Charles R. Clement’s research while affiliated with Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia de Adaptações da Biota Aquática da Amazônia and other places

Indigenous knowledges are being increasingly recognized as fundamental for environmental governance, ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation. However, they tend to be recognized by Western science only when they converge with Western scientific knowledge, while ontological differences are generally treated as irrelevant or unreasonable beliefs. Given this scenario, embracing difference as a productive and fundamental aspect to truly understand these epistemologies is crucial to advance fair and symmetrical epistemological dialogues. Current domestication models are key to interpreting human‐plant‐animal‐landscape entanglements. However, they have been criticized in the Amazonian context for remaining steeped in the Western logic of human control over nature and for neglecting local worldviews, which do not assume a dichotomy between nature and culture. In light of this, we propose a thought‐provoking exercise that aims to broaden ideas on domestication as inspired by Indigenous worldviews. We integrate insights derived from Amazonian Indigenous knowledge systems to construct a conceptual model of domestication. We then engage the synthesis resulting from this approach with concepts and theories from ecology and anthropology. In our model, plants, animals, supernatural beings and humans care for, manage and cultivate their domains. Since, according to Indigenous ontologies, all these beings have agency, intentionality, and human qualities, they all share the status of domesticators in our model. The outcome of the combined actions of these beings is an entirely socialized forest, formed by a mosaic of domūs of both humans and non‐humans. Thus, in our model, the forest is fully domesticated by the action of a multiplicity of beings, who possess symmetrical agencies and are constantly interacting socially. By following the reflective path constructed in our approach, we invite the reader to ‘think with’ Indigenous Peoples. Instigated by this framework, we suggest directions to broaden conventional ecological approaches used for studying socio‐ecological systems and promote conservation. We hope to inspire the creativity of current ecological research dynamics to design investigations that go beyond the anthropocentric perspective and the nature/culture dichotomy. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

RESUMO Na imaginação popular a Amazônia é um bioma natural, o que nega a existência e agência dos Povos Indígenas que chegaram há pelo menos 13 mil anos. Este ensaio demonstra que a Amazônia é uma teia de interações socioecológicas, como resultado da domesticação de paisagens e de populações de espécies. As práticas envolvidas na domesticação de paisagens são simples, embora baseadas em conhecimento profundo, e respeitam não humanos. Os Povos Indígenas combinam horticultura e domesticação de paisagens, bem como sedentarismo e mobilidade. Os Mebêngôkre (Kayapó) e Baniwa praticam mais horticultura, enquanto os Nukak e Zo’é são mais móveis, e a domesticação de suas paisagens reflete essas diferenças. Florestas domesticadas produzem alimentos tanto quanto roças e capoeiras, todas levam a manutenção ou regeneração da floresta. Essas práticas sugerem que as sociedades nacional e global podem aprender a produzir alimentos com a floresta em pé, o que contribuiria a mitigar os efeitos do Antropoceno.

In the popular imagination, Amazonia is a natural biome, which denies the existence and agency of Indigenous Peoples who arrived at least 13,000 years ago. This essay will demonstrate that Amazonia is a web of socio-ecological interactions, as a result of the domestication of landscapes and populations of species. The practices involved in the domestication of landscapes are simple, yet based on deep knowledge, and respectful of non-humans. Indigenous Peoples combine horticulture and landscape domestication, as well as sedentary lifestyles and mobility. The Mebêngôkre (Kayapó) and Baniwa practice more horticulture, while the Nukak and Zo’é are more mobile, and the domestication of their landscapes reflects these differences. Domesticated forests produce as much food as swiddens and fallows, all leading to forest maintenance or regeneration. These practices suggest that national and global societies can learn to produce food in the standing forest, which would contribute to mitigating the effects of the Anthropocene.

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is a semi-domesticated fruit tree of moderate importance in the Neotropics, utilized for millennia due to its nutritional and medicinal benefits, but its origin of domestication remains unknown. In this study, we examine genetic diversity and population structure in 215 plants from 11 countries in Mesoamerica, the Andes, and Amazonia using 25 nuclear microsatellite loci to propose an origin of domestication. Genetic analyses reveal one gene pool in Mesoamerica (Mexico) and four in South America (Brazilian Amazonia, Peruvian Amazonia and Andes, and Colombia), indicating greater differentiation among localities, possibly due to isolation between guava populations, particularly in the Amazonian and Andean regions. Moreover, Mesoamerican populations show high genetic diversity, with moderate genetic structure due to gene flow from northern South American populations. Dispersal scenarios suggest that Brazilian Amazonia is the probable origin of guava domestication, spreading from there to the Peruvian Andes, northern South America, Central America, and Mexico. These findings present the first evidence of guava domestication in the Americas, contributing to a deeper understanding of its evolutionary history.

The Brazil Nut tree ( Bertholletia excelsa , Lecythidaceae) is a species of considerable historical, economic and ecological importance in South America. Radiocarbon dating indicates some individuals can live from hundreds to more than 1000 years, which means they have the potential to reconstruct deep time growth patterns and their relationship to anthropogenic management or climate change from pre-colonial to present times. However, age estimates vary considerably amongst trees dated with different methods (i.e. tree-ring analysis, radiocarbon-dating, and repeated diameter measurements). Here we analyze living Brazil Nut trees growing in four distinct regions across the Brazilian Amazon using two dating methods: tree-ring counting and radiocarbon dating. Our results show that the congruence between the two methods varies amongst regions, and the highest congruence is found at the site of Tefé, Amazonas. This region features archaeological sites with anthropogenic Terra Preta soils, and is known for its long-term human forest management. This management likely enhanced light and nutrient availability, which possibly enabled the trees to grow at higher rates and form annual rings. Our findings highlight the need for better understanding of the growth of Brazil Nut trees for ecological research, but also the potential of dendrochronology for exploring climate change and human-forest interactions in the Amazon Basin.

Colli-Silva et al.1 recently proposed that cupuaçu (Theobroma grandiflorum) was domesticated in northwestern Amazonia as a selection from its sister species, cupuí (T. subincanum). This proposal ignores long-term research in taxonomy, botany, biogeography, and genetics about Theobroma, including cupuaçu. Our review of the research that was ignored and of Colli-Silva et al.’s results demonstrates that cupuaçu is a valid species, as they now agree2, but cupuí may be paraphyletic, the distribution of wild cupuaçu was not included in their samples so the origin of domestication continues unknown, precolonial archaeology lacks remains that can be attributed to either species, historical linguistics indicates that the term cupuaçu references the species’ wild distribution and is a recent introduction in northwestern Amazonia, history suggests that cupuaçu started to be domesticated during the last 100-200 years, and the genomics results are not about the domestication of cupuaçu because it is a valid species and its wild distribution was not sampled.

The expansion of globalized industrial societies is causing global warming, ecosystem degradation, and species and language extinctions worldwide. Mainstream conservation efforts still focus on nature protection strategies to revert this crisis, often overlooking the essential roles of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IP&LC) in protecting biodiversity and ecosystems globally. Here we assess the scientific literature to identify relationships between biodiversity (including ecosystem diversity) and cultural diversity, and investigate how these connections may affect conservation outcomes in tropical lowland South America. Our assessment reveals a network of interactions and feedbacks between biodiversity and diverse IP&LC, suggesting interconnectedness and interdependencies from which multiple benefits to nature and societies emerge. We illustrate our findings with five case studies of successful conservation models, described as consolidated or promising 'social-ecological hope spots', that show how engagement with IP&LC of various cultures may be the best hope for biodiversity and ecosystem conservation, particularly when aligned with science and technology. In light of these five inspiring cases, we argue that conservation science and policies need to recognize that protecting and promoting both biological and cultural diversities can provide additional co-benefits and solutions to maintain ecosystems resilient in the face of global changes.

Agrobiodiversity is economically, socially, culturally, and ecologically important for resilience of local communities and their agroecosystems. We identified an extreme flood impact on Alpha and Beta agrobiodiversity before, immediately after and two years after the largest flood ever recorded in three different floodplain types along the middle Solimões River in Amazonia. We found that palms and trees, and species native to Brazil, had higher survival rates in all three floodplain types. The low várzea showed the most expressive losses of ethno-species and manioc Alpha diversity among the floodplain types; ethnospecies original diversities were not recovered even two years after the flood, and manioc had the slowest recovery. Ethnospecies Beta diversity was relatively homogeneous among floodplain types before the flood; after the extreme flood more heterogeneity was observed. These results highlight the vulnerability of local agrobiodiversity in the face of extreme climatic events, which drastically affect local food sovereignty and income sources.