Bárbara Nascimento Flores Borum-Kren

Life Sciences

Yáma M’Bok Borum-Kren (Bárbara Nascimento Flores) is a scientist whose roots trace back to the riverbanks of Uaimií, Uatu, and Paraopeba. She weaves together ancestral heritage, academic inquiry, and advocacy for socio-environmental justice.

As a leading voice of the Borum-Kren nation, she researches how the return of Indigenous peoples to their territories can trigger far-reaching socioecological cascades—chains of regeneration that restore landscapes, memory, lifeways, and cosmologies.

Flores holds a degree in tourism from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais and completed her master’s and Ph.D. in development and the environment at the State University of Santa Cruz in Bahia. During her postdoctoral work at the University of Colorado, she founded the Center Wayrakuna of Indigenous Ancestral Sciences to connect Indigenous scholars across the Americas.

Despite her activism, research, and writing, Flores sets aside time for aerial dance, embracing it as a form of resistance and a celebration of her ancestors and identity.

Open Calls

Joint call 3 to support Black and Indigenous ecology postdocs

Projects

In what ways might the resurgence of the Borum-Kren people contribute to the revitalization of biocultural memory and trigger socioecological cascades in the Uaimií Valley, Minas Gerais, Brazil?
Science / Life Sciences

Although the pivotal role of Indigenous peoples in biodiversity conservation is widely recognized, the links between environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and the displacement of Indigenous communities from their lands are not well understood. Often, the destruction of ecosystems and the loss of species coincide with or follow the forced removal of Indigenous peoples. Furthermore, the transformative potential of returning land to Indigenous stewardship—referred to as “reterritorialization”—for triggering positive socioecological cascades has not yet been fully recognized. This project proposes a holistic investigation of the cultural and physical erasure of Indigenous groups (genocide) and the destruction of their territories (ecocide). Together, these processes can result in epistemicide: the loss of valuable Indigenous knowledge systems associated with ecosystem management and biodiversity. Focusing on the Borum-Kren (resurgent Botocudos) of the Uaimií Valley in the Espinhaço Range of the state of Minas Gerais allows this study to explore how territory reclamation fosters local and regional socio-ecological benefits. These processes may restore collective memory, reinforce biocultural identity, and promote multifunctional landscapes where environmental regeneration, biodiversity protection, and community well-being are mutually reinforcing. 

Amount invested

Grant 2025: R$517.000,00

Institutions

  • Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz