What question did this study set out to answer?

The study aims to evaluate how Indigenous geocultural values can reshuffle existing geoheritage assessments and management strategies.

April 20, 2026Open Access

Indigenous-led geocultural valorisation in the Parecis Basin: Integrating cultural values into geoheritage assessment and land management

Key Points

The study aims to evaluate how Indigenous geocultural values can reshuffle existing geoheritage assessments and management strategies.
Compared an expert-led inventory with an Indigenous-led participatory approach.
Utilized Reynard-style evaluations by experts based on ecological and cultural criteria.
Conducted oral histories and consensus building in the Indigenous assessment process.
Aligned evaluations from both cohorts to facilitate comparison.
Indigenous assessors prioritized spiritually significant sites over those emphasized by experts.
A protection gap was identified, showing expert inventories often underrepresented relational and undocumented values.
Support for incorporating co-produced geocultural information in conservation and geotourism planning.

Abstract

This study examines how Indigenous geocultural values reshape geoheritage appraisal and management in three Indigenous territories in the Cerrado, Mato Grosso, Brazil: Tirecatinga, Irantxe and Utiariti. We compared a Western expert-led inventory with an Indigenous-led participatory process to identify implications for geoconservation and geotourism. Expert assessors applied a Reynard-style evaluation of additional values, scoring ecological, aesthetic, and cultural criteria using documented, tangible evidence. Indigenous assessors employed iterative discussions, non-structured interviews and consensus building; oral histories were transcribed and aligned with the same evaluation frame to enable comparison. Site rankings diverged between assessor cohorts. Experts prioritised waterfalls with strong scenic exposure and documented use. Indigenous assessors elevated spiritually and cosmologically significant locations, including Salto Utiariti, Ponte de Pedra and Salto Duas Irmãs, even where prior modification had occurred. Indigenous narratives specified temporal and sensory conditions for care, such as ceremony calendars, soundscape integrity, and attention to hydro-spiritual or geo-ancestral couplings. Communities also articulated pre-colonial and colonial histories that shape current landforms and uses, and identified prospective geoscientific, educational and geoeconomic values, including non-formal education opportunities and community-led geotourism. The comparison revealed a protection gap: inventories that rely on tangible records underweight relational values and can overlook sites not yet documented in archives or literature. Findings support including co-produced geocultural information in inventories and planning, and using visitation plans and community indicators to guide geotourism as a conservation instrument. The approach is transferable, provided Indigenous people define what sites may be discussed and how values are represented. Such participatory, Indigenous-led assessment can inform more precise zoning, access rules and management objectives within Eurocentric protected-area and statutory planning frameworks.

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