Yerba Mate: A Sustainable Solution to Save San Rafael

Due to land conversion, mainly driven by soya cultivation, the reserve is highly threatened and in recent years, deforestation has increased further due to cultivation of illegal crops (principally marihuana) and forest fires which have had an even greater negative impact than the illegal plots.

If deforestation keeps advancing in the landscape, San Rafael will reach an irreversible level of degradation and endemic species will not survive.

However, there is a sustainable alternative that could help protect the forest while supporting local communities - Yerba Mate (Ilex paraguariensis). This endemic, evergreen tree of the Atlantic Forest grows naturally in the understory and middle stratum of native forests across Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. For centuries, the Guaraní indigenous people have harvested its leaves to produce mate and tereré, traditional caffeinated beverages.

While conventional cultivation of Yerba Mate often relies on monoculture plantations, an alternative approach—shade-grown agroforestry systems—allows the trees to be cultivated within native forests without large-scale deforestation. If promoted as a sustainable economic model, Yerba Mate could provide local communities with an income while maintaining the ecological integrity of San Rafael, creating an incentive for conservation rather than land conversion.

By building a marketing and business infrastructure the aim is to provide a viable economic alternative to current livelihood opportunities, and thereby reduce the incidence of illegal forest degradation, cutting and burning in the San Rafael Reserve.

With our support, Guyra have supported small producers and indigenous community members with access to regenerative agriculture inputs, technical assistance and training, and connections with buyers willing to pay premium prices for their organic and shade-grown Yerba Mate, as well as other organic products from the area. At the same time, Guyra Paraguay have launched a conservation enterprise called Tangará, a private enterprise that enables access to investment and loans to scale up business activities on Guyra’s reserves such as ecotourism and shade-grown Yerba Mate production.

The aim is to expand the number of allied producers to 400 by 2027. Income generated from these activities will flow back into reserve management, monitoring and surveillance activities that are so crucial to ensure and expand the protection of the remaining forest.