Valorizing Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Indigenous People in the Pantanal region (Brazil): the potential for indigenous protagonism in forest conservation projects.

This work investigates the characteristics and the importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of Indigenous People (IPs) in the Pantanal area in Brazil, and the relevance that this could have on improving indigenous protagonism in the design and implementation of forest conservation projects. Despite IPs being key contributors in forest conservation worldwide, and their role and rights being stated in the major international frameworks on the topic, they are rarely given recognition in practice. This weak involvement has its roots in land tenure rights, economic and political power inequalities, lack of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), a lower consideration than scientific knowledge, and can have negative consequences on the accountability, acceptance and relevance of projects. IPs can provide TEK that is relevant for the understanding of local contexts, they have historical ecological memory and long term experience in traditional forest conservation strategies. Initiatives of indigenous protagonism are rare and have low recognition. This work will explore the case study of an indigenous agroecology organisation from the Pantanal area, the Caianas organisation, to see how they reappropriated and organised their TEK, how this became an instrument for increased protagonism in local forest conservation and how this experience can be of inspiration for similar initiatives. The qualitative research on the case study will be coupled with a theoretical framework review, context analysis and an overview of actors working on forest conservation involving IPs in the Pantanal area. This work intends to answer the following RQ: How is the TEK of IP defined in the Pantanal area and how can it be a means for IP involvement in forest conservation projects there?