André Braga Junqueira

André Braga JunqueiraAndré is a Brazilian ethnoecologist. He obtained his BSc. in Biological Sciences in 2005 from the Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil) and his MSc. in Botany in 2008 from the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA - Brazil). He has been working in Amazonia since 2006, focusing on the use and management of plants by traditional populations. During his MSc. he studied the ecology and ethnobotany of secondary forests on terra preta, and from 2008 to 2010, as an associate researcher at INPA, he conducted research related to anthropogenic soils and forests, plant and landscape domestication, and Amazonian historical ecology. André obtained his PhD. from Wageningen University, within the Terra Preta Program, in September 2015. He was also a post-doc researcher within the Terra Preta Program from February 2016 to February 2017.

Short description of PhD thesis

There is growing evidence that Terra Preta are specific environments that contrast strongly with non-anthropogenic soils not only in soil chemical and physical properties, but also in ecological and agrobiodiversity patterns. However, little attention has been given to the diversity of local knowledge, use and management strategies within Terra Preta, as well as to the drivers and implications of this diversity. Based on qualitative and quantitative approaches, this study aims to

  1. understand how Terra Preta fits into local knowledge and perceptions about soils and how this relates to the ways these soils are managed;
  2. analyse the relationships between socio-economic factors and floristic, structural and management characteristics of agricultural and agroforestry systems on Terra Preta and the underlying mechanisms that explain these relationships;
  3. evaluate how the specific Terra Preta management strategies affect agricultural cycles and the rate of deforestation and
  4. compare different agricultural and agroforestry systems within Terra Preta and between Terra Preta and non-anthropogenic soils regarding the ecological and livelihood services they provide.

Recent publications

Junqueira, A. B., Souza, N. B., Stomph, T. J., Almekinders, C., Clement, C. R., and Struik, P. C. (2016). Soil fertility gradients shape the agrobiodiversity of Amazonian homegardens. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 221: 270-281.

Junqueira, A. B., Almekinders, C. J. M., Stomph, T.-J., Clement, C. R., and Struik, P. C. (2016). The role of Amazonian anthropogenic soils in shifting cultivation: learning from farmers' rationales. Ecology and Society 21:

Junqueira, A. B., Stomph, T. J., Clement, C. R., and Struik, P. C. (2016). Variation in soil fertility influences cycle dynamics and crop diversity in shifting cultivation systems. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 215: 122-132.

Fraser, J. A., Diabaté, M., Narmah, W., Beavogui, P., Guilavogui, K., de Foresta, H., & Junqueira, A. B. (2016). Cultural valuation and biodiversity conservation in the Upper Guinea forest, West Africa. Ecology and Society, 21(3).

Chazdon, R. L., et al. (2016). "Carbon sequestration potential of second-growth forest regeneration in the Latin American tropics." Science Advances 2(5).

Poorter, L., et al. (2016). Biomass resilience of Neotropical secondary forests. Nature 530, 211-214.

Clement, C. R., Denevan, W. M., Heckenberger, M. J., Junqueira, A. B., Neves, E. G., Teixeira, W. G., and Woods, W. I. (2015). The domestication of Amazonia before European conquest. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 282:

Poorter, L., et al. 2015. Diversity enhances carbon storage in tropical forests. Global Ecology and Biogeography 24: 1314-1328.