Luana Lila Orlandi Polinesio, M.A.

German Chancellor Fellowship – Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Luana Lila Orlandi Polinesio is a Brazilian Journalist with a Master's Degree in Social Anthropology at the Federal Amazonas State University (Universidade Federal do Amazonas - UFAM), in Manaus, Brazil.
She has more than a decade of experience researching and reporting on the Amazon, where she lived for the last nine years. In her Master's research, she analyzed how indigenous people are using communication as a tool to protect their territory and claim their rights. She has also worked as Head of Communications at Greenpeace Brazil. In 2022, she was granted a German Chancellor Fellowship to research solutions initiatives for the Amazon rainforest. With her project, she aims to map and give visibility to actors and institutions that are promoting innovative solutions for the Brazilian Amazon, presenting their views on the future of the region.
Luana believes that local people should lead the way when it comes to protecting the Amazon and believes they should be at the front and center of the discussion about viable solutions for the region. In Germany, she aims to research the international perspectives about the Amazon and hopefully create bridges to strengthen a collaborative network between international cooperation and local projects in order to promote innovative solutions for the region.

Research Project

Visions for the Amazon: innovative solutions in the rainforest

Much has been said about the protection of the Amazon, but what are the solutions that are already happening in the forest, being led by the people who live there? This is what the project “Visions for the Amazon: innovative solutions in the rainforest”, by the Brazilian researcher Luana Lila Orlandi Polinesio, will investigate.

Polinesio is a journalist with a Master Degree in Social Anthropology from the Amazonas Federal University. In 2022 she was granted a German Chancellor Fellowship, from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, to develop a one-year project in Germany. Her host is professor Dr. Eveline Dürr, at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at LMU.

With her project, she aims to map and give visibility to actors and institutions that are promoting innovative solutions in the Brazilian Amazon, presenting their views on the future of the region. They are indigenous people, community leaders, young communicators, educators, artists, activists, and scientists, among others. They receive little visibility, but are the ones who truly understand the Amazon context and use all its technology, potential and values to create successful projects.

With that, Polinesio seeks to contribute to the discussion on viable solutions for the protection of Amazon involving the local population. She believes that there is no possible path forward to protect the Amazon without considering the leading role of the people who live in it. In Germany, she also aims to help to build bridges and encourage collaborative networks between the local leaders from Amazon and German stakeholders, in order to strengthen initiatives promoting solutions in the forest.

Publications

• Luana Lila (2010). Da Floresta ao Pacífico. Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo.
• Polinesio, Luana Lila Orlandi (2018). Das Flechas às palavras escritas: uma análise das Cartas Munduruku no processo de resistência às hidrelétricas e na luta pela demarcação.
• Luana Lila (2020). How the city in Brazil with the highest number of Indigenous People is dealing with COVID-19. Greenpeace.
• Luana Lila (2020). Life defending women: From handicrafts to protective masks. Greenpeace.