Conservation of the Atlantic Forest trees through Indigenous sustainability

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest harbors one of the most diverse and threatened tropical forest biotas worldwide. Recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot, the biome extends along Brazil's Atlantic coast and into eastern Paraguay and northeastern Argentina, spanning a wide range of latitudinal, longitudinal, altitudinal, and climatic gradients. Its flora includes taxa from the Amazon Rainforest, Cerrado gallery forests, and the Andean region, encompassing approximately 25,000 species of vascular plants, 48% of which are endemic and 3400 of which are trees (Oliveira-Filho and Fontes 2000).

The degradation of the Atlantic Forest reflects centuries of human expansion triggered by the arrival of European colonizers in the 16th century CE. Over time, economic cycles, such as those associated with brazilwood, sugarcane, gold, and coffee, as well as urbanization, ranching, and railway/road construction, have severely impacted the forest (Dean 2013). Today, much of the Atlantic Forest consists of patches of secondary forests at varying stages of recovery, monoculture plantations of non-native trees, and small forest fragments surrounded by open areas dominated by anthropogenic landscapes (Tabarelli et al. 2010). An estimated ~120 million people (70% of Brazil's population) live along Brazil's Atlantic coast, exacerbating pressure on the remaining forest, which currently covers only 12% of its original extent (SOS Mata Atlântica 2023). In this context, urban expansion, industrialization, intensive agriculture, and mining not only accelerate deforestation and biodiversity loss but also erode the ancestral knowledge and cultures of Indigenous peoples who have inhabited these lands for millennia.

Currently, Brazil is home to 305 Indigenous peoples who speak 274 different languages. These groups inhabit territories composed of forests and other associated non-forest systems. The differences exhibited by these communities reflect their sociocultural variety, arising from distinct logics, conceptions, and practices specific to each people and shaped by various historical, social, and environmental contexts (Cunha et al. 2022).

Among the Indigenous peoples coexisting within the Atlantic Forest are the Guarani (Guarani Mbya), Kaingang, Pataxó, Tupinambá, and Tupiniquim. For these groups, nature and biodiversity not only are deeply connected with beliefs, knowledge, history, and culture but also depend on management techniques to better ensure their persistence over time. Embedded within multiple dimensions—social, cultural, political, economic, environmental, philosophical, and spiritual—traditional Indigenous knowledge fosters a sustainable way of relating to nature, land, and biodiversity, contributing to landscape and biodiversity conservation (Cunha et al. 2022).

Indigenous cultural practices are expressed through a diversity of songs, dances, competitions, prayers, mythic narratives, and languages; the development of plant cultivation techniques as well as hunting and fishing technologies; medicinal, taxonomic, soils-, and landscape-based knowledge; and craftsmanship, including basket weaving, ceramics, textiles (Cunha et al. 2022), and wooden handicrafts. For millennia, the transgenerational transmission of Indigenous knowledge has shaped landscapes and even influenced the organization of certain biological communities (Maezumi et al. 2023), with repercussions on the management of culturally important tree species.

The historical degradation of the Atlantic Forest is linked with the historical genocide of Indigenous peoples, including forest-dwelling populations. Prior to European arrival, an estimated 3.4 million Indigenous people lived within the Atlantic Forest domain (Cunha et al. 2022). After colonization, the widespread mortality among Indigenous populations reduced the original female population by approximately 50% (O'Fallon and Fehren-Schmitz 2011).

The impacts of climate change, including but not limited to biodiversity loss, extreme weather, and food insecurity, continue to occur despite increasing attention to the role of forests in the mitigation thereof (Hossain 2021). The ongoing transformation of forest landscapes through tree removal and intentional burning erodes natural ecosystems, promoting agricultural expansion and economic exploitation of wood for fuel and timber. Consequently and cumulatively, these threats impact both biodiversity and humans, as forests provide food, medicine, and cultural resources for local communities. By stabilizing rivers and watersheds, forests also help to minimize floods and soil erosion (Pistora 2024).

Anthropic pressures on the Atlantic Forest have increased substantially in recent decades, intensifying the impacts on already vulnerable traditional communities, often forcing their displacement (Pistora 2024). In Brazil, weak environmental governance and policy implementation serve to imperil the Atlantic Forest even more. Corruption, economic pressures from large industries, and inadequate enforcement hinder effective protection of Indigenous territories and biodiversity conservation areas (SOS Mata Atlântica 2023).

Finding viable and sustainable solutions to mitigate climate-change effects, such as forest preservation (Pistora 2024; Hossain 2021), will require integrating Western science with traditional Indigenous knowledge and promoting public policies focused on the creation of reserves, protection of Indigenous territories, and ecological restoration. Thus, there is an urgent need to discuss conservation alternatives and the prudent use of available natural resources (Hossain 2021; Gazing Wolf et al. 2024), with special attention on forest conservation, Indigenous knowledge, and sustainability.

Indigenous peoples already play a fundamental role in the sustainable management of their territories, and Indigenous knowledge could become a new paradigm for biological conservation, reframing human actions historically rooted in Eurocentrism (Gazing Wolf et al. 2024). Among scientists, there is growing consensus about the critical role that local Indigenous knowledge plays in discovering, cataloging, and conserving biodiversity. It is essential that Indigenous knowledge becomes a model that, through societal changes, allows the establishment of Indigenous-led spaces to promote full dialogue between diverse forms of knowledge, including Western science. This approach should grant equal value to Indigenous perspectives not only in fostering discovery and problem solving but also in addressing gaps in biodiversity discovery, documentation, and conservation (Gazing Wolf et al. 2024; Guimarães et al. 2024). Initiatives to maintain forested areas through practices that integrate cultural traditions with wood conservation measures, such as Indigenous territorial planning by the Guarani Mbya in southern Brazil, are promising.

Indigenous ways of being and living, expressed through a balanced and sustainable relationship with the land, can drive regional and international collaborations to combat deforestation and conserve the Atlantic Forest. This represents a possible path to mitigate climate change, one that emphasizes the need for the participation of Indigenous peoples in decision-making processes within governance bodies to formulate climate and environmental policies.