Meet Eduardo Brondízio:
Tyler Prize 2025 Laureate
Leading Voice In Amazon Research and Global Environmental Governance
Key concepts in Eduardo Brondízio’s work
“Making the Invisible, Visible”: A Change in Our Relationship with Amazonia
According to Brondízio, addressing social challenges and supporting local solutions is crucial to preventing tipping points in the Amazon. Many struggles faced by Amazonians—poverty, violence, organized crime, illegal economies, and environmental damage from mining and pollution—are often ignored in global discussions. These issues hit Indigenous and marginalized groups the hardest. Brondízio argues that supporting Amazonian communities isn’t just a moral duty; it’s essential for building a sustainable, resilient region that benefits the planet.
“This change must go beyond deforestation, water cycle disruptions, and biodiversity loss,” says Brondizio. “It must also tackle the deep social challenges facing rural and Indigenous people, as well as the 80% living in cities.”
Brondízio’s work has focused on making the invisible, visible. This includes not only the problems, but solutions in the Amazon. He highlights a growing movement of grassroots initiatives led by rural and Indigenous communities, local organizations, and regional networks. His research has documented hundreds of these efforts, from expanding agroforestry to community-led governance of land, water, and biodiversity. Brondízio stresses that solutions should build on systems already created by Amazonian people—designed for their needs and keeping benefits within the region
Indigenous and Local Knowledge: Based Locally, but Relevant Globally
There are nearly half a billion Indigenous peoples globally (476.6 million in 2019), representing 5,000 distinct groups and speaking over 4,000 languages. Their lands cover 28% of Earth’s surface and hold some of the most well-preserved ecosystems, as noted in the IPBES Global Assessment.
Brondízio’s research has revealed the wide-ranging contributions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to nature. These communities manage plants and animals, produce food and materials, monitor environmental health, restore ecosystems, and offer unique insight on the human-nature relationship. Indigenous and local communities face severe threats of violence, disenfranchisement and marginalization from commodity expansion, mining and pollution. Despite this, Indigenous and Local Knowledge is essential for achieving global climate and biodiversity goals.
Brondízio’s long-term research in the Amazon has reshaped our understanding of Indigenous and local knowledge. As co-chair of the IPBES Global Assessment, he led the first systematic inclusion of this knowledge in a major global report, influencing how Indigenous contributions are recognized worldwide.
Supporting Diverse Food Systems and Producers
Corporate farming gets a lot of attention, but the global food system depends heavily on smallholder farms, fisheries, pastoralism, and wild food management. Smallholder farmers (under 2 ha) produce 35% of the world’s food, and if you include family-based farms, that share jumps to 70%. Small-scale fisheries provide more jobs than industrial fishing, oil and gas, shipping, and tourism combined. Food production employs 884 million people—27% of the global workforce—and remains critical as 1.2 billion young people enter the workforce this decade.
Brondízio analyzed food production data from 189 countries, and revealed that 200 million jobs have been lost in the sector since 1991, with another 120 million at risk by 2030. Most losses will hit rural and Indigenous communities in low- and middle-income countries. This creates cascading effects: depopulation, land consolidation, migration, knowledge loss, declining services, and reduced food diversity.
Brondízio’s research has revealed the vital role that rural and small-scale food producers play in ensuring global food security. In addition to making these invisible contributions visible, he has been an outspoken voice for halting the loss of jobs and knowledge from the sector, calling for investments to address poverty and inequity and ensure “the economic gains stay local”.