University of Oxford
11a Mansfield Rd
OX1 3SZ
UK
Visiting Researcher
Guilherme Hissa Villas Boas
Background
After graduating in Tourism and Geography, while still pursuing my master's degree in Geography, I began working for the state environmental agency of Rio de Janeiro. During field inspections, I realized that environmental legislation, based on science, did not fully meet the needs of family farmers, causing conflicts and often forcing them to abandon traditional techniques, built through empiricism and mastery of the landscape, in favour of using industrialized agricultural inputs. Thus, for my PhD in Geography, with an emphasis on environmental planning and management, I proposed to compare the management plan of a protected area for sustainable use with the traditional knowledge of the family farmers who lived there. What I found was that there is a clear distance between the two ways of interpreting the processes at work in the landscape and, more than that, many understandings of nature. When I became a tenured professor, I began to research the different understandings of nature and the models of environmental protection, involving the participation and governance of stakeholders.
Research Interests
The concept of nature is a social construct that has changed over the centuries. In the Anthropocene (or Capitalocene), with nature transformed into a commodity, we observe the loss of socio-biodiversity and a climate emergency. In this sense, I seek to identify and analyse other ways of understanding landscape processes and the relationships of social groups with nature. My focus is on environmental management and governance models, with an emphasis on Protected Areas (PAs) and Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs). The challenge lies in finding solutions to the conflicts arising from different forms of land use. Working at the interface of society and nature, my research uses interdisciplinary approaches to identify and understand different environmental conservation strategies and the responses in natural systems. Geography, in this case, is configured as the meeting point of different theoretical foundations and methodological approaches, thus uniting the natural sciences with the human sciences.
Current Research
Traditional peoples and communities have historically been the guardians of tropical forests. Through their socio-spatial practices, developed over generations, they have kept the forests healthy for centuries and enabled the government to create protected areas from the 20th century onwards. However, many conflicts arise as new territorialities are created, especially when they disregard different ways of understanding and relating to nature. Currently, research on environmental conservation needs to incorporate new paradigms and abandon the dichotomous idea of nature as opposed to culture. My interdisciplinary research seeks to analyse the different understandings of nature among public and private actors involved in environmental conservation. My activities, grounded in political ecology, focus on the critical debate about the implementation and effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) for sustainable use and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs), with a special interest in incorporating traditional knowledge into public management policies.
Specifically for the project to be developed in Oxford, I am focusing on the application of IUCN Category V (Protected Landscape/Seascape) in Brazil, which corresponds to 50% of all protected areas in the country and where approximately 5% of the national population lives. The overall objective of the project is to analyze the impacts of public policies on the creation, implementation, and management of these protected areas. The project is divided into four themes: public policies, geoecology, socioeconomics, and governance, with two integrating axes: climate change and environmental justice.
Brief CV
Education
2013-2017 PhD, Department of Geography (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro)
2009-2011 MSc, Department of Geography (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro)
2005-2009 BS Geography (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro)
1999-2004 BA Tourism (Faculdades Integradas Hélio Alonso)
Employment
2021-present PI of LEMAS – Research and Extension Laboratory in Environment and Society link
2018-present Lecturer, Department of Geography, Geoscience Institute, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
2012-2018 Lecturer, Department of Environmental Engineering, Centro Universitário Serra dos Órgãos (UNIFESO)
2012-2017 Lecturer, Department of Tourism, Faculdades Integradas Hélio Alonso (FACHA)
2014-2017 Lecturer, Department of Environmental Engineering, Centro Universitário Celso Lisboa (CELSO LISBOA)
2013-2014 Assistant Professor, Department of Tourism, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ)
2011-2013 Geographer, Department of Roads of the State of Rio de Janeiro (DER-RJ)
2010-2011 Geographer, Directorate of Biodiversity and Protected Areas, Rio de Janeiro State Environmental Institute (INEA)
Publications
2026 VILLAS BOAS, G. H.; NASRI, Y.; MATTOS, C. P.; SIMON, A.; GONSALVES, R. M.; FIGUEIRA, J. M. K. K.; PAULA, W. D.; SILVA, V. P. B. E. O estado da arte das Áreas de Proteção Ambiental entre 1981 e 2025. Planejamento e Políticas Públicas (IPEA), v. 72, 2026. link
2026 BURGOS, T.; VILLAS BOAS, G. H. Metodologias de avaliação das políticas públicas de conservação da natureza: estudo de caso do SAMGe e do RAAP. Planejamento e Políticas Públicas (IPEA), v. 72, 2026. link
2025 VILLAS BOAS, G. H.; NASRI, Y.; MATTOS, C. P. “Foi só a gente se entender que o SNUC passou no congresso”: Entrevista com Maurício Mercadante. Revista de Geografia e Ecologia Política, 2025. link
2025 VILLAS BOAS, G. H.; WENTZEL, T.; URZUA, V. “Our fight is not [just] for land, but for territory”: proposition about protected areas from political ecology. Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento, v. 66, 2025. link
2025 BOTELHO, L. O.; VILLAS BOAS, G. H. URZUA, V. Os impactos da conservação da natureza na segurança alimentar: um estudo de caso da APA Macaé de Cima (RJ). Ensaios de Geografia. link
2025 RANA, M. Q.; LEE, A.; BEZERRA, J. F. R.; VILLAS BOAS, G. H. Evaluating the Agreement Index of the Barriers Faced by Women During the Transition from Higher Education to Empowerment in Brazil: A Sustainable Development Perspective. Administrative Sciences, v. 15(3), 82, p.1-21. link
2024 VILLAS BOAS, G. H. Etnogeomorfologia. Revista da ANPEGE – Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Geografia, v. 20, n. 43, p. 1-27. link
2024 MATTOS, V. C. A.; VILLAS BOAS, G. H. Fora dos livros, mas presente na terra: as tecnologias indígenas na agricultura familiar na Área de Proteção Ambiental de Macaé de Cima (RJ). AMBIENTES: Revista de Geografia e Ecologia Política, v. 6, p. 273-308. link
2024 RANA, M. Q.; LEE, A.; BEZERRA, J. F. R.; VILLAS BOAS, G. H. Empowerment and sustainability: investigating barriers to women’s transition from higher education to empowerment in Brazil. Societies, v. 14, p. 234. link
2022 VILLAS BOAS, G. H.; MARÇAL, M.; BRIERLEY, G. An ethnogeomorphic case study of conservation practices in Southeast Brazil. Human Ecology, v. 50, p. 651-664. link
2022 BARRETO, G. C. G.; VILLAS BOAS, G. H. Duas compreensões geomorfológicas da APA Macaé de Cima (RJ): um ensaio sobre etnogeomorfologia. Revista de Geografia, v. 12, p. 18-39. link
2021 VILLAS BOAS, G. H.; MATTOS, C. P. The nature(s) of Environmental Protected Area Macaé de Cima (Rio de Janeiro – Brazil): perceptions, dilemmas and conflicts. Sociedade & Natureza, v. 33, p. e56556. link