Fran Braga Pereira - protecting the future

Taking care of the future begins with studying the environmental change originating from human activity, so as to correct certain practices and traditions that are not sustainable in the long run.

Franci is a biologist with a PhD in zoology. We met a few years back in Portugal at an international conference on ethnobotany: neither of us was an ethnobotanist, fyi. On the last evening, we went out dancing after the Gala dinner… and we literally danced the night away, only stopping by our respective hotel rooms to pick up our suitcases ready to head to the airport.
From then on my idea of a scientist changed forever. Franci is intelligent, fun, witty and beautiful - initiating change wherever research takes her.

T: What is your area of interest as a biologist?
     F: I generally work on the anthropogenic impact on biodiversity, focusing on vertebrates and working mainly with wildlife hunting (poaching), trafficking and trade.

Right now I’m part of a team working out a hunting-management system in the Amazon with a local indigenous community that has traditionally and culturally been hunting and eating turtles. They are allowed to do so, however, we are working out a quota so that they can consume the eggs in a manner that doesn’t pose turtles at risk of extinction. At the same time, the community positions itself as a protector of those nests and helps us dislocate the nests to a safer place when flooding occurs. This is community-based management, meaning the management of turtles within a community, and it’s a very happy side of my work. 

At the same time, I study the impact of illegal hunting on biodiversity… One of my main interests is the study of the impact of civil wars, or armed conflict, on biodiversity. Usually what happens during an armed conflict is that the fiscalisation - the people who run the inspections - is quite a mess and everyone can have easy access to guns and ammunition. Then when there’s no enemy to shoot at, they use these weapons to hunt big mammals and endangered species. It’s a very complex thing, and we need to look at the social component of the people who hunt to understand them too. 

T: How did you choose this route?
     F: I grew up in a rural area here in Brazil and ever since I was a very small kid I was an environmentalist. At 7 I was already out and about saving animals; at 13 I was giving talks in schools and in the city. So from a very young age, I was actively engaged with environmental causes. At the same time I grew up in a small city where hunting was forbidden yet common for some people, thus my interest in the impact of such practice only grew with time. 

When I started the university, although I studied different subjects, the anthropogenic impact on wildlife absorbed my attention. I developed my work organically by following my interests, meeting people and developing my network. 

T: What areas in the world do you focus on?
     F: I did fieldwork in Angola. Now in Brazil, in the Amazon. 
But I also work with data coming from Asia. I’d say my area is the Tropical Forests of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

T: After you collect the data and picture the situation, what happens?
     F: We work on a solution, which sometimes has a positive outcome and other times it’s a disaster and entire species are defaunated with catastrophic consequences. It always depends on the engagement of local people, and on the engagement of the state, the universities and NGOs all working together. One thing is to envision a solution, another is to put it into practice. 

My latest project is a beautiful example of success because the indigenous community depends on the wildlife (on wild meat), and at the same time they protect it too. In the Amazon, the main protectors of the forest are the indigenous people. 

The problem, however, is illegal trade on a global scale, because when it’s local - wildlife hunting for local consumption and local trade - the level of defaunation and depletion is much lower. Dare I say, manageable. Once the global chain is set in motion, the demand grows to outnumber the availability - because they can use big weapons, use freezers to preserve more meat, and transport fast to different areas. Obviously, at that point we need the governments to step in through fiscalisation and quotas; we need to put in place a system to educate and make people understand the consequences of their overhunting. Moreover, it’s important to point out that the trade chain is unfair. The hunters make very little money compared to what the final seller gets per kg of ivory. It’s not sustainable in terms of money for the local people and it’s not a sustainable source of income for future generations. 

Trade is the biggest issue. I have colleagues working on trophy-hunting, and even that can be done sustainably with quotas. 

T: This brings to my mind the image of commercial fishing, what a horror!  What’s the point of view of the hunters? What do they tell you to justify their actions?
     F: Look at the complexity of this, I will tell you about my research in Angola. I collected data on how much they earn with leopard skins and per kg of ivory. It’s true that the money they get compared to the revenue of the final seller, is insignificant. However, that amount compared to the income they’d get doing any other honest local work (for example in agriculture) is significantly higher. Illegal hunting offers them more money compared to any other work opportunities in their community. So if we go to them and say, ‘Hey you need to stop doing this because in the future you won’t be able to live off of it,’ we also need to present them with a list of alternatives. 

Corruption in Angola is high - I mean also in Brazil it’s high - and people just adapted to whichever easier way to live by because fiscalisation is not strict. It’s big work that needs to be done, starting with the engagement of people, education and the creation of new jobs. 

The conservation of biodiversity is political. We can’t do conservation without politics.

T: Why do you think the indigenous communities think in the long-term, whereas our more modern civilisations seem to lack vision?
     F: It’s complex to say. Here in Brazil, and also in Angola, I found some people really patient thinking in the long-term - for example, I remember a hunter once told me he planted a crop and if next year the rain would come, the crop would make him good sales in two years. At the same time, he needs immediate income, therefore he hunts. They recognise that hunting is not positive, and also that it doesn’t take them out of poverty. 

Moreover, what I observed and what I read - though it’s not my area of expertise - is that some cultures are less good at dealing with money than others. Here we have information on how to organise money or deal with money, how to plan for a future and so on, but there are cultures where people as soon as they receive money spend it all. 

T: Do you think this is tied to a feeling of uncertainty regarding the future?
     F: I don’t know. I think what I see is that for some cultures, money is relatively a recent matter - and up to not so long ago their society was organised through exchange. Meanwhile, because the local people are very intelligent and attuned to the natural environment they know that if they hunt a lot that species will disappear. So if the State steps to provide more work opportunities for local people, and NGOs also start doing the same… people will be open to working with them to make hunting sustainable. Sometimes it’s just a lack of better opportunities and communication is missing between the State, NGOs and universities. 

T: I know that dance is an important part of your life… How did it start?
     F: I remember when I was in high school preparing to enter University, I lived those 3 final years with a deep focus head-down on the books. I had a colleague who was a great dancer and I told her, if I was approved to the university I would start dancing because I need to do something to relax my mind. I was approved, thus I started to dance.

I discovered a great creativity within myself through belly dancing. Although I was following a course, I started practising my own moves that were considered advanced - I bought belly dance wings which my class only began practising with after three years. I found it a beautiful hobby that allowed me to relax. When I was little biology was my thing, it was my hobby too and it then became my work, so I needed a new hobby. 

When I was in the indigenous communities I found that they were always very strong, they had healthy bodies, I got inspired to take care of my own body and health - as for most of my work I sit at the computer and begin to feel a little sluggish and weak. Through sport - mainly dance and swimming - I found my natural physique. 

T: It breaks the stereotype of the scientist too….
     F: Exactly! We often discuss this with friends how scientists don’t need to have a stereotype, we are not stereotypical. Keeping healthy helps us make better science because the mind is also sharper. Moreover, if we feel good, we are also better people as scientists - unfortunately, it’s renowned that scientists are not very polite with students due to stress and pressure, and as a supervisor of PhD and Master students I want to be a good person. So doing sports relaxes me and helps me understand better the things that happen around me.

T: What does it mean to you to be a scientist?
     F: To me, it means finding ways to take better care of nature. So if we understand what is happening with biodiversity, with the climate, with the people, we can find solutions to take care of that which needs more care.
 

My role as a scientist is to take care of the biodiversity. 

After we had this interview I sent her the following by email: 
Do you think people tend to protect what they know (and believe) they depend on? Like the indigenous community in the Amazon, you told me about. 
I wonder if people became so dependent on corporations (for food, clothes, etc), deeming Nature and wildlife unnecessary and therefore stopped protecting it. As I write to you I'm filled with horror at the thought of Silicon Valley engineering all the food and plants so who cares if the bees die off, if wildflowers stop growing, if rivers dry out... the tech gurus will provide by making us dependent on them. We mistake them for saviours because every time a food tech startup comes up with an idea, the headlines go something like <<This *insert name* will save the world>> where in reality they will “save” you only if you can afford to buy their food (unlike nature who gives you enough to fill your belly, hoping you’d plant a seed in return). 
Franci agreed. 

So, one protects what one cares for, one cares for what one deems important, one deems important what one either depends on or finds exquisitely beautiful. 

P.S. To follow Franci’s work on Instagram, it’s @franbragabio