Indigenous traditional knowledge in health care and biodiversity stewardship in the Brazilian Amazon: a scoping review with a focus on the Tenetehara Tembé (Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Territory, Pará, Brazil)

Background: Indigenous knowledge systems are deeply entangled with territorial stewardship and everyday health practices in the Amazon, yet this evidence is scattered across disciplines and often poorly indexed. Methods: We conducted a scoping review. A primary database search (SciELO, LILACS, BDTD, CAPES Portal, PubMed, Scopus and the ISA repository; August–September 2025) combined controlled and free‑text terms for Indigenous peoples, traditional knowledge, health/care, medicinal plants and biodiversity/territory. To address sensitivity and known indexing gaps, we added supplementary targeted searches for the Tenetehara Tembé / Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Territory and performed backward citation tracking (December 2025). Results: The primary search retrieved 80 records; 5 evidence sources met the inclusion criteria. Supplementary searches added 5 additional eligible sources, totaling 10 included sources. Evidence converges on (i) intermedicality and medicinal‑plant use as part of biocultural identity, (ii) territory and forest integrity as determinants of Indigenous health, and (iii) legal‑ethical imperatives for equitable benefit‑sharing and Indigenous authorship in knowledge-based interventions. Evidence specific to the Alto Rio Guamá territory exists but remains limited and concentrated in the social sciences and nursing, signaling a disciplinary and indexing gap rather than an absolute absence of research. Conclusions: Integrating Indigenous knowledge into public health and biodiversity policies requires intercultural governance, protection of land rights, and research designs led with Indigenous participation. For the Tenetehara Tembé, priority research needs include community‑defined health outcomes, participatory ethnobotany, and environmental‑health monitoring aligned with local territorial projects.