Geodesign as Co-creation of Ideas to Face Challenges in Indigenous Land in the South of Brazil: Case Study Ibirama La Klano

Strong development pressures affect areas in South American countries, resulting in conflicts of interests in land use and ownership, and problems of environmental protection and anthropization. Geodesign proved to be a robust systematic methodological framework to guide a workshop in which the actors are real people of the place, professionals from public administration and the academy. The paper presents a case study about an indigenous land in Santa Catarina, South of Brazil, called Ibirama La Klano, the territory of Xokleng indigenous group. In 1970 a huge dam was constructed in their land to control flooding downstream in the Itajaí valley, but it ended up causing the flooding of their place. The goal of the Geodesign workshop was to support a meeting in which different actors could co-create ideas to face vulnerabilities and to develop potentialities of the area. To prepare Geodesign workshop the academic group from UFMG and UDESC worked with the Civil Defense of the State of Santa Catarina, constructing maps about the place and evaluations about suitable areas to receive proposals. The indigenous main executive chief and regional chiefs were invited to Geodesign workshop, which resulted in ideas representing values of different sectors of society, arriving to a negotiated design.