Voices of Indigenous Amazonia

The Voices of Indigenous Amazonia project proposes to study Amazonian biodiversity and its long-term interactions with Indigenous peoples in three regions characterized by complex sociocultural systems: the Upper Negro Indigenous Territory (Amazonas state); the Xingu Indigenous Territory (Matto Grosso state); and the Kayapó Indigenous Territory (Pará state). 

These territories stand out for their varied and complex ethnic, historical, and socio-environmental configurations, which include ethnobiological knowledge that is specific to each region. 

In this project human and biological sciences will be combined with Indigenous knowledge to increase our efficiency in producing knowledge about Amazonia. 

The project team proposes to document biodiversity and its relationship with knowledge and sociocultural practices of present and past Indigenous peoples through: 

1) biological inventories of species little known to Western science; 

2) characterizing Indigenous landscapes through participatory mapping and remote sensing; 

3) fostering exchanges of biodiversity-related knowledge between scientific and Indigenous knowledge; 

4) recording long-term anthropogenic changes in vegetation, fauna, and soils;

5) collaboratively producing relevant ethnographic, linguistic, and sociocultural documentation. 

Supported by multifaceted biological studies (descriptions of new species, taxonomic revisions, morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses, distribution modelling and species richness) integrated with studies of traditional Indigenous knowledge, including its role in the domestication of plants and landscapes, as well as studies of millennia-old environmental management technologies within different Indigenous territories, the project will enable large-scale analyses of biological and sociocultural diversity while mitigating existing taxonomic gaps in poorly sampled yet well-preserved regions of Brazilian Legal Amazonia.

At a broader level, the project will produce relevant contributions to tackle the current climate emergency and socio-environmental challenges of the Anthropocene, which compromises forests, resources, and the continuity of the lifeways of our partners, Indigenous peoples of Amazonia.

The UK component, led by UCL, involves multidisciplinary studies in the NW Amazon.

• A job vacancy for a Research Fellow in Environmental Archaeology (Amazonia) is available with a deadline of 10 November 2025.
• A Trees DLA PhD studentship for a project entitled 'How old is slash-and-burn in Amazonia?' is available with a deadline of 17 December 2025.

This research is also associated with our theme of Human Planetary Transformations.

Partners

This collaborative research project is being undertaken with Brazilian and UK partners including: 

• Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
• Federal University of Sao Paulo
• Museu da Amazonia
• Universidade de Brasília
• Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi
• Birkbeck, University of London
• Kew Gardens
• University of Nottingham

Funding

• UKRI Amazon +10 initiative: research expeditions to the Amazon

This scheme facilitates collaboration with Brazilian partners on research expeditions to increase knowledge of biodiversity and socio-cultural diversity of the Amazon.