Understanding the role of social networks on food security in view of climatic extremes in Amazonas

The State of Amazonas is a very relevant case in Brazil in terms of food security, because on the one hand it presents a bounty of natural resources for food but on the other it has some of the worst nutritional indicators in the country. The State of Amazonas presents a clear east-west gradient of nutritional vulnerability, with Manaus presenting medium vulnerability, and municipalities in the extreme west of the state presenting very high vulnerability. Although the Amazon region is subject to frequent climatic extremes (such as the 2005, 2010 and 2015/2016 droughts), state policies for climate change and food security are not aligned. It is perceived, for example, that a clearer understanding of the ways in which relationships between people and communities are configured (social networks) can improve the responsiveness of these populations to climate change and lead to actions that maintain or increase their level of food security as they are organized in collaborative and diverse ways.

Thus, this project has as a general objective to map the local and extra-local relations between the different social actors around the access and use of a specific set of ecosystem services related to food security. This will be done in three municipalities along the amazon food security gradient: Manaus, Carauari and Tabatinga. This investigation will be achieved through:

  • a systematic analysis of ecosystem services used by the communities/neighborhoods studied and related to food security;
  • a calculation of indices of climatic extremes and how they affected the use of these services in the past (and in the future);
  • an analysis of the organization in social networks of the focus communities and its relationship with the use of ecosystem services and food security; and
  • the proposition of the use of ecosystem services and organization in social networks which can be said to be ideal for maintaining or improving food security.

In the end, it is expected that the results of this project will provide practical indicators for the State of Amazonas to act synergistically in relation to its food security and climate change policies – for example through the transfer of social technologies between different communities / populations of the state, contributing in the end to achieving of goal 4 of the 2nd  Sustainable Development Goal, which relates food security with sustainable agriculture and balanced ecosystems.

The SDG2.4-AM is part of the socioeconomic task of the AmazonFACE Program

Research Team

Tiago Jacaúna – Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), coordinator

David M. Lapola – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), coordinator

Adriane L. Brito – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), technician

Adriano Premebida – Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), researcher

Ana Cruz L. – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), MSc student

Ana M. H. Avila – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), researcher

Beatriz Tristão – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), MSc student

Beatriz Valentim – Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), bolsista technician

Bruno Takeshi T. Portela – Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), operations manager

Carlos A. Quesada – Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), researcher

Giulia M. Serbin – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), technician

Júlia Menin – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) / Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), technician

Lorena Fleury – Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), researcher

Maíra Padgurschi – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), post-doc

Marko Monteiro – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), researcher

Moara C. Teixeira – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), PhD student

Patricia F. Pinho – Universidade de São Paulo (USP), researcher

Pedro Rapozo – Universidade Estadual do Amazonas (UEA), researcher

Roger R. Torres – Universidade Federal de Itajubá (UNIFEI), researcher

Tiago Oliveira – Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), technician

Funding

FAPESP-FAPEAM Call 01/2020 Granted projects

FAPEAM-FAPESP (FAPESP – FAPEAM Public Call 01/2020)

Duration

Sep.2021 – Aug.2023

Interested? Get in contact with us.