Environmental Threats over Amazonian Indigenous Lands

Local and traditional knowledge systems, resistance, and socioenvironmental justice

In this essay, for the debate series of Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, I argue against the oversimplified causal argument that the maintenance of local and traditional knowledge systems is related to less advantaged circumstances. This statement is based on a colonialist perspective of what a less advantageous circumstance is, which is being questioned by several authors. It also ignores the struggles and resistance of traditional knowledge holders and the urgent call for socioenvironmental justice. As an ethnobiologist, I argue that we must face this reality to build science with justice and inclusiveness.

Highway Network and Fire Occurrence in Amazonian Indigenous Lands

The construction and expansion of highways aiming to improve the integration of the most isolated regions in Brazil facilitated the access to many inhabited areas in the Amazon biome, but had as a consequence assisted the degradation of many of these regions. Over the last two decades, we have observed in this biome a gradual diversification and intensification of land uses through vegetation loss and an increase in fire associated with deforestation and an increase in grazing areas. We used data from several active fires products derived from 14 different satellites, available on the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE). We evaluated the influence of highway infrastructure on fire occurrence inside and around Indigenous Lands (IL) located in the Brazilian Amazon biome, from 2008 to 2021. We classified 332 ILs into “cut by highways”, “without highways”, and “with highways in a 10 km buffer”. We performed: (a) the descriptive statistics of the fire occurrence by state, by season, and by type of land use and land cover (LULC) affected by fire; (b) the spatial distribution of the active fire density; and (c) a simple linear regression model between the fire occurrence and the IL area. Our results showed that in total, 16–46% of the fires occurred within the IL in most of the states, while the 10 km buffer was the region most affected by fire. We confirmed that in the last three years there was a significant increase in the number of active fires, representing anomalies in fire occurrence across the studied period. We discussed the result implications and the role of the highway network in environmental degradation inside and around the ILs located in the Brazilian Amazon.

Protecting Amazonia Should Focus on Protecting Indigenous, Traditional Peoples and Their Territories

The Brazilian proverb “Uma desgraça nunca vem só” or “Misfortunes never come alone” has, unfortunately, never been more apt than in reference to the risks now facing Amazonia [...]

Dynamic Amazonia: The EU–Mercosur Trade Agreement and Deforestation

The trade agreement between the European Union and the Mercosur countries will increase deforestation in the Mercosur countries and Brazil, in particular, if ratified by member countries. We use a computable general equilibrium model to analyze how trade, land use, and agricultural production will change as a result of the agreement. We then use a statistical model to spatially allocate the predicted deforestation within the Brazilian Amazon. The models estimate that the agreement will cause additional deforestation in Brazil ranging from 56 to 173 thousand ha to accommodate increases in cropland area, depending on the level of governance, use of double-cropping techniques, and trade elasticity parameters. Most additional deforestation in Amazonia would be clustered near current deforestation hotspot areas. Some hotspots threaten the integrity of Indigenous lands and conservation units. Although a low deforestation scenario with gains in welfare is theoretically possible when high governance and multiple-cropping systems are in place, political challenges remain and cast doubt on Brazil’s ability to rein on illegal deforestation.

Land Use and Land Cover Changes in the Diversity and Life Zone for Uncontacted Indigenous People: Deforestation Hotspots in the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve, Ecuadorian Amazon

Land use and land cover change (LULC) is an essential component for the monitoring environmental change and managing natural resources in areas of high natural and cultural biodiversity, such as the Amazon biome. This study was conducted in in the northern Amazon of Ecuador, specifically in the Diversity and Life Zone (DLZ) of the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve (YBR). The general aim was to investigate the territorial dynamics of land use/land cover changes to support policies for environmental and sociocultural protection in the DLZ. Specific objectives included (i) mapping LULC spatial and temporal dynamics in the DLZ in the period from 1999 to 2018, (ii) identifying sensitive LULC hotspots within the DLZ, and (iii) defining the possible policy implications for sustainable land use in the DLZ. Multitemporal satellite imagery from the Landsat series was used to map changes in LULC, which were divided into three-time stages (1999–2009, 2009–2018, 1999–2018). We adopted open-access Landsat images downloaded from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The processes for assessing LULC in the DLZ included (1) data collection and analysis, (2) data processing for remote sensing, (3) thematic land cover, and (4) homogenization and vectorization of images. The results showed that in the period 1999–2018, most of the uses and land cover were transformed into pastures in the DLZ. Therefore, it is important to improve territorial planning, to avoid conflicts between indigenous populations, migrant settlers, and uncontacted indigenous populations that live in the DLZ, within the YBR.

Anthropogenic Actions and Socioenvironmental Changes in Lake of Juá, Brazilian Amazonia

The Amazonia rainforest has natural spaces that have undergone extensive and intense transformations, mainly to meet economic demands, camouflaged in biological and social needs. As one of the consequences of this process, the production and expansion of the urban space stand out. In this context, this research describes the historical, spatial, and temporal aspects of land use and occupation in the surroundings of Lake of Juá, located in the municipality of Santarém, west of the State of Pará, Brazil, in order to highlight the main changes in the landscape and socioenvironmental changes arising from this dynamic. The study was conducted based on photographic records, elaboration, and analysis of cartographic data, in addition to the perceptions of residents and fishermen located in the study area, which, together, contributed to the understanding of the historical and spatial changes that led to the current socioenvironmental transformations in the surroundings of the lake. The residents and local fishermen of Lake of Juá, through semi-structured interviews, listed several socioenvironmental overlapping problems that had many impacts on this lake ecosystem, such as deforestation, silting, contamination of water resources and, consequently, fishing resources, loss of biodiversity and conflict of interest. The degradation and decharacterization of the landscape around the lake has compromised the maintenance of this lake ecosystem, as significant and even irreversible transformations have been caused in the community and in the ecological environment, especially when taking into account the absence of public policies or their inefficiency.