Brazil boasts an extraordinary amount of agricultural, gastronomic and cultural diversity. There are 210 indigenous groups living in the country who speak 18 languages. Guaraní is one of the most populous tribes and its members live in many Brazilian states, including Espírito Santo, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, and Mato Grosso do Sul.
The Guaraní are originally from Paraguay (according to their tradition, that country is the center of the world), where Guaraní is still the second language spoken. The identity of the Guaraní is tribal, rather than national, and is based on their language, religion and culture. Music and song unify the community and are considered divine manifestations.
Agriculture is based on the farming of sweet potatoes, manioc, corn and palmito, palm heart, from the trunk of the palm tree. The most traditional and flavorful variety of palmito comes from the Juçara (Eutherpes edulis), which grows naturally in the remaining portion of the Atlantic forest in southern Brazil. Juçara is also the variety most at risk. The palmito is extracted sustainably through the labor of the Guaraní Indians in only a few areas. Most palm hearts are removed by non-sustainable extraction methods carried out by non-Indian palmiteiros in the valleys of the Ribeira, one of the poorest regions of the state of São Paulo.
In the past few years, the Guaraní village of Rio Silveira in the Ribeira valleys has built a small nursery in the forest to help revive the native palm populations. The nursery is specialized in Juçara palms but also grows Jerivá and Pindo ovy, known as the blue palm. The reforestation of the mata atlântica with these palms allows the Guaraní to slowly rebuild the numbers of their traditional palm.
The Juçara grows in the heart of the forest, requires little sunlight and no fertilizers or other treatment. The tree has a straight, thin, grayishwhite trunk, which can grow as high as 15 meters. The tree must be at least eight to ten years old before the heart is removed by cutting off the top part of the trunk and the bark is stripped with a machete.
Twice a year the seeds are gathered, usually by children, who are able to shimmy up the palm trunk with ease. Upon reaching the top of the tree, they pull off the large bunches of violet berries to expose the trunk and remove the heart.
The Juçara palm tree is used in its entirety: the leaves are used for making beds and chairs, the wood to build houses, and the berries to make an acidic juice. The Juçara Palm Heart is traditionally eaten raw with honey because there is no salt or sugar in Guaraní cuisine. It can also be boiled, roasted over an open fire or fried.


The Presidium
The Juçara palm is chopped down for sale and the heart is sold fresh on the spot or to a nearby restaurant. This precious and rare product can only be consumed after eight to ten years, when it is cut down and sold for the equivalent of a few dollars.
The Presidium seeks to promote the palmito as a high quality product, giving added value to the Juçara Palm Heart. Before marketing the product, it is necessary to establish other restoration projects like those in the Boa Vista and Rio Silveira Reserves. With the help of the Instituto Teko Arando, an Indian organization, some 300 people work 948 hectares of land under the guidance of Adolfo Timótio, the head of the village, or Verá Mirim Miri in the Guaraní language.
They are restoring the Juçara palm population by creating nurseries in the forest and by planting at least two new palms for every palm that is cut down. Wild birds and animals like toucans and rodents were once responsible for the dissemination of palm seeds and growth of new palms. The first steps of this project are designed to identify ways to cultivate and harvest the palms and educate local families in the hope of reinvigorating the Rio Silveira Reserve.

Production area
Guaraní Reserves of Silveira (Municipality of São Sebastião) and Boa Vista (Municipality of Ubatuba) , San Paolo State, Sudeste

Presidium supported by:
Regione Veneto

With the patronage of:
Brazilian Ministry of Agricultural Developmen