I am a mother, writer, scientist, lecturer, and forever learner from Brazil. I grew up between the forest (Atlantic and Amazon) and the city of Rio de Janeiro. I have more than 17 years of research and practical experience with indigenous peoples, behaviour change, biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Most of my work concentrates on integrating indigenous and scientific knowledges; understanding the needs of indigenous peoples to conserve their biodiversity, and medicines and to disseminate their cosmologies; comprehending the influence of indigenous rituals and medicines in shaping Western individuation through diverse experiences and understandings of the nature of being; and studying issues related to other-than-human beings consciousness, co-evolution, relationality, trust, reciprocity, and shared intentionality.

My first graduation was in Law, followed by a Master of Sciences in Environment and Development and a Ph.D. in Anthropology, Institutions, and Development from a joint scholarship of the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro and the London School of Economics and Political Science. The Amazon rainforest, the main geographical area of my research, is a landscape of uncertainty, complexity, and non-linearity that allows me to understand how we might better grasp the immensity of the current ecological crisis. My research and work have developed in-depth knowledge of the interface between natural and social sciences, and I have been lecturing on different topics such as transitions, indigenous knowledge, spiritual ecologies, decoloniality, and bioeconomy in universities in the United Kingdom (e.g. Oxford, East Anglia), Germany (e.g. Dresden) and United States (e.g. Harvard).

At the moment, I am writing my own book called “Chanting Spring”. Using the clarion call of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring as my touchstone, the book maps out our disconnection from the natural world and the consequences this has wrought on us, but unlike other books of this ilk, it also weaves a narrative of reconnection detailing many of my personal experiences with indigenous peoples in the Amazon, offering a mix of science and traditional knowledge as we transition to a post-pandemic world.

I am collaborating with the Yorenka Tasorentsi Institute to guarantee indigenous rights in relation to their traditional knowledge and medicines.  I am also helping indigenous elders from the Yawanawá people to register their knowledge before it is lost by giving support to the creation of a local knowledge and etno-cultural-botanic center in the Yawarani village.