Yacarantã Brazil: The Democratization of an Agriculture in Favor of People and Nature

The Yacarantã Collective, led by João, Yasmin, and Heitor, promotes syntropic agriculture in Rio Manso, Brazil, to counter the ecological damage caused by monoculture and pesticides. Starting in 2014 at Yacarantã Farm, the initiative evolved from a private project into a collective effort to empower vulnerable rural communities, particularly women. Following a devastating mining dam collapse in 2019, the collective expanded its outreach to over 400 impacted families, partnering with a Rural School to provide education on regenerative economy and sustainable agriculture. This led to the creation of the 'Margaridas' women's group, which established a community-based agroforestry system covering over 2,000 square meters with 400 seedlings and 30 types of vegetables.

• The Yacarantã Collective promotes syntropic agriculture, also known as biodiverse agroforestry systems, as a method of food production that mimics natural ecosystems by cultivating native trees, fruit trees, and crops in the same space to restore biodiversity.
• In Rio Manso, the adoption of Green Revolution practices since the 1960s led to ecological degradation characterized by the spread of monoculture and pesticides, which exhausted the soil and contaminated water sources.
• A 2019 mining dam collapse in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte caused severe socio-ecological damage, destroying crops, contaminating soil and water, and disrupting the livelihoods of over 400 rural families by blocking roads and suspending product sales.
• The Yacarantã Collective established a community-based agroforestry system led by a women's group called 'Margaridas', which occupies over 2,000 square meters and contains more than 400 seedlings of native and fruit trees and over 30 types of vegetables and greens to ensure food sovereignty.

APA

Global Resilience Partnership (2023). Yacarantã Brazil: The Democratization of an Agriculture in Favor of People and Nature. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/yacaranta-brazil-the-democratization-of-an-agriculture-in-favor-of-people-and-nature/

Chicago

Global Resilience Partnership. Yacarantã Brazil: The Democratization of an Agriculture in Favor of People and Nature. 2023. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/yacaranta-brazil-the-democratization-of-an-agriculture-in-favor-of-people-and-nature/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Resilience Partnership |title=Yacarantã Brazil: The Democratization of an Agriculture in Favor of People and Nature |date=11 August 2023 |url=https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/yacaranta-brazil-the-democratization-of-an-agriculture-in-favor-of-people-and-nature/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalresiliencepartnership2023yacarant, author = {{Global Resilience Partnership}}, title = {{Yacarantã Brazil: The Democratization of an Agriculture in Favor of People and Nature}}, institution = {Global Resilience Partnership}, year = {2023}, month = aug, url = {https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/yacaranta-brazil-the-democratization-of-an-agriculture-in-favor-of-people-and-nature/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }