Bruno Ubiali is a 2022 Halperin Memorial Fund recipient from the Society for Economic Anthropology for his proposed research "Present but Invisible: Revealing Perceptions of Forest Products in the Eastern Amazon". The award will pay for predissertation research and for him to present his work at the 2023 SEA conference.

Abstract: The ongoing expansion of government-sponsored logging and cattle ranching in the Brazilian Amazon collides with Indigenous communities that pursue forest-based livelihoods. This predissertation research aims at understanding Indigenous and large-scale farmers’ cultural notions of land, which will  contribute to revealing the cultural and social values of forest-based livelihoods and industrial agriculture in the Amazon and elsewhere. I will undertake this predissertation research in Santarém, Brazil, where Indigenous livelihoods and corporate interests currently are – and have historically been – in stark contrast. I will meet academic partners, establish relationships with communities, and collect data that will inform my dissertation research design. 

​How to discuss desirable scenarios for cities using alternative visions and scenario framework for management of nature in cities? Recognizing multiple values for our relationship with nature in urban settings can help to co-design greener and more sustainable urban futures. This is recent effort led by Andressa Mansur as a result of a collaborative workshop with colleagues from IPBES Scenarios and Models assessment, The Nature Conservancy and urban ecology experts. The publication offers a framework for creating alternative visions for nature in cities through four components, including the leverage points for reinforcing social-ecological feedbacks that draw on co-benefits from multiple nature perspectives, assessment of indirect impacts of cities on biodiversity, development of multi-scale monitoring and development of scenarios for nature in cities.  The publication can be found here.