Who we are?
We are a interdisciplinary group of people, propelled by the intention to preserve the biodiversity of Sierras del Este del Uruguay
Our Mission
Our project try to help the learning/teaching process for a harmonious coexistence of different communities of Sierras del Este with their environment with a deep understanding about the interdependence with it to reach a common well-being.
YERBA MATE
Why it is important to favour the development of Yerba Mate in Las Sierras?
Yerba Mate is a species that, from the ecological point of view, is one of the last species to be part of the composition of the native mountains of Quebrada. They are trees originally from jungle environments that in our country are developed in the shelter of the mountains of gulch, their presence indicates that we are in the presence of a mature forest of great quality.
From the regional point of view, its presence in the country, especially in the Sierras del Este, represents the distribution of the species located further south. This means that the yerba mate populations of this area have particular conditions of adaptation to the environment, being of great importance from the point of view of research and production at a regional level, in a context of global weather change and variability. The old Guaranies buried their loved ones, and in that same place they planted yerba mate. After harvesting it, they took it in a wheel, as a family, in the same way that it is done today.
In the zone of Las Sierras it have been found different yerbatales with more than one hundred years of antiquity, as well as the dryers used by Guaranies during their pilgrimage to collect the plant.
Yerba Mate is a Paraguayan specie that talks about the health of the environment. Its presence beside others that are also present in the last stages of development of the forest are good indicators of equilibrium and healthy ecosystems.
What is our goal in the Sierras de Rocha?
With your support we will be able to restore the Yerba Mate and the species that accompany it in the native forest. This implies the forest growing and management and also to increase the canopy of the it, in favor of the maturation of the native forest, as well as its quality of refuge for the associated fauna. Helping us increase the presence of Yerba Mate trees in the most favorable areas of the native forest facilitates in the medium term, the possibility to produce Yerba Mate on the spot, seeking to obtain an organic product, through the use of ancestral processing recipes.
The goal of Ambá is together with the sponsors of this program, to reconcile the work of forest management and Yerba Mate plantation, with a conscious work of the sensitization, environmental education and even identity issues, taking advantage of the virtues of the Yerba Mate as a flagship species of the native forest, and the cultural relationship of Uruguay with the consumption of this ancestral plant.