Indigenous people and the engaged audiences were invited to comment on the relevance and impact in Brazil of studies that highlight the role and importance of Indigenous people for the climate agenda.

Despite some very specific criticism of a so-called “utilitarian relationship” with Indigenous people, most engaged respondents described such studies as fundamental, relevant, and important — this last one being by far the most widely used adjective. Data from these studies are “widely disseminated by the press”, “generate social recognition”, “strengthen the narratives”, and are today “part of the arguments used by the Indigenous movement”.

“Indigenous and tribal peoples are the best guardians of forests in Latin America and the Caribbean. They are able to halt deforestation and biodiversity loss and avoid CO2 emissions”, concludes a report released by FAO in 2021, based on over 300 studies published in the last two decades.

A big number of respondents highlighted and acknowledged the attention and space given to Indigenous peoples in the UNFCCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), FAO, and other international bodies and forums as a result of a number of studies, scientific articles and NGO reports produced in recent decades.

Most respondents among engaged and interested audiences, including scientists, stated that these studies, however, have not yet been properly disseminated, nor have they been considered for the development of public policies in the country. “Although it is a more recurrent agenda today than it was a few years ago, the role of Indigenous territories is still not understood in Brazil. The environment and Indigenous peoples are separate topics for the general public. My understanding is that they make no connection, they seem to believe that Indigenous territories have been preserved by chance, or because of what is seen as poverty”, a TV producer and scriptwriter said.

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), known as the 'IPCC of biodiversity', was identified as a major breakthrough, albeit still little known in Brazil yet. The IPBES global report sought to incorporate Indigenous and local knowledge, and developed mechanisms for the integration of Indigenous, traditional, and local knowledge to improve the global governance of biodiversity.

More than the studies prepared by international institutions, the work of national organisations were the most spontaneously cited by engaged audiences in Brazil. The data provided by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe, the acronym in Portuguese) were repeatedly cited in the responses once again. The specific studies that were most frequently cited, especially by scientists and civil society, were those by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (Ipam), such as the one showing why Indigenous lands are important barriers to deforestation.

Indigenous peoples as 'forest makers', 'ancient Indigenous practices', 'the inhabited forest', and 'Amazon archaeology' were described as some of the most important advances in Brazilian science in recent decades, albeit little known, and yet to be better studied, disseminated and added to the key narratives. The project 'Traditional peoples and biodiversity in Brazil — Contributions by Indigenous peoples, quilombolas and traditional communities to biodiversity, policies, and threats' was released in 2021 without much repercussion. Coordinated by Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, Cristina Adams, and Sônia Magalhães, it was described as a truly encyclopaedic work.

The Scientific Panel for the Amazon (SPA) and Amazon 4.0 were the most cited projects among those that “try to innovate to expand the participation and inclusion of traditional peoples in the development of sustainable pathways for the biome”.

The SPA, an unprecedented initiative made up of more than 200 scientists and researchers from the Amazon, including Indigenous scientists, launched its first report during COP26, calling for an immediate embargo on deforestation in critical areas in the Amazon, and advocating for, among others, the guarantee of territorial rights and self-determination of Indigenous peoples.

Some scientists, civil society representatives, and Indigenous people raised questions about the concept of bioeconomy that has been adopted in Brazil, especially the one that has been advocated by the government, leaving the impression that the matter still needs to be discussed further in the country. “These people need to be included from their own cultural perspectives, and not from the cultural perspective of entrepreneurs. We need to be careful not to turn them into forest labourers”, a scientist said during the interview.

Carlos Nobre, Antônio Nobre, Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, and Eduardo Neves were the most remembered scientists working on topics related to Indigenous people, especially by scientists, journalists from the mainstream press, and environmental NGOs; and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro was cited by many journalists and respondents linked to arts and culture fields.

Effective participation in research projects; treating traditional knowledge as scientific knowledge and technology; and the need for new forms of (co)production of knowledge were among the main considerations of all respondents, especially Indigenous people. Some research proposals and projects that have been designed to incorporate, to some extent, these issues were highlighted.

More than commenting on the importance and impact of scientific studies and UN recognition. Several respondents were interested in pointing out the huge growth in the number of Indigenous students in universities, and the increasing number of ever more important theses and dissertations in different fields as one of the main developments in the past decade. In 2018, there were 57,706 Indigenous people enrolled in universities in the country, up 695% from 2010 numbers.

Participants commented on the “very personal biographical density” of research led by Indigenous students, and highlighted the launch of the Brazilian Network of Indigenous Anthropologists (ABIA) as “a major step change”. At the beginning of this research, social media posts enthusiastically celebrated João Paulo Tukano's doctoral dissertation. Tukano was the first Indigenous person to obtain a PhD in Anthropology from the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam).

Another highlight coming from Brazilian universities were the newly established courses and programmes focused on traditional knowledge, such as the Cross-cutting Training Programme on Traditional Knowledge created by the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). In addition, several leaders and artists have been recognised for their ‘noteworthy erudition’, such as Sueli Maxacali, Ailton Krenak, and chief Babau Tupinambá and the Yanomami shaman and leader Davi Kopenawa has been elected a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC).

Although the political context remains utterly unfavourable, jurists highlighted that there is a lack of studies on the Indigenous reality in their territories, and of anthropological studies on the demarcation of Indigenous territories, a work that could be developed in partnership with universities. “This has been one of the most pressing issues in the country for a long time.”

Agribusiness representatives also referred to the land regularisation agenda as a priority, together with environmental regularisation and the fight against illegal deforestation. “Considering rural credit, if you haven't solved our land regularisation issues, it will be hard to attract funding and investments in the next coming years”, an agribusiness representative highlighted.

According to the respondents, the issues that most deserve attention in the coming years include traditional knowledge; Indigenous cosmologies; decolonial, anti-colonial, and counter-colonial studies; food systems; food sovereignty; agroecology; regenerative agriculture; language erosion; the invisibility of the contribution made by traditional peoples to food production in Brazil; and the subsidies to agribusiness and landowners in the country.

Other issues that were highlighted include forest restoration; payment for ecosystem services; ESG indexes; the relationship between climate-forest-water resources; investment in the shift to deforestation-free supply chains; climate justice; climate litigation; historical reparations; and transboundary approaches of all these issues.

We faced some difficulty finding political scientists willing to be interviewed for the study, and we ended up discovering that this is a field of study still to be developed in the country. The Brazilian Association of Political Science has just launched a repository of academic texts on the relationship between political science and Indigenous peoples, a project that will initially run until the end of 2022.

Non-engaged audiences aspire to have access to “high quality information”. Economists were the ones who most demanded academic studies, institutional reports, and more varied sources of information.

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