Despite serving as crucial guardians of biodiversity, traditional communities continue to be systematically excluded from developing and managing protected areas. This often subtle, silent exclusion has fueled persistent, complex socio-environmental conflicts, harming both conservation and the welfare of Indigenous peoples, riverside populations, Afro-Brazilian quilombola communities, and smallholder farmers.
A recent study, “Socio-environmental Conflicts and Traditional Communities in Protected Areas: A Scientometric Analysis,” published in the Journal for Nature Conservation, mapped how scientific literature has examined these conflicts over time.
Researchers from the Federal University of Western Pará (UFOPA), the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), the University of International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB), and the Vale Institute of Technology (ITV) collaborated on the study as part of the National Institute of Science and Technology in Synthesis of Amazonian Biodiversity (INCT-SynBiAm) and the Eastern Amazon Biodiversity Research Program (PPBio-AmOr).