‘Agriculture of life’: the Rio families growing bananas to protect the world’s largest urban forest

‘Agriculture of life’: the Rio families growing bananas to protect the world’s largest urban forest In the middle of the city, traditional growers blend crops with native species to preserve Pedra Branca state park’s biodiversity T he sound of the scythes wielded by brothers Jorge and Ubirajara Cardia breaks the silence in the hills of Vargem Grande, in the south-west zone of Rio de Janeiro city. Q uilombola from the Cafundá Astrogilda community, they harvest bananas the same way their ancestors used to. Every week, they select the bunches of prata , maçã, and Cavendish bananas, cut them down and, on the back of their mules, go down the hillside with the newly harvested crop. Through sloping ways in the forest, they travel about 5km (3 miles) along paths first opened by the Indigenous Tupinambá people and enslaved workers of African descent. The abundant banana groves cultivated by quilombola communities and traditional farmers are part of the designated Pedra Branca state park conservation area. There, the banana growing tradition guarantees more than financial and food security for these communities. Through a crop culture passed down over many generations, gradually evolving into a model agroforestry system [the integration of trees and shrubs with crops and livestock], banana growers help restore and preserve the park’s biodiversity. Part of Unesco’s Atlantic Forest Biosphere Reserve , it is made up of 17 Rio neighbourhoods and is considered the world’s largest urban forest . “In agroforestry, the management of banana crops demands less work, and we save time as we only need to prune the banana plant. Then, nature, with its own rhythm, does all the rest,” Jorge Cardia says. Originally from south-east Asia and the west Pacific, the exotic fruit was brought to Brazil by Portuguese colonisers in the 16th century. At the Pedra Branca state park, banana plants are so numerous and robust they look like a living green tapestry, weaving among a variety of native and for...