mapuche community began to carry out activities of connection with the new settlers, such as forest management training, release of native flora and fauna species for the regeneration of the forest, as well as the relaunch of gardens.

The Mapuche community seeks to regenerate its forests and connect with the new residents of the area. Photo: courtesy of the José Luis Caniulef Community