José Augusto Pádua is a professor of Brazilian environmental history at the Institute of History, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where he is also one of the coordinators of the Laboratory of Nature and History. Since 2011, he has been president of the Brazilian Association of Research and Graduate Studies on Environment and Society (ANPPAS). He has also been a member of the creation team of the "Museum of Tomorrow," since 2010, which will be inaugurated during the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016. As a specialist on environmental history and politics, he has given talks, courses, and participated in fieldwork in more than 40 countries.
RCC Reseach Project: Comparing the Historical Patterns of Deforestation and Conservation in the Brazilian Atlantic and Amazon Forests, 1930-2012
Film Interview with José Augusto Pádua
Selected publications:
- "European Colonialism and Tropical Forest Destruction in Brazil." In Environmental History: As If Nature Existed, edited by J. R. McNeill, J. A. Pádua and M.Rangarajan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010
- "Environmentalism in Brazil: A Historical Perspective." In A Companion to Global Environmental History, edited by J. R. McNeill and E. Maldin. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
- "Drawn by Blind Greed: The Historical Origins of Criticism Regarding the Destruction of the Amazon River’s Natural Resources." In A History of Water, edited by T. Tvedt, G.,Chapman and R. Hagen. London: I.B.Tauris, 2011
- "Nature and Territory in the Making of Brazil." In New Environmental Histories of Latin America and the Caribbean, edited by Claudia Leal, J. A. Pádua and J. Soluri, RCC Perspectives 2013, no. 7.
- "The Politics of Forest Conservation in Brazil: A Historical View." In Nova Acta Leopoldina: Abhandlungen der Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina 114 (2013): 65–80.
- "Pitfalls and Opportunities in the Use of the Biodiversity Concept as a Political Tool for Forest Conservation in Brazil." In Why Do We Value Diversity? Biocultural Diversity in a Global Context, edited by G. Martin, D. Mincyte and U. Münster, RCC Perspectives 2012, no 9.