Voices from the South

In this first episode of our series on the role of science, technology and the ancestral knowledge of the indigenous peoples of Brazil and Australia in the fight for environmental preservation, we will delve into the ancient wisdom of the indigenous peoples of both countries. To draw, based on their nearly prehistoric traditions, a parallel between the past, present, and future of science in the two largest nations of the Southern Hemisphere. Nations of continental dimensions and similar colonial origins, which also share a rich environmental diversity. This makes them two key players in humanity’s struggle to reduce the effects of climate change before reaching the point of no return.Episode guests:1 - Mundanara Bayles, co-founder and director of The BlackCard2 - Andrew Gunstone, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Reconciliation and Professor of Indigenous Studies at Federation University (Victoria, Australia)3 - Oreme Marlus Ikpeng, agroecology technician, forestry engineering student at the Federal University of São Carlos, and member of the Steering Committee of the Xingu Seed Network4 - Gerry Turpin, ethnobotanist and researcher at the Center for Indigenous Tropical Ethnobotany at the Australian Tropical Herbarium5 - Vivian Fraga, senior coordinator in the Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Communities Division at the NGO Conservation International6 - Laís Sarlo, geographer and coordinator of Geoinformation Science at the NGO Conservation International7 - Guerancê Kayabi Panará (Cutia), researcher for the project Territorial Protection, Environmental Monitoring, and Sustainable Management of the Panará Indigenous Land and Surrounding Territories in the Xingu Conservation Units Corridor8 - Sopoa Panará, chief and teacher in the village of Nonporon and researcher for the project Territorial Protection, Environmental Monitoring, and Sustainable Management of the Panará Indigenous Land and Surrounding Territories in the Xingu Conservation Units Corridor9 - Patrick Nunn - Geologist, professor of geography at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, and writer10 - Juarez Pezzuti, biologist and professor at the Federal University of Pará***“Voices from the South” team:Editorial coordination: Luciana JuliãoEnglish narration: Melissa GarciaScript: Luciana Julião, with assistance from Luciana ColodeteResearch: Fernando Vives (Australia), Luciana Colodete, Luciana Julião, and Mariana Moreira (Brazil)Fact-checking: Fernando Vives and Luciana ColodeteEditing, soundtrack, and mixing: Bruno CysneEnglish version script: Gustavo AlmeidaVoice-overs: Eleven LabsSocial media: Carolina AleixoAudiovisual: Paulo Mussoi and Carolina AleixoVisual identity: Laura GarciaConsultant: Maria Ataide Malcher, Federal University of ParáUFPA Team: Arlene Cantão Costa, Ana Teresa Lima Nascimento, Bismaike da Silva Santos, Victor Hugo Pinheiro dos Santos, Marcus Anderson Batista Leal, and Natália da Silva Maia de AlmeidaExecutive production: Daniel Stycer and Paulo Mussoi

It is easy for anyone concerned about nature to imagine the Amazon preserved as a virgin forest, untouched by the destructive hand of man...Nothing could be further from the truth.Brazilian scientists now know that, far more than an immaculate forest, the Amazon is an immense garden, shaped over centuries by the hands of the peoples who lived there and managed the soil and seeds for the benefit of their cultures, yet with an ancestral mindset of respect, preservation, and integration with nature."Human presence helps the Amazon rainforest, because human management increases biodiversity, it does not decrease it. (...) The landscape we see in the forest today has been entirely managed. Even today, if you dig in some regions of the forest, you’ll find what we call ‘black Indian soil’: a distinct fertility, with remnants of a community that lived there for hundreds, thousands of years,” says anthropologist Flávio Barros, a professor at the Federal University of Pará.Flávio is one of the interviewees in the third episode of the podcast Voices from the South: “Fire and Livestock: Challenges of Two Breadbaskets of the World.”In this episode, we speak with Brazilian ecologists in Brazil and fire management experts in Australia to explore concepts that challenge conventional wisdom and demonstrate that human intervention can and should be beneficial to vast and fragile ecosystems. And history proves this, through research into the activities of Indigenous peoples —both in Brazil and Australia—and their millennia-old wisdom regarding seed manipulation, the use of fire, and many other silvicultural techniques through which they interacted with nature, learning to extract from it the fruits of their survival without affecting the functioning of the ecosystem in which they lived and, in many cases, learning to optimize its potential and exuberance.Fire is, therefore, an important element that our team explored in both countries, showing how what is today a major villain against conservation was once—and can still be—a powerful tool for conservation and the development of techniques that do not destroy the forest and support a healthy extractive economy.Keeping the great forests standing today is an even more crucial challenge, due to global warming and climate change. Along with the oceans, they are the major absorbers of the excess carbon produced by the economic activities of the globalized world. One of these sources, especially in Brazil and Australia, is livestock farming. That’s why, in this episode, our team also investigated what scientists in both countries are doing to minimize greenhouse gas emissions generated by their cattle herds, which are among the largest in the world. And we discovered how creativity and knowledge are being used to find nature-based solutions that are already beginning to mitigate this major problem.Don’t miss all this and much more in the third episode of the “Vozes do Sul” podcast.***In five episodes, “Voices from the South” presents the results of dozens of interviews with academics and custodians of the ancestral knowledge of the indigenous peoples in both countries regarding the science behind combating forest fires, the impacts of mining, the warming of ocean waters, and the influence of agriculture and livestock on global warming. The podcast also highlights examples of innovation that Brazil and Australia—where the power of the sun, wind, rivers, and waves abound—are developing in the field of renewable energy.This is the essence of the adventure our team of journalists, led by Environment Editor Luciana Julião, undertook to produce “Voices from the South”. “Voices of the South” is a co-production of The Conversation Brazil with the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), funded by the Council on Australia Latin America Relations (COALAR) and with strategic consulting from The Conversation Media Group.***Voices from the South, Episode 3: “Fire and Livestock: Challenges for Two of the World’s Breadbaskets”Episode guests:1 - Flávio Barros, anthropologist and professor at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA)2 - Juarez Pezzuti, biologist and professor at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA)3 - Angela Pellin, researcher, Evaluation and Monitoring Advisor, and Project Coordinator at IPÊ – Institute for Ecological Research4 - Tainan Kumaruara, president of the Women’s Association of the village of Muruary (Santarém, Pará) and coordinator of the Guardiões Kumaruara fire brigade5 - Sarah Smith, community director of the Fire to Flourish program6 - Michael Battaglia, leader of the “Mission to Net Zero” at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO); Research Director and Board Director at FutureFeed ## “Voices of the South” Team:***“Voices of the South” TeamEditorial coordination and narration: Luciana JuliãoScript: Luciana Julião, with assistance from Luciana ColodeteResearch: Fernando Vives (Australia), Luciana Colodete, Luciana Julião, and Mariana Moreira (Brazil)Fact-checking: Fernando Vives and Luciana ColodeteEditing, soundtrack, and mixing: Bruno CysneTranslations: Paulo MussoiVoice-overs: Eleven LabsSocial media: Carolina AleixoAudiovisual: Paulo Mussoi and Carolina AleixoVisual identity: Laura GarciaScientific consulting: Maria Ataide Malcher, Federal University of Pará (UFPA)UFPA Team: Arlene Cantão Costa, Ana Teresa Lima Nascimento, Bismaike da Silva Santos, Victor Hugo Pinheiro dos Santos, Marcus Anderson Batista Leal, and Natália da Silva Maia de AlmeidaExecutive Production: Daniel Stycer and Paulo Mussoi

In this fifth and final episode of Voices from the South, we’ll explore a possible future: one in which renewable energy succeeds in fulfilling its promise to rival fossil fuels, to the point of neutralizing—or at least reducing—the effects of climate change.To do this, we return to the Amazon to discover how scientists are producing increasingly efficient—and economically viable—fuels from sources as diverse as oil extracted from the acai berry. Or from cyanobacteria and microalgae found in Amazonian rivers and lakes, which are already being used as raw material for aviation fuel, replacing highly polluting aviation kerosene.We also revisited the Australian coast, this time to learn about energy generated and naturally replenished by ocean waves. Studies conducted by the Marine Energy Research Australia (MERA) center at the University of Western Australia show that harnessing the kinetic energy provided by waves can generate hundreds of gigawatts per year, enough to light up entire cities.***In five episodes, “Voices from the South” presents the results of dozens of interviews with academics and custodians of the ancestral knowledge of the indigenous peoples in both countries regarding the science behind combating forest fires, the impacts of mining, the warming of ocean waters, and the influence of agriculture and livestock on global warming. The podcast also highlights examples of innovation that Brazil and Australia—where the power of the sun, wind, rivers, and waves abound—are developing in the field of renewable energy.This is the essence of the adventure that our team of journalists, led by Environment Editor Luciana Julião, undertook to produce “Voices from the South".“Voices from the South” is a co-production of The Conversation Brasil with the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), funded by the Council on Australia Latin America Relations (COALAR) and with strategic consulting from The Conversation Media Group.***Voices from the South, Episode 5 “Future: Tomorrow’s Energy, Today”Episode guests:1 - Hilson Rabelo, artisan and owner of the company Fibras da Amazônia2 - Luís Adriano Nascimento, professor at the Institute of Biological Sciences at the Federal University of Pará and deputy coordinator of the Amazon Oils Laboratory3 - Gilberto Januzzi, professor of Energy Systems at the School of Mechanical Engineering at Unicamp and senior researcher at the Center for Energy Planning (NIPE)4 - Hugh Wolgamot, senior researcher at the Marine Energy Research Australia (MERA) center at the University of Western Australia***“Voices of the South” Team:Editorial coordination and narration: Luciana JuliãoScript: Luciana Julião, with assistance from Luciana ColodeteEnglish narration: Melissa GarciaEnglish version script: Gustavo AlmeidaResearch: Fernando Vives (Australia), Luciana Colodete, Luciana Julião, and Mariana Moreira (Brazil)Fact-checking: Fernando Vives and Luciana ColodeteEditing, soundtrack, and mixing: Bruno CysneTranslations: Paulo MussoiVoice-overs: Eleven LabsSocial media: Carolina AleixoAudiovisual: Paulo Mussoi and Carolina AleixoVisual identity: Laura GarciaScientific consulting: Maria Ataide Malcher, Federal University of Pará (UFPA)UFPA Team: Arlene Cantão Costa, Ana Teresa Lima Nascimento, Bismaike da Silva Santos, Victor Hugo Pinheiro dos Santos, Marcus Anderson Batista Leal, and Natália da Silva Maia de AlmeidaExecutive Production: Daniel Stycer and Paulo Mussoi