Country, calypso or carimbó? The role of cultural value shifts in advancing Amazonian deforestation frontiers

This inter-disciplinary project addresses the intractable problem of how to reduce tropical deforestation. Current strategies such as REDD+ are failing and rooted in assumptions of rational economic decision-making. However, emerging research highlights the socio-cultural roots of environmental problems and solution pathways (e.g. Chan et al. 2020, People & Nature). Understanding people's environmental values is increasingly recognised as central to achieving sustainability and reducing biodiversity loss. Kendal & Raymond (2019, Sustainability Science) propose a conceptual model for understanding social-ecological value change, but this requires empirical testing. Interestingly, ethnographic work in Amazonia suggests that diffusion of 'cattle culture' (e.g. fashion, music, cultural events) causes Amazonians to become less attached to forests.

This project aims to understand whether migration to deforestation frontiers leads to local cultural value shifts and increased deforestation. It addresses three questions:

(1) Does in-migration of cattle-ranchers lead to cultural value shifts among Amazonian populations?
(2) Do cultural value shifts accelerate deforestation?
(3) Are there ecological-cultural tipping points (see Fernández-Giménez et al. 2017, Anthropocene) in Amazonia which cause or follow rapid environmental change?