Amazonian BioTechQuilombo - Amazonian Biodiversity, Technology Assessment and Knowledge Exchange with Quilombos

Quilombola communities in the Amazon are teaching researchers which plants and animals matter most for their way of life, and how to track them using both traditional knowledge and modern tools like DNA barcoding and satellite imagery. This matters because official conservation data for the Amazon often overlooks the species that Quilombola people actually rely on for food, medicine, and culture. Without that information, conservation policies can miss or even harm the ecosystems these communities depend on. The project fills a gap by combining scientific surveys with community knowledge to identify which species are most important for both human livelihoods and ecosystem health. If successful, the research could produce automated, community-run biodiversity monitoring systems that let Quilombola groups measure environmental changes themselves. That would shift conservation from a top-down, outsider-driven process to one rooted in local expertise and priorities. It could also strengthen the communities’ role in land management decisions and build lasting research capacity inside the Amazon, rather than extracting data for use elsewhere.