Ane Alencar
Amazon
Director of Science, Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM)
2026 Lemann Dialogue: Six Biomes, Multiple Realities, One Country- Day 2
Date and Time
April 3, 2026
09:00AM - 06:00PM EDT
Location
Harvard University, CGIS South, Room S020, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA
Join us for the Tenth Annual Lemann Dialogue, a two-day panel series dedicated to exploring the complex socio-environmental challenges and opportunities facing Brazil's six biomes: the Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, Caatinga, Pantanal, and Pampa. We will delve into the delicate balance between conservation, regeneration, and human as well as economic development specific to each biome, featuring interdisciplinary discussions from diverse experts.
This is a two-day conference, for more information about Day 1, click here.
Panels will be held primarily in Portuguese with simultaneous interpretation to English.
This event is free and open to the public.
Register here to attend virtually.
About the Lemann Dialogue
The Lemann Dialogue is an annual conference on Brazil collaboratively organized between Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, each home to centers supported by Jorge Paulo Lemann and the Lemann Foundation.
The specific conference themes vary each year, but generally focus on contemporary social, economic, and political challenges in Brazil. By centering our discussion on Brazil´s six biomes, we aim to expand awareness beyond the often-dominant focus on the Amazon, and encourage new, cross-disciplinary research collaborations and connections.
2026 Lemann Dialogue: Six Biomes, Multiple Realities, One Country | Day 2 Speakers
Philip Fearnside
Amazon
Research Professor, National Institute for Research in Amazonia (INPA)
Vanda Witoto
Amazon
Executive Director, Instituto Witoto
Marcia Castro
Amazon
Andelot Professor of Demography; Chair, Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Sandro Dutra e Silva
Cerrado
Associate Professor, State University of Goiás; Full professor, Evangelical University of Goiás
Ludmila Rattis
Cerrado
Assistant Scientist, GALO Project Coordinator, Woodwell Climate Research Center;
Mercedes Bustamante
Cerrado
Full Professor of Ecology, University of Brasília
Ryan Nehring
Cerrado
Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute
Renato Roscoe
Pantanal
Executive Director, Instituto Taquari Vivo
Gilson Barros
Pantanal
Agronomist
Teresa Bracher
Pantanal
Environmental Philanthropist
William Teixeira
Pantanal Sounds Concert
Adjunct Music Professor, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul
Marcia Castro, Andelot Professor of Demography; Chair, Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Andelot Professor of Demography, chair of the Department of Global Health and Population, director of the Brazil Studies Program of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) at Harvard University, associate faculty of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, and faculty member of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.
Her research focuses on the development and use of multidisciplinary approaches to identify the determinants of infectious disease transmission in different ecological settings to inform control policies. She has more than 20 years of research experience in the Brazilian Amazon, with a strong record in conducting household surveys and thorough knowledge of the local culture. Furthermore, she has more than 15 years of collaboration with Brazilian researchers, health secretariats, and the ministry of health, particularly related to infectious diseases. Currently, Castro has projects on malaria, COVID-19, arboviruses, infant/child mortality and development, and climate change in the Brazilian Amazon. Specifically, she has been assessing the spatiotemporal pattern of COVID-19 spread in Brazil, mortality and fertility changes due to the pandemic, risk factors for mortality, and vaccine effectiveness.
During recent public health emergencies, such as the Zika virus epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, Castro made important contributions. At the World Health Organization, she served as co-chair of the Technical Consultation on The Burden of and Response to Malaria in Urban Areas in 2021 and as an advisor of the Evidence Review Group on border malaria in 2017. She serves on several advisory boards in Brazil, including the Institute for the Studies of Health Policies (IEPS), the Science Center for Early Childhood (NCPI), Instituto Todos Pela Saúde (ITpS), and Instituto Cactus. She is a columnist for Folha de São Paulo and an elected member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Amazon is the planet´s largest biome, possessing the world's biggest tropical forest, which harbors about 10% of the planet's biodiversity, contains large mineral reserves, and holds 20% of the world's freshwater supply. Approximately 45% of the Brazilian Indigenous population, nearly 350 Indigenous groups, live in the Amazon. The biome is fundamental to the global climate system, contributing to water, energy, and carbon cycles. However, almost one-fifth of its vegetation cover has been removed, largely to make way for cattle ranching and soybean production. Deforestation, wildfires, illegal mining, invasions of indigenous territories, the presence of organized crime, and predatory development models, disconnected from local needs and culture, threaten the conservation of the biome. This panel will discuss the Amazon biome from a historical, sociocultural, economic, political, environmental, and climate-related perspective.
Ane Alencar is IPAM’s Director of Science. She holds a degree in Geography from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), a Masters in Environmental Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System from the University of Boston, and a Ph.D. in Forest Resources and Conservation from the University of Florida. Her primary research topic has been to understand the impacts of climate change and forest fragmentation caused by deforestation on the occurrence and increase of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon. In addition, Dr. Alencar has coordinated IPAM initiatives to develop systems to monitor forest carbon stock and loss and monitor deforestation to support the development of REDD projects. Her research involves developing land use scenarios as a tool to support public policy discussions that encourage the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
Philip M. Fearnside is a Research Professor at the National Institute for Research in Amazonia (INPA) in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil since 1978. PhD in Biological Sciences (University of Michigan) he has authored over 850 publications (http://philip.inpa.gov.br). Honors include Brazil's National Ecology Prize, the UN Global 500 award, the Conrad Wessel, Chico Mendes and Scopus prizes and membership in the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. In 2006 Thompson-ISI identified him as the world’s second most-cited scientist on global warming. In 2011 he was identified as 7th most cited on sustainable development and in 2021 as “most influential” in Brazil on climate change.
Vanda Witoto is an Indigenous leader with a degree in pedagogy from the State University of Amazonas. She is currently the Executive Director of the Witoto Institute, a social impact organization led by urban Indigenous women from the Amazon. She created a school of ancestral knowledge that strengthens and reclaims Indigenous culture and languages in the outskirts of Manaus, and launched an Indigenous clothing brand to generate dignified income for Indigenous women and help them escape cycles of domestic violence and economic vulnerability. In addition, she is a powerful voice in the fight for climate justice at UN global conferences, bringing the realities of Indigenous populations in Brazil to the forefront.
Andelot Professor of Demography, chair of the Department of Global Health and Population, director of the Brazil Studies Program of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) at Harvard University, associate faculty of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, and faculty member of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.
Her research focuses on the development and use of multidisciplinary approaches to identify the determinants of infectious disease transmission in different ecological settings to inform control policies. She has more than 20 years of research experience in the Brazilian Amazon, with a strong record in conducting household surveys and thorough knowledge of the local culture. Furthermore, she has more than 15 years of collaboration with Brazilian researchers, health secretariats, and the ministry of health, particularly related to infectious diseases. Currently, Castro has projects on malaria, COVID-19, arboviruses, infant/child mortality and development, and climate change in the Brazilian Amazon. Specifically, she has been assessing the spatiotemporal pattern of COVID-19 spread in Brazil, mortality and fertility changes due to the pandemic, risk factors for mortality, and vaccine effectiveness.
During recent public health emergencies, such as the Zika virus epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, Castro made important contributions. At the World Health Organization, she served as co-chair of the Technical Consultation on The Burden of and Response to Malaria in Urban Areas in 2021 and as an advisor of the Evidence Review Group on border malaria in 2017. She serves on several advisory boards in Brazil, including the Institute for the Studies of Health Policies (IEPS), the Science Center for Early Childhood (NCPI), Instituto Todos Pela Saúde (ITpS), and Instituto Cactus. She is a columnist for Folha de São Paulo and an elected member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Cerrado is Brazil´s second largest biome, with an estimated area of almost 2 million square kilometers. From an ecological point of view, the Cerrado is the world´s most biodiverse tropical savanna. It is also one of Brazil´s most threatened biomes, with alarming rates of conversion of native vegetation into pastures and crops. In recent years it has experienced the highest deforestation rates in the entire country. Challenges for the conservation of the Cerrado are significant, not only due to the biome´s intrinsic threats, but also because of its relation to neighboring biomes and the effects of development policies related to the export sector of grains and agricultural commodities. This panel proposes a broad debate involving ecological, historical, economic, and climate-related dimensions, among others, revealing the biome´s complexity and its multiple implications.
I am an ecologist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center and IPAM Amazônia, where I lead the scientific coordination of the GALO Project (Global Assessment from Local Observations) and the Intelligence Network for Climate and Agriculture, a south–south initiative advancing science-based adaptation for agriculture ahead of COP30 and COP31, in collaboration with the Special Envoy for Agriculture. My work focuses on developing the Business Model for the Transition to Regenerative Agriculture in the Tropics and the Regenerative Agriculture Index, a tropical science-based framework to guide producers, investors, and policymakers in accelerating the transition toward regenerative and climate-resilient food systems. I study how tropical biodiversity and food production can be balanced in a changing world. Working jointly between Woodwell Climate and IPAM Amazônia, I investigate the Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado, two critical biomes facing deforestation and agricultural intensification, to understand their ecological thresholds and the impacts of land-use change on ecosystem services such as carbon storage, water regulation, and pollination. A TED presenter, I have shared my research on the role of tapirs in restoring tropical forests, helping connect science with public awareness. I was recognized as a finalist for the ScientistA Award (2024), which honors Brazilian female scientists working in the United States, and was named among The 100 Latinos Most Committed to Climate Action (2025) for my contributions to integrating science, policy, and finance toward a regenerative future.
Full Professor of Ecology at the University of Brasília. Author of the chapter "Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses" in the 5th and 6th Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2011-2014; 2019-2022). Coordinator of the chapter "Terrestrial and Continental Aquatic Ecosystems" in the report "Adaptation to the Risks of Climate Change in Ibero-American Countries" by RIOCCADAPT, and of the chapter "Drivers of Change" in the Regional Assessment for the Americas by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Served on the Scientific Committee of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP, 2007-2012) and the Independent Science Panel of the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Programme (CCAFS/CGIAR, 2015-2017). Held leadership roles as General Coordinator of Ecosystem Management (2011-2012), Director of Policies and Thematic Programs at the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (2012-2013), Director of Programs and Scholarships in Brazil (2016), and President of CAPES (2023). Elected member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and the US National Academy of Sciences. Recipient of the National Order of Scientific Merit (2018), Honorary Fellow of the Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation (2020), and winner of the Conrado Wessel Award in Science (2025).
Ryan Nehring is a Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). His research focuses on the political economy of agricultural development and food systems, with a particular emphasis on Brazil. His work examines the rise of Embrapa, the transformation of the Cerrado, and the broader role of agricultural research institutions in shaping rural development and global agricultural models. Before joining IFPRI, Ryan was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. He has worked as a researcher at the UNDP International Policy Centre in Brasília and has served as a consultant for multiple UN agencies. He holds an MA from St. Mary’s University and an MS and PhD from Cornell University.
Sandro Dutra e Silva has a PhD in History from the University of Brasília (UnB). He is a professor and researcher at the Evangelical University of Goiás and the State University of Goiás. Coordinator of the Cerrado Environmental History Laboratory. He served as a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles (2015-2016) and is currently a Visiting Scholar in the Department of History of Science at Harvard University (2024-2025).
He is editor-in-chief of HALAC, the Sociedad Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Historia Ambiental (SOLCHA) journal. He edited some collections, including Environmental History (volumes I, II, and III), published in Brazil between 2012 and 2020 (Rio de Janeiro: Garamond). Author of several articles on Brazil's agrarian and environmental history, emphasizing the Cerrado biome. Author of the work "No Oeste a Terra e o Céu: a Expansão da Fronteira Agrícola no Brasil Central" (Rio de Janeiro: Mauad X, 2017). His studies have sought to analyze the relationship between society and nature in Central Brazil, dialoguing with the history of agriculture, science, and environmental history.
The Pantanal panel aims to foster dialogue between two of the main interest groups in the biome, who are often on opposite sides of the debate regarding the future of the territory. On one side, Gilson de Barros is a cattle rancher, from a historical Pantanal family, who lives and conducts his business in the Pantanal. An active member of organizations representing rural producers, he defends the interests of generations of Pantanal residents who have lived off cattle ranching in the biome for more than two centuries. On the other hand, environmentalist Teresa Bracher advocates for strategic philanthropy as a tool to positively impact the territory, enabling its conservation and sustainable use. In addition to her efforts to channel resources to environmental causes in the Pantanal, Teresa Bracher is directly involved in an active network of non-governmental organizations that seek the environmental protection of the biome. To moderate the proceedings and contextualize the debate, Renato Roscoe, from the Taquari Vivo Institute, provides an overview of the biome, its history of occupation, and data on the current situation. The objective of the panel is to open a space for dialogue between distinct interest groups, supported by a scientific perspective, to seek the construction of sustainable paths for the Pantanal biome.
Gilson Barros is an agronomist, with a degree from the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro. He has been a farmer for 37 years in the Pantanal region, the Director of a rural consulting company, and former President of the Rural Union of Corumbá.
Teresa Cristina Ralston Bracher is a Brazilian environmentalist, philanthropist, and social entrepreneur, born in the interior of São Paulo and raised on a farm, where she developed a deep connection with nature. In 2005, she acquired a property in the Pantanal, dedicating herself to environmental conservation and social development in the region. She founded Acaia Pantanal, the Instituto Taquari Vivo, and Documenta Pantanal, and is a member of the boards of organizations such as Onçafari, SOS Pantanal, Instituto Arredondar, and ACTC Casa do Coração. Her work aims not only at the preservation of the Pantanal biome but also at strengthening local communities, promoting sustainable practices and raising awareness about the importance of environmental conservation.
Agronomist (Viçosa Federal University, Brazil), Master of Science in Soil and Plant Nutrition (Lavras Federal University, Brazil), and Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences (Wageningen University, Netherlands). He has worked as a researcher at Embrapa and Fundação MS; served as Superintendent of Environment, Agriculture, Science, and Technology at SEMAGRO/MS; held executive positions at CREA-MS and SENAR-MS. Currently, he is the Executive Director of Instituto Taquari Vivo. With 25 years of experience in Climate Change, bioenergy, and sustainable agricultural systems with low Greenhouse Gas Emissions, he is specialized in structuring and auditing public and private projects and programs.
Marcia Castro, Andelot Professor of Demography; Chair, Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Andelot Professor of Demography, chair of the Department of Global Health and Population, director of the Brazil Studies Program of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS) at Harvard University, associate faculty of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, and faculty member of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.
Her research focuses on the development and use of multidisciplinary approaches to identify the determinants of infectious disease transmission in different ecological settings to inform control policies. She has more than 20 years of research experience in the Brazilian Amazon, with a strong record in conducting household surveys and thorough knowledge of the local culture. Furthermore, she has more than 15 years of collaboration with Brazilian researchers, health secretariats, and the ministry of health, particularly related to infectious diseases. Currently, Castro has projects on malaria, COVID-19, arboviruses, infant/child mortality and development, and climate change in the Brazilian Amazon. Specifically, she has been assessing the spatiotemporal pattern of COVID-19 spread in Brazil, mortality and fertility changes due to the pandemic, risk factors for mortality, and vaccine effectiveness.
During recent public health emergencies, such as the Zika virus epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, Castro made important contributions. At the World Health Organization, she served as co-chair of the Technical Consultation on The Burden of and Response to Malaria in Urban Areas in 2021 and as an advisor of the Evidence Review Group on border malaria in 2017. She serves on several advisory boards in Brazil, including the Institute for the Studies of Health Policies (IEPS), the Science Center for Early Childhood (NCPI), Instituto Todos Pela Saúde (ITpS), and Instituto Cactus. She is a columnist for Folha de São Paulo and an elected member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Concert Location: Harvard University's Department of Music, Classroom 9 (directions here)
Pantanal Sounds is a project emerging from an artistic and research mission to the Brazilian Pantanal conducted in 2023, funded by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. The recital brings together works for cello and electronics performed by Brazilian cellist William Teixeira, featuring pieces by José Henrique Padovani, Roberto Victório, Mariana Terena, and Hans Tutschku that explore the encounter between experimental music, soundscape listening, and ecological reflection. Drawing on field recordings and artistic impressions gathered during the expedition, the program reflects on the extraordinary sonic richness of the Pantanal—one of the world’s largest wetlands—while also addressing the growing environmental pressures that threaten this unique ecosystem. Through different compositional perspectives and the integration of acoustic performance with new technologies, the concert invites the audience to engage with the Pantanal not only as a geographic region, but as a living sonic environment whose preservation is inseparable from cultural and ecological awareness.
William Teixeira is a Cellist and Professor at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul. He served as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and at IRCAM, France. He holds a Degree in Cello Performance from the São Paulo State University and holds a PhD in music from the University of São Paulo. He furthered his education through a postdoctoral program in Philosophy at Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, focusing on research in analytical philosophy of art. He is currently a CNPq Research Fellow and coordinates international projects on Sound Ecology and Musical Performance applied to the Brazilian Pantanal.
