Post #16C Learning from Our Ancestors: Chinampas Part 3: How can Chinampas play a role in healing our ecosystems?
Post Description: How the chinampa gardening system can play a role in healing our ecosystems. Part of a series on Learning From Our Ancestors.
Hello there! Welcome to our third and final post on chinampas, an ancient farming system originating with the Mayans that is still in practice today.
If you haven’t had a chance to read the previous posts, check them out here:
Learning from Our Ancestors: Chinampas Part 1: What are Chinampas?
Learning from Our Ancestors: Chinampas Part 2: A How-to Guide
Today we will discuss why this farming method is endangered and the environmental implications associated with it. We’ll also look toward the future and consider how we, as a collective global society, can bring this food security system back from the brink of extinction.
Dangers of Modern Chemical Farming
Chemical fertilizers and pesticides were introduced to the chinampas of the Xochimilco region in the 1980’s and the results were less than satisfactory. The chemicals damaged the entire ecosystem, from the water and plants to the animals. And the kicker is, there was no need for it in the first place.
The mud produces all the nutrients needed to grow the plants. This is the genius of the chinampas system.
This system is resilient and bounces back if chemicals are not used and humans dredge the canals and add the mud to the beds regularly. But the fact of the matter is that once the damage was done, there were not enough chinamperos, farmers, to manage the rehabilitation of all the damaged islets in the region.
An Endangered System
The chinampa system in Mexico has taken a few hits over the centuries.
After the arrival of Europeans, the indigenous population was drastically reduced within a few decades through massacre, disease, resettlement and slavery. With the people who had the knowledge and capability to maintain the chinampa system mostly gone, much of it filled in with sediment and dried up.
More recently, in the last 100 years, the major springs were tapped and Lake Xochimilco began to dry up. Groundwater was depleted and the chinampas started to sink. The water from the aquifer below was, and still is, being used at a faster rate than it is being recovered.
Presently, most of the chinampa system has been swallowed up by the city, with 100 hectares (247 acres) of was used to be chinampas islets utilized for housing developments. Housing developments without sewage systems, so the water flowing to the remaining chinampas from this area is now contaminated.
The natural springs that supplied the chinampa system have now been diverted to the city, and in return the city outflows waste water from their water treatment plants back to the system. This water is okay for irrigation, but it is not the pristine water the system once thrived on.
Why it Matters
The chinampas of Xochimilco are very important to the local and greater ecology for several reasons:
- Increased Oxygen – the willow trees growing there provide a lot of oxygen to Mexico city. So much so, in fact, that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) considers them one of the three “lungs” of the region.
- Preservation of Aquifers – beneath the ancient chinampas there are aquifers that go down 500 meters, supplying Mexico City with 40% of their clean water supply
- Preservation of Habitat – Xochimilco hosts 34% of migratory birds at different times of the year, many species coming from other parts of the world.
- Flood Prevention – the chinampas act as a sponge to soak up 10% of the rain that falls on the city. Mexico city is built on a lake bed and it is sinking at a rate of 10 inches per year, so flood mitigation is pretty important.
- Food Security – Mexico city is the 5th largest city in the world. Let that soak in. The food requirements for this city of 22 million people (and rising) are massive. Chinampas provide maximum output on a very large scale with minimal input.
Looking to the future
Originally, there were 100,000 hectares of chinampas. As of 2020, there were 22,000 hectares of chinampas, but 90% were abandoned, with only 3200 in production. As of 2022, there are 2200 hectares left.
Fear not. The future may look grim, but there is a strong community of people working hard to reverse these statistics.
Groups such as Arca Tierra are emphasizing commercializing locally to make it profitable for the farmers to regenerate the system. The main goal is to sustainably reactivate the chinampas however possible.
Arca Tierra connects the farmers to markets and customers, including restaurants, and several restaurants are renting chinampas to grow produce for their businesses. Providing some chinampas for rent enables more people to farm them.
Other projects include Casa Badiano, Chinampa Autentica, and De la Chinampa. Check them out! Get involved if the feeling moves you.
Eco-tourism is also a source of income for some of the farmers.
The chinampa system of Xochimilco can be saved before it is too late, but it will require the work and help of our global community to bring awareness and resources to the region.
Bringing the Chinampa System to the World
There is hope yet for this ancient system of farming. This type of agriculture can be used in any wet, swampy area.
There are similar systems in Los Llanos de Moxos, in the Beni region of Bolivia, and around the world in tropical lowlands such as Vietnam.
Geoff Lawton is using chinampas in part of his Permaculture demonstration site, Zaytuna Farm in New South Wales, Australia.
An ancient cold-weather version called crofting was practiced in Europe.
Some adventurous modern farmers are working to adapt this system to other climates and even using it to rehydrate arid lands.
Chinampas are a perfect Permaculture system as long as we remember that people are a part of that system. They reap their needs from it, but human labor is required to sustain it.
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As you can see, I am fascinated and inspired by chinampas! We have so much to learn from our ancestors, all over the world.
Gardening and farming are cyclical in nature. As the days, months, seasons, and years pass, so do our elders. The knowledge each generation before us holds supports us in our future gardens.
It is up to us to download that knowledge and integrate it in our present and future gardens. No one knows trial and error better than a farmer. Why reinvent the wheel when we can learn from those who experimented before us? From there we can innovate and leave the generations after us with a deeper knowledge and understanding of nature.
We can leave future generations with food security! It is up to us. And it begins at home, in the garden.
Thoughts? Ponderings? Stories? Share what moves you.
And as always, thanks for joining us!
Until next time,
Mary