The rough road to sustainable farming in an Amazon deforestation hotspot

In Brazil, 45% of agriculturally viable land is owned by 1% of tenants. To combat this inequitable ratio, the Landless Workers’ Movement formed and took a stand for seizing lands that are "not fulfilling a productive or social use." The group successfully reclaimed an area known as Mario Lago and has since begun a reforestation process alongside agroforestry which has allowed for an increase in diversity of food produced. The farmers haven't stopped there, however. To sell their produce, they have implemented a system of turning the consumer into a co-producer thus ensuring economic stability.

The creation of forest gardens—the modern term for an ancient agroforestry model that mixes shrubs, herbs, vines, fruit and nut trees, and perennial vegetables—are helping supply communities in sub-Saharan Africa with food, medicine, and animal feed. The U.S.-based NGO TREES claims to have created 38,000 active forest gardens in five countries, each comprising about 4,000 trees. This has restored 99,743 acres of degraded land, having reached 56,273 farmers and their families across 174 community projects.

The effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and hotter global temperatures, are already having drastic impact on many communities, especially the rural, agricultural regions of countries such as Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Mozambique. Earthrise explores how people in these communities are learning new skills, implementing new techniques, and are striving in every way possible to adapt to these environmental changes while creating hope for sustainable growth in the future.

The Clean Green initiative empowers Yezidi women who escaped the 2014 ISIS genocide to rebuild their lives and enviornment by planting more than 2,000 trees, specifically chosen to withstand Iraq’s shifting climate. The grassroots group started with just five volunteers, but now has more than 40 members.

Nonprofits are spreading knowledge of breadfruit trees to communities facing food insecurity around the world because it is a reliable, resilient crop that produces abundant yields. Local farmers are taking an agroecology approach to planting the trees — which produce a nutritious, potato-like fruit — with other mixed crops so the plants can benefit from each other.

Coffee growers in Oaxaca, Mexico, are renovating their plantations into agroforestry systems to adapt to the effects of climate change. The new growing style integrates native trees and shrubs to diversify the fields. This makes the plants more resistant to unpredictable weather, diseases, and pests.

As concerns about food security grow in Hawaii amidst a backdrop of climate change, Pacific Islanders are leaning into agroforestry as a means to address the problem. Resilient to extreme weather, agroforests allow for multiple plants to be farmed together and can "grow double or triple the amount of plants in the same area of land as mono-culture."

During the Industrial Revolution, farmers began harvesting monoculture crops which produced promising profits but proved harmful to the soil and weakened the immune capabilities of native plants. Lately, however, permaculture practices have been on the rise amongst farmers to better diversify their yields and reduce reliance on chemicals.

Allowing trees and crops to coexist boosts the resiliency of agricultural land. In Senegal, farmers engaged in Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) prune coppiced trees to help the stumps regrow. The practice is more practical and effective than planting new trees. The coppiced trees retain much of the existing biomass under the soil. And as the trees regrow, they help prevent erosion, retain moisture, and can even increase nitrogen levels in soil.

Nairobi is using a unique restoration technique called the Miyawaki method to restore local ecosystems by creating forest islands in urban areas that have lost their green spaces. Since 2007, this reforestation method has established mini forests in three regions throughout the city, as the project has planted over 236,212 seedlings.