Abstract

Native forests should outcompete plantations, cattle ranching and mining, say proponents of the bioeconomy in the Brazilian Amazon. They envision a future of winners and losers, in which the political ecologies of deforestation give way to indigenous knowledge, agroforestry and science. They want to stop, prevent and reverse the ongoing deforestation; they want forest dwellers to do well, forests to keep standing. But who are they? In this session, I will share some of the visions, proposals, expectations and fears that my fieldwork interlocutors shared with me as I tried to understand what the “standing-forest bioeconomy” is, and how Amazonian scientists, indigenous activists, rural producers, students and entrepreneurs become enrolled in its making.