Ecological thought and the roots of sustainability

Rafael L. G. Raimundo

I am interested in understanding how ecological, evolutionary and biocultural processes drive the adaptive transformation of territories and socio-ecological resilience. To that end, I work with approaches that combine (1) the transdisciplinary integration of data with (2) the study of the structure and dynamics of ecological, socio-ecological and governance networks. The history of ecological thought, and dialogue on equal terms with other knowledge systems, are sources of innovative solutions to the great environmental questions of our time. Drawing on those sources, I take part in the collective effort to transcend epistemological, cultural and geographical limits in the building of sustainability.

A biologist trained at UNICAMP, with a doctorate in Ecology from USP and a professor in the Department of Engineering and Environment at UFPB, he currently coordinates the Graduate Program in Ecology and Sustainability (PPGECOS) and the Laboratory of Functional Ecology and Biocultural Restoration (COSMOS). He is one of the coordinators of the International Joint Laboratory on Sustainability IDEAL, in cooperation with the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development - IRD (France).

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Featured · DATAPB · Open science for sustainability

Socio-ecological Atlas of Paraíba: the resilience of 223 municipalities in open data

The Socio-ecological Atlas of Paraíba is the work of a generative curation consortium: six fields and thirteen people from UFPB, IRD, CEMADEN-MCTI, UFSC, INCT Odisseia and CDS-UnB. With the support of generative artificial intelligence, we integrated an unprecedented dataset at the municipal scale, 109 variables drawn from public Big Data (MapBiomas, IBGE, ANA, STN, Transferegov), each with a verifiable provenance record. The SER-PB index reads the socio-ecological resilience of each municipality along three dimensions, diversity and redundancy, connectivity and governance, following the principles of Biggs and colleagues (2012), with weights the reader can adjust. Five panels lead from resilience to bright spots (Bennett et al. 2016; Levis et al. 2024) and transformative adaptation, in the spirit of Paulo Freire's esperançar.

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News · CCAE/UFPB · 20 August 2026

Project coordinated by CCAE professor brings science and Indigenous knowledges together in sustainability research

Unanimously approved by UFPB's University Council (Consuni) and supported by Instituto Serrapilheira with R$ 699,600, the project synchronises ecological, socio-productive and cosmopolitical networks in the Potiguara (PB), Upper Rio Negro (AM) and Borum-Kren (MG) territories.

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