BRAZIL: Environmental Conservation and Indigenous Peoples

Explore tropical forest ecology, the conservation of Amazonia, and the role of the indigenous peoples, such as the Kayapó, in the Brazilian Amazon.

This field course, designed and run by anthropologist Janet Chernela and tropical ecologist Barbara Zimmerman (The Wild Foundation) since 2004, considers conservation and development from the standpoints of local communities and conservationists. The objectives of the field course are to gain an understanding of: socio-economic dynamics of the Amazonian frontier and drivers of deforestation; tropical forest biology with special attention to regeneration; indigenous and local cultures and their struggle to determine the future of the land and communities that depend upon it. For more information about the field course and Brazilian Amazon, check out the flyer or visit the study abroad website

The Amazon basin is the largest remaining tract of tropical rainforest in the world, and site of many different human communities: indigenous groups, river dwelling families, rubber tappers, farmers, ranchers, and miners. Because of widespread expansion of development in the region, a number of indigenous and local communities now participate in arrangements of “partnering” with outside urban-based, non-governmental organizations, intended to increase the security of their lands and their well-being. In this course, students have the rare opportunity to visit with and learn about the many different actors and activities in the Amazon region as well as their strategies for livelihood and political voice. 

The Kayapó territories are located in northeastern Brazil in the State of Pará. The Kayapó, who continue to practice hunting and horticulture, have effectively protected their lands through organization, political prowess, and technological advances. In 1989, they earned worldwide recognition for their precedent-setting victory in halting a large hydro-electric project that would have inundated their lands. Today, the Kayapó supplement their own on-the-ground monitoring of their territory with overflights and Landsat imaging made possible through partnerships with environmental NGOs. The Kayapo have protected a vast expanse of rainforest along the "arc of deforestation" in the southeastern Amazon.

Recently Dr. Chernela initiated a collaborative inter-disciplinary project, Climate Stabilization, Tropical Rainforests, and Indigenous Peoples project, which examines the contributions of indigenous peoples of the Neotropics to global climate stabilization through complementary micro- and macro-level approaches.

Published on Thu, 03/12/2015 - 14:26