Local, Indigenous, Quilombola and Traditional Communities and the construction of the 'Lithium Valley' in Minas Gerais, Brazil: Empowering silenced voices in the energy transition (LIQUIT)
- Project status
- Ongoing
- Departments
- International
LIQUIT proposes a globally integrated look at the local worlds threatened by lithium mining for automotive batteries. The research activities focus on the diverse communities that inhabit the Jequitinhonha Valley in the Minas Geras state (MG), Brazil, where multinational mining companies have been vying for the extraction of large lithium deposits. This semiarid region has low economic indicators and high vulnerability to the effects of climate change, mainly due to precarious water systems and rising temperatures. A newly formed research team based in the UK and three universities of MG will work with local communities, social movements, legislators, and public prosecutors to conduct primary research, engage with policy design and enforcement, and promote international conversations on the rights of traditional and ancestral peoples to climate-resilient development. This proposal builds on ongoing research, seeks to strengthen local capacity, and develops pathways for broader collaboration beyond the project's activities.
Research Team: Dr Francisco Calafate-Faria, London South Bank University; Professor Romulo Soares Barbosa, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros; Professor Klemens Laschefski, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; Dr Aline Weber Sulzbacher, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri