Image by Alex Popovkin via Flickr
An innovative UK-Brazil research project co-led by a UCL academic has been awarded the prestigious 2018 Newton Prize for helping an entire indigenous community restore large swathes of Brazil's Atlantic Forest. The project, led for the UK by Dr Marc Brightman (UCL Anthropology) and led for Brazil by Daniel Calazans Pierri (Indigenous Work Centre), is aimed protecting the food security and culture of the Guarani People, who live in the Atlantic Forest, helping their communities develop and prosper. Delivered in partnership with the British Council (UK) the project has already benefited more than 3,000 Guarani people. Dr Marc Brightman, Co-Director at UCL Centre for the Anthropology of Sustainability and UK project lead, said: "The Prize will enable us to greatly expand the successful work already achieved by including more villages, further developing what is included in the indigenous knowledge and seed exchanges and by expanding the agroforestry techniques shared during the project." The Atlantic Forest in Brazil is one of the world's richest biomes, home to a large number of species unique to that area. It is fundamental to the physical and cultural survival of the indigenous Guarani people, and to the quality of life of more than 70 percent of the Brazilian population who depend on its water supply. Despite this, nearly 90 percent of the forest has been destroyed to make way for pastures, croplands and urban areas, severely affecting the Guarani people and threatening many species with extinction.
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