“All That’s Left is Bare Land and Sky”: Palm Oil Culture and Socioenvironmental Impacts on a Tembé Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

The expansion of large-scale oil palm cultivation in the Amazon has exposed indigenous populations to changes around their lands and in their daily activities. Given the lack of studies on the impacts of oil palm on these populations, this study analyzed the socio-environmental impacts perceived by the Tembé, in Tomé-Açu, Pará State. With an interdisciplinary approach, between 2016 and 2017, semi-structured interviews and participant observation were conducted in five villages, inside and adjacent to the Turé-Mariquita Indigenous Land and complemented by remote sensing analyzes. This article describes the pressure vectors and the main socio-environmental impacts through the analysis of the indigenous narrative, and then these are discussed based on the scientific literature and remote sensing data. The findings indicate that the conversion of the surrounding territory to oil palm monoculture generated social and environmental changes that negatively affected the Tembé’s way of life and their capacity of socio-cultural reproduction.

Ecohydrological impacts of oil palm expansion: a systematic review

“…Within the literature on sociopolitical and sustainability aspects of oil palm associated with water (16 papers), we found a few examples that conduct a comprehensive analysis of community perceptions on water-related issues linked to oil palm cultivation (a total of four papers). Available studies use structured or semi-structured interviews with different stakeholders (including indigenous groups, smallholders, government officials, and private sector organizations) to identify positive and negative effects of oil palm cultivation and expansion on environmental and socio-economic conditions of local communities (Larsen et al 2014, Tittor 2017, Damiani et al 2020, Hervas 2020. Additionally, we found two studies, classified in the fluvial processes category, that use interviews with villagers and instrument data to empirically validate the communities' perceptions of water issues (Merten et al 2016(Merten et al , 2020.…”

“…We found several studies comparing changes or evaluating soil properties in forests and oil palm(Nelson et al 2014, Allen et al 2015, Sumarga et al 2016, Kenye et al 2019, Khasanah and van Noordwijk 2019, Swails et al 2019, Merten et al 2020), agroforest usually involving rubber (Bruun et al 2013, Couwenberg and Hooijer 2013, Allen et al 2015, Guillaume et al 2016, Hermawan et al 2019, Kenye et al 2019, Khasanah and van Noordwijk 2019,Merten et al 2020), and few studies evaluating changes in soils due to the transition from pastures(Nelson et al 2014, Goodrick et al 2015, Quezada et al 2019. We also found literature addressing the impact of different management practices such as using various understory vegetation(Satriawan et al 2016, Wawan et al 2019, Rahman et al 2021 and enhancing infiltration rates(Tarigan et al 2016, Damiani et al 2020.…”

“…Including communities' experiences, knowledge, and perceptions in research design is of high relevance, particularly considering that local communities clearly identify alterations in ecohydrological processes due to oil palm. Examples of this identification include surface and groundwater quality degradation and water scarcity (Larsen et al 2014, Merten et al 2016, Tittor 2017, Damiani et al 2020, Hervas 2020, water contamination due to erosion and runoff from oil palm plantations and mills and toxins from pesticides (Damiani et al 2020), reduced surface water in rivers during the dry season and declining water tables in land adjacent to oil palm plantations (Larsen et al 2014), flooding related to deforestation with increased peak flow, flash floods in the rainy season, and reductions in fishing capacity (Tarigan et al 2016, Merten et al 2020. This progress indicates that local knowledge could help identify ecohydrological impacts that are not being tracked by current research.…”

Survival of The Basing Arts of The Kajang Community in Global Challenges

“…Bourdieu wanted to overcome the dualism of structure and agency and think about practice in a truly relational way (de Moll & Betz, 2016). Basically, the socio-cultural reproduction of society is a form of response to changes that occur in society (Damiani et al, 2020). Support from outsiders becomes a form of legitimacy for cultural reproduction (Rossolatos, 2015).…”

Reverse Social Impact of Oil Palm Plantation Expansion: A Study of Three Communities in Jambi, Indonesia

“…Colchester (2007), Colchester et al (2010), Nilakrisna et al (2016), Prasetijo (2017), Sager (2008), Steinebach (2013), Rahayu et al (2021), and Sirait (2009) were conducted in Sumatra and West Kalimantan and found similar results. Additionally, Huesca (2016), Pichler (2013), Colchester et al (2010), Kadiri (2021), andDamiani et al (2020) conducted related studies in Brazil, Nigeria, and Southeast Asia.…”