The forest here in Canindeyú, the heart of eastern Paraguay, is like a house with many rooms. Cedar trunks form the walls, leaves and branches the roofs. On the ground floor, there are herbs for remedies, and a carpet of leaves becomes mulch that holds moisture and returns nutrients to tired soils. Every part of the forest home has significance and a use. 

Before going to her forest home, Teodora sits on the doorsteps of her actual home—sipping mate, a tea-like beverage made from yerba mate leaves (Ilex Paraguariensis) and getting ready to start the day's work. Later she will meet some of the 35 families that live in the community she leads, as they shift their farming plots to agroforestry, where trees are grown amidst agricultural crops.

Paraguay, a landlocked country in Latin America, has faced decades of deforestation and land pollution in the east of the country, driven by the expansion of extensive crops and cattle ranches. Meanwhile the country's changing climate has scrambled habits and agricultural calendars. Late frosts burn blossoms and young citrus trees, stronger winds lash rows, and erratic rainfall and heatwaves shorten harvests, making them more and more uncertain.

Support for communities came with the PROEZA (Pobreza, Reforestación, Energía y Cambio Climático) project. Co-financed by the Government of Paraguay and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), PROEZA brings together social protection and climate action. It combines financial incentives with technical assistance to promote sustainable agroforestry practices among rural and Indigenous households.

On the financial side, PROEZA provides environmental incentives for participating families to spur further investment in their land and plots and make production more resilient and sustainable. On the technical side, FAO provides field-based expertise to Indigenous Peoples and rural communities to adopt agroforestry practices, including land preparation, soil analysis, seeds and tools.  

When social protection is connected with land stewardship and agroforestry, benefits add up: less deforestation, greater climate resilience and more stable incomes.

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