IBS Associations

Visiting Scholar, Environment and Society Program

Visiting Scholar, Center for the Governance of Natural Resources

Research Interests

Reterritorialization of indigenous peoples, biocultural restoration, socio-ecological cascades, indigenous territorial resumption

Brief Biography

Despite the recognition of the importance of indigenous peoples in biodiversity conservation, there is still a significant gap in understanding how environmental damage and loss of biodiversity in territories are often preceded or accompanied by the expulsion of indigenous communities from their lands, and, furthermore, how the re-territorialization of indigenous peoples can generate positive socio-ecological cascades. My research interests seek an analysis of the physical and cultural elimination of indigenous peoples (genocide), linked to the destruction of territories (ecocide), which, together, can be framed in the context of epistemicide, due to the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystems correlated with the loss of indigenous knowledge production systems, that is, indigenous science. Therefore, I seek to understand how reterritorialization processes, that is, indigenous territorial resumption can generate local and regional socio-ecological cascades, contributing to the restoration of biocultural memory and identity and multifunctional landscapes, integrating environmental recovery, biodiversity conservation and promotion of well-being. community living. In this sense, I will analyze the process of retaking the Borum-Kren people from where my family origins come (remnants of Botocudos do Uaimií – Vale dos Inconfidentes in the Cordilheira do Espinhaço/ MG – Brazil).