The best way to CARE FOR THE CANOPIES? Learn about the indigenous farming practices that have influenced the environmentally friendly production of everyday products sourced directly from the rainforest.
RAINFORESTS are full of biological wonders; filling our medicine cabinets and grocery stores with essential products sourced directly from the canopies. But if deforestation continues at the current rate — 28 million hectares lost a year — global rainforests will be wiped out in 76 years.
How can we learn to farm sustainably in the rainforest without causing any harm? The answer may lie in indigenous farming techniques.
Centuries of sustainable farming techniques
Indigenous communities, both in and outside of the rainforest, continue to use sustainable farming practices to live in symbiosis with the natural environment. The intention of sustainable farming is to prevent straining the environment — so both people and biodiversity can thrive together.
Here’s how they do it:
- Polyculture: This practice involves growing two or more plant species simultaneously. Ideally, the plants will compliment each other. For example, in the Amazon, Brazil nuts and fruit trees are cultivated together by indigenous communities. Polyculture is considered sustainable because it promotes diversification of natural resources — while improving soil health for continued agricultural success.
- Raised Field Agriculture: Instead of implementing a slash and burn technique, indigenous rainforest farmers in the Amazon turned to raised field agriculture. Researchers found evidence that indigenous people in the Amazon used this technique, until colonizers introduced slash and burn agriculture. Raised field agriculture preserves the soil nutrients that are normally lost with the use of slash and burn agriculture — all without the destruction of the rainforest habitat.
- Permaculture: This sustainable farming technique is centered on respect for the natural lifecycle of plants living within an ecosystem — limiting waste and placing minimal strain on the environment. Evidence suggests that before colonizations indigenous communities in the Amazon (like the Matsés) used permaculture in order to live in balance with the surrounding environment.
- New Solutions on Old Pastures: Scientists are getting innovative with sustainable farming practices: a recent study found that using former cow pastures in the Amazon for soy production would prevent further deforestation while increasing soy growth.
Supporting the rainforest — so it can keep supporting us
Worldwide, rainforests are under threat from unsustainable farming practices. Agriculture in the Amazon accounts for a high percentage of deforestation: 80% of deforestation comes from cattle farming, and 400 square miles have been lost to soy farming. In Indonesia, industrial farming from corporations like Korindo Group, a palm oil distributer, has accounted for large swaths of burned rainforest — as shown in the Nusantra Atlas deforestation tracker.
Plants derived from the rainforest are essential for our survival — and indigenous farming techniques have shown us this is possible without destruction.
Protect RAINFORESTS to protect the planet. Donate with #VAKOVAKO.
