DrMichel Valette

I am a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Centre of Environmental Policy of Imperial College and the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires. My research sits at the intersection of fire ecology, social science, and Indigenous knowledge systems, exploring how communities in the Brazilian Amazon navigate rapidly changing wildfire risks in a project led by Dr. Morena Mills and Prof Jay Mistry.

My approach is grounded in the Multiple Evidence Base framework (Tengö et al. 2013), which weaves together different disciplines and knowledge systems to explore rapidly changing fire regimes. Using ethnographic methods such as participatory mappings, participant observations and field walks I investigate how wildfire risk is perceived through local ecological knowledge, how escalating fires affect livelihoods and cultural practices, and what adaptive pathways communities are adopting and their trade-offs.  I complement this with quantitative analysis of fire regime changes and wildfire risk drivers, drawing on satellite imagery and climate model outputs.

Central to my research is a close collaboration with the Raoni Institute and the Capoto/Jarina Indigenous fire brigade, aimed at co-constructing knowledge about fire regimes that is directly useful to practitioners. This collaboration takes various forms: an annual wildfire risk report, environmental education materials for the fire brigade, and dedicated sections on fire use and its cultural significance in territorial management plans or co-participation to research workshop. Bridging academia, practitioners, and local communities is core to my research praxis, ensuring that knowledge production remains grounded in real-world experience, local ecological knowledge, and operational context.

Prior to my PhD, I worked for Bioversity International investigating seed supply systems for forest landscape restoration. Taking a systemic approach to understand bottlenecks across the supply chain, I conducted fieldwork in Burkina Faso and Malaysia, where I engaged with local ecological knowledge held by Indigenous communities, local farmers, and nursery managers. This early experience of working across knowledge systems and with communities whose livelihoods depend on forest health has been formative to my current research approach.

Supervisors: Dr. Morena Mills, Prof Jay Mistry