Indigenous burning as conservation practice: neotropical savanna recovery amid agribusiness deforestation in Central Brazil

PloS One
James R WelchCarlos E A Coimbra

Abstract

International efforts to address climate change by reducing tropical deforestation increasingly rely on indigenous reserves as conservation units and indigenous peoples as strategic partners. Considered win-win situations where global conservation measures also contribute to cultural preservation, such alliances also frame indigenous peoples in diverse ecological settings with the responsibility to offset global carbon budgets through fire suppression based on the presumed positive value of non-alteration of tropical landscapes. Anthropogenic fire associated with indigenous ceremonial and collective hunting practices in the Neotropical savannas (cerrado) of Central Brazil is routinely represented in public and scientific conservation discourse as a cause of deforestation and increased CO2 emissions despite a lack of supporting evidence. We evaluate this claim for the Xavante people of Pimentel Barbosa Indigenous Reserve, Brazil. Building upon 23 years of longitudinal interdisciplinary research in the area, we used multi-temporal spatial analyses to compare land cover change under indigenous and agribusiness management over the last four decades (1973-2010) and quantify the contemporary Xavante burning regime contributing to obs...Continue Reading

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Citations

May 25, 2016·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Jayalaxshmi MistryAndrea Berardi
Oct 28, 2019·American Journal of Human Biology : the Official Journal of the Human Biology Council·James R WelchCarlos E A Coimbra
Nov 21, 2020·Science·Luke T KellyLluís Brotons

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Software Mentioned

Xavante
IBGE
ISODATA
ArcGIS
ERDAS IMAGINE

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