Entre el bosque y la ciudad, huertas urbanas de Puerto Iguazú, Argentina

FURLAN, VIOLETA; HILGERT, NORMA INÉS; POCHETTINO, MARÍA LELIA

Cordoba

Simposio; Simposio 2. Etnobotánica Urbana. El papel de los mercados. VI Congreso Internacional de Etnobotánica.; 2014

IMGEMA-Real Jardín Botánico de Córdoba, Universidad de Cordoba

Family farming makes up one of the cultural landscapes of the province of Misiones and is represented in both rural and urban areas. Here, we present the state of Puerto Iguazú, a cosmopolitan city for the tourists interflow, where at the same time, local production and plant marketing is very important for the daily life of its citizens. Puerto Iguazú has 30,000 inhabitants, is located in the south-western end of the Atlantic Forest and the tri-border region. The landscape is based on the complementarity with Foz do Iguacu (Brazil) and Ciudad del Este (Paraguay). The Atlantic Forest is considered one of the world´s biodiversity hotspots. This paper seeks to account for such diversity represented in local production systems of the urban environment, and not displayed when formal markets are crossed. We worked on the basis of a survey regarding plant resources held in homes and productive spaces that shape them. Households were selected randomly covering 10% of the area of the city, taking into account the representation at the neighborhood level. 369 surveys were obtained. Moreover semi-structured interviews where made with local producers contacted in “feria franca” (local fair trade market) for the emic definition of each production space within a household and their purposes. A descriptive analysis of the data, both for those qualitative and quantitative data was performed. As results it’s important to highlight that 85% of residents have at least one productive space. The so-called productive spaces that make the households are, in descending order “jardín, parque, huerta, capuera, chacra and monte”. Each has a local definition. The caregivers of the productive areas are women and are they who hold greater diversity of spaces. Of total products generated in the households food, medicine, construction materials, protective and ornamental plants are obtained. The destination of production areas are also multiple, some are based on income generation, as recreational areas, producers of medicines, food, among others.