Indigenous agroforestry revives profitable palm trees and the Atlantic Forest
by Xavier Bartaburu on 13 January 2021
Highly popular in Brazil because of its delicious heart, the jussara palm was eaten nearly to the brink of extinction.
The Indigenous Guarani people from the São Paulo coast are traditional consumers of jussara palm hearts, and decided to reverse the loss by planting thousands of palm trees inside their reserve.
With more than 100,000 jussara palms planted since 2008, the community now sells hearts and seedlings to tourists and beach house owners. The next step is to start extracting the pulp from jussara berries similar to açaí berries, the popular superfood which the group hopes will generate enough income to keep the palm trees standing.