O PROCESSO DE RESTAURAÇÃO FLORESTAL ENTRE OS GUARANI-NHANDEWA DA TERRA INDÍGENA LARANJINHA (SANTA AMÉLIA, PR)

The Laranjinha Indigenous Land, inhabited by the Guarani-Nhandewa indigenous community, is located in northern Paraná, Brazil, and has undergone an intense devastation of its natural resources for the expansion of agricultural areas and pasture for cattle breeding. Although this historical process, the community decided, in the late 1990s, to start a management in specific areas aiming a restoration of native forests. With strict control of fire, the community began to handle some pasture lands to allow natural regeneration. This article examines the environmental history of this indigenous territory, seeking to understand its ecologic, economic, cultural and social aspects. Semi-structured interviews were conducted as well as incursions into the restored areas to identify its main floristic profile,. The research shows that, in 2012, the forest covered approximately 35% of the area, in vari[[ous ecological stages; it was estimated 20 years ago a coverage of 3.6%. The forest recreated allows an increasing in resources and contributes to the maintenance and redefinition of their cultural identity, values and traditions.A Terra Indígena Laranjinha, habitada pela etnia Guarani Nhandewa, no norte do Paraná, foi submetida, a partir dos anos 50, a uma intensa destruição de seus recursos naturais para exploração madeireira e abertura de áreas agrícolas e de pastagens. No entanto, a comunidade decidiu, a partir do final da década de 1990, realizar um manejo de determinadas áreas para fins de restauração de florestas nativas. Com um controle rigoroso do fogo, começaram a conduzir a regeneração natural. O presente artigo analisa o histórico ambiental desta terra indígena, desde o desmatamento até o processo recente de restauração florestal, procurando compreender seus principais aspectos ambientais, econômicos e socioculturais. Foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas, bem como incursões às áreas em restauração com a finalidade de identificar suas principais características florísticas. A pesquisa mostra que, em 2012, a cobertura com florestas nesta terra indígena era de, aproximadamente, 35% do total, em vários estágios sucessionais, sendo que há 20 anos a cobertura florestal foi estimada em 3,6% do total. A floresta (re)criada permite uma ampliação dos recursos, contribui para redefinição da identidade social e para revalorização de suas tradições

Cultural consensus and intracultural diversity in ethnotaxonomy: lessons from a fishing community in Northeast Brazil

Background: Traditional fishing communities are strongholds of ethnobiological knowledge but establishing to what degree they harbor cultural consensus about different aspects of this knowledge has been a challenge in many ethnobiological studies. Methods: We conducted an ethnobiological study in an artisanal fishing community in northeast Brazil, where we interviewed 91 community members (49 men and 42 women) with different type of activities (fishers and non-fishers), in order to obtain free lists and salience indices of the fish they know. To establish whether there is cultural consensus in their traditional knowledge on fish, we engaged a smaller subset of 45 participants in triad tasks where they chose the most different fish out of 30 triads. We used the similarity matrices generated from the task results to detect if there is cultural consensus in the way fish were classified by them. Results: The findings show how large is the community’s knowledge of fish, with 197 ethnospecies registered, of which 33 species were detected as salient or important to the community. In general, men cited more fish than women. We also found that there was no cultural consensus in the ways fish were classified. Conclusions: Both free-listing and triad task methods revealed little cultural consensus in the way knowledge is structured and how fish were classified by community members. Our results suggest that it is prudent not to make assumptions that a given local community has a single cultural consensus model in classifying the organisms in their environment

Southern Ontologies. Reorienting Agendas in Social Ontology

This article addresses ontological negotiations in the Global South through three case studies of community-based research in Brazil and Ghana. We argue that ontological perspectives of Indigenous and other subjugated communities require an ontological pluralism that recognizes the plurality of both representational tools and ways of being in the world. Locating these two readings of ontological pluralism in the politics of the Global South, the article highlights a wider dynamic from ontological paternalism to ontological diversity to ontological decolonization. We conclude by arguing that this dynamic provides important lessons for reorienting agendas in social ontology through Southern Ontologies

Transdisciplinary Philosophy of Science: Meeting the Challenge of Indigenous Expertise

Transdisciplinary research knits together knowledge from diverse epistemic communities in addressing social-environmental challenges, such as biodiversity loss, climate crises, food insecurity, and public health. This paper reflects on the roles of philosophy of science in transdisciplinary research while focusing on Indigenous and other subaltern forms of knowledge. We offer a critical assessment of demarcationist approaches in philosophy of science and outline a constructive alternative of transdisciplinary philosophy of science. While a demarcationist focus obscures the complex relations between epistemic communities, transdisciplinary philosophy of science provides resources for meeting epistemic and political challenges of collaborative knowledge production

Transdisciplinary Philosophy of Science: Meeting the Challenge of Indigenous Expertise

Transdisciplinary research knits together knowledge from diverse epistemic communities in addressing social-environmental challenges, such as biodiversity loss, climate crises, food insecurity, and public health. This paper reflects on the roles of philosophy of science in transdisciplinary research while focusing on Indigenous and other subaltern forms of knowledge. We offer a critical assessment of demarcationist approaches in philosophy of science and outline a constructive alternative of transdisciplinary philosophy of science. While a demarcationist focus obscures the complex relations between epistemic communities, transdisciplinary philosophy of science provides resources for meeting epistemic and political challenges of collaborative knowledge production

Forest restoration in pasture areas at Laranjinha indigenous land/PR

The Laranjinha Indigenous Land, located in northern Paraná, went through an intense devastation of its natural resources in the 1950s for logging and expansion of agricultural areas and pasture. However, in view of environmental, cultural, social and economic factors, the community decided, in the late 1990s, to perform a management in specific areas aiming the forest restoration. With strict control of fire and not planting any seedlings, they began to handle some pasture lands to allow natural regeneration. Thus, the present study analyzes the process of forest restoration in the Laranjinha Indigenous Land, trying to understand the different aspects involved. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to raise information, as well as incursions into the restored areas to identify their stages of ecological succession and some key species. The ArcGIS software was used for mapping and conducting a quantitative analysis of the classified areas. Currently, the Indigenous Land is at an intermediate stage of environmental adequacy. After a 15-year period, there was an increase of almost 10 times in its forest cover: from 10.6 hectares (3.6% of the total area) to 101.9 hectares (35% of the total area). The (re) created forest allows an increase in subsistence resources and contributes to the maintenance and redefinition of their cultural identity, values and traditions, strongly related to the forest.Financiadora de Estudos e ProjetosA Terra Indígena Laranjinha, localizada no norte do Paraná, foi submetida, a partir dos anos 1950, a uma intensa destruição de seus recursos naturais para exploração madeireira e abertura de áreas agrícolas e de pastagens. No entanto, tendo em vista fatores ambientais, culturais, sociais e econômicos, a comunidade decidiu, a partir do final da década de 1990, realizar um manejo em determinadas áreas visando a restauração de florestas nativas. Com um controle rigoroso do fogo e sem, a princípio, o plantio de mudas, começaram a conduzir a regeneração natural. Diante disso, o presente estudo analisa o processo de restauração florestal na Terra Indígena Laranjinha, procurando compreender os diferentes aspectos envolvidos. Foram realizadas entrevistas semi-estruturadas para levantamento de informações, bem como incursões às áreas em restauração para identificar seus estágios sucessionais e algumas espécies chave. O software ArcGIS foi utilizado para o mapeamento e realização de uma análise quantitativa das áreas classificadas. Atualmente a Terra Indígena encontra-se em um estágio intermediário de adequação ambiental. Após um período de 15 anos, houve um incremento de quase 10 vezes em sua cobertura florestal, passando de 10,6 hectares (3,6% da superfície total) a 101,9 hectares (35% da superfície total). A floresta (re) criada permite uma ampliação dos recursos de subsistência, contribui para redefinição da identidade social e para revalorização de suas tradições, fortemente relacionadas à floresta

Exploring Partial Overlaps Between Knowledge Systems in a Brazilian Fishing Community

Based on a mixed-methods study involving triad tasks and ethnobiological models, we analyze local categories and knowledge of key ethnospecies of fish exploring partial overlaps between artisanal fishers’ and academic knowledge in a fishing community in northeast Brazil. We argue that fishers’ and academic knowledge overlaps may provide common ground for transdisciplinary collaboration, while their partiality requires reflection on epistemological and ontological differences. Here, we show how knowledge of artisanal fishers can complement academic knowledge and bring about tensions that need to be addressed through intercultural dialogue. By integrating a general philosophical framework of partial overlaps with a mixed-methods study on fishers’ knowledge, we show how ethnobiology can contribute to reflective and empirically-grounded transdisciplinary practices

Southern Ontologies. Reorienting Agendas in Social Ontology

This article addresses ontological negotiations in the Global South through three case studies of community-based research in Brazil and Ghana. We argue that ontological perspectives of Indigenous and other subjugated communities require an ontological pluralism that recognizes the plurality of both representational tools and ways of being in the world. Locating these two readings of ontological pluralism in the politics of the Global South, the article highlights a wider dynamic from ontological paternalism to ontological diversity to ontological decolonization. We conclude by arguing that this dynamic provides important lessons for reorienting agendas in social ontology through Southern Ontologies