Yes, convert that lawn! Two plants worth considering are Prunus persica 'Kernechter vom Vorgebirge' and Amelanchier × lamarckii. I've heard great things about them, but they were growing in SW Germany, so do your own research first. What do you use for a ground cover? Clover can be a valuable ally in the fight against the grass.
That is an impressive agroforestry system. :) Which chestnut species do you grow?
You have a ton of potential in South Florida! (Until sea level rise floods everything, of course.) Will you add more fruit trees? The nurseries in your area have some amazing options. Which mangos and avocados do you grow? I'm curious about the quality of 'Monroe' and 'Oro Negro' avocados.
It's strange what's happening with your avocados. Do you know if the bloom timing of avocados in your area has changed at all? If they were previously getting pollinated by trees that now bloom at different times, then that could explain the lack of fruits.
If it's a choice between banana and grass, I recommend banana 100%. Pine Island and Excalibur both sold Dwarf Namwah last I checked, and that should be very productive. Excalibur also sells FHIA-18, which doesn't taste so much like banana. I recently posted about it here, though the linked PDF is in spanish.
Off to a good start! Do you know what else you want to add? Forelle pear might be worth considering for your area, but do your own research.
Sounds like you've got a great thing going! Maintaining fertility by mulching with cut vegetation and composting "waste" is really important. How big is your fruit forest? Do you plan to diversify further and fill up the field? How small do you plan to keep the trees? I've found that pruning tall trees with a pole saw is really tedious and exhausting. Do you have a particular method that's easier?
Some people in southern Cameroon grow cacao in the understory of the native forest with no deforestation (just clearing the underbrush), no corporate plantations, no slave labour, just smallholder farmers. But of course they are a minority in terms of total production, and a farm does not have the biodiversity of the original forest, and many people are shifting to replacing forest with (native) oil palm plantations now that fungus is threatening cacao revenue.
Syntropic agriculture has the potential for sustainable cacao production, as proven by Ernst Götsch's farm in Bahia (mentioned here).
Not surprising. I remember reading that (some of) the ancestors of Home sapiens sapiens in East Africa first started regularly using fire about 400,000 years ago... to cook starchy tubers. Apparently that population didn't start eating animals for another ~300,000 years, and others didn't even leave the forest and start using fire until ~250,000 years ago or later. History is not an ethical guide in any case...
To be fair, "tropical nights" is not really accurate. Some places in the tropics are uncomfortably warm at night during the "summer" half of the year, but near the equator, temperatures are usually quite pleasant, especially at moderate elevation. It's the temperate and subtropical summers that will get uncomfortably hot due to climate change, not so much the stable equatorial zones. Coastal areas farther out from the equator (e.g. Bangladesh), yeah, already too hot...
Nature is a horrible place, but every animal deserves to be free. Perhaps it's the concept of freedom that people have trouble accepting. Until someone manages to design an improved version that functions without hunger and disease and predation, natural forests are still the superior habitat.
Yeah, I hate when the temperature falls below 18 degrees Celsius! There have been times when I've gotten so uncomfortable that I've had to put some pants on. It's possible to survive it, for sure, but it sucks.
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That's awesome. Please post back with an update on how it goes! Would you ever get fruit from the mulberries, or do the birds eat them all where you are?