Building bridges between environmental and political agendas is essential nowadays in face of the increasing human pressure on natural environments, including wetlands. Wetlands provide critical ecosystem services for humanity and can generate a considerable direct or indirect income to the local communities. To meet many of the sustainable development goals, we need to move our trajectory from the current environmental destructive development to a wiser wetland use. The current article contain a proposed agenda for the Pantanal aiming the improvement of public policy for conservation in the Pantanal, one of the largest, most diverse, and continuous inland wetland in the world. We suggest and discuss a list of 11 essential interfaces between science, policy, and development in region linked to the proposed agenda. We believe that a functional science network can booster the collaborative capability to generate creative ideas and solutions to address the big challenges faced by the Pantanal wetland.

The fish communities of lagoons in the Nhecolândia Pantanal were studied to determine the factors which are responsible for the composition and abundance of species. Fishes were collected in 19 lagoons during August 1997, after their isolation from the River Negro, using beach seines (15 × 1.5 m; 2 mm mesh). A total of 51 species were collected. In the lagoons, or in parts with dense macrophytes, a screened box trap was used. Fishing was also accomplished with hooks of several sizes. Species richness was estimated by the jack‐knife procedure, after adjustment to the log‐normal distribution and with von Bertalanffy’s equation (asymptotic). The most important factors in the community organization were macrophyte cover, piscivore abundance and depth of the lagoons. The role of these habitats in the Pantanal ecosystem was discussed.

The factors effecting fish species richness, evenness and relative abundance in 19 floodplain lagoons in the Pantanal (Brazil) were examined. Richness and evenness were strongly correlated with the lagoon's: (i) isolation time from the main river; (ii) depth; and (iii) distance from the main river. Abundance of the five dominant fish species was correlated mainly with: (a) macrophyte cover; (b) the distance from the main river; and (c) piscivore abundance. These results suggest that the species select lagoons to avoid or minimize their confinement in inappropriate floodplain habitats. A combination of strategies, together with variations in the lagoon's connection period, determines the diversity and abundance of the fish species in the Nhecolaˆndia Pantanal. K E Y W O R D S : Brazil, diversity, floodplain lagoons, freshwater fish communities, Pantanal.Figure 3. Canonical correlation analysis scatterplot of relative abundance of the five most abundant fish species and the lagoons characteristics.

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RESUMO -Esse trabalho foi baseado em entrevistas junto às pessoas e raizeiros que fazem uso de plantas medicinais em Minas Gerais, sudoeste do Brasil, e as comercializam, de 1983 a 1988. Tem a fmalidade de preservar o conhecimento popular. Foram registradas a profissão, idade, e condição social dos entrevistados. Foram visitadas 84 cidades mineiras onde, por indicação ou doação, foram coletadas 5000 exsicatas, que foram reunidas em 84 famílias, 246 gêneros e 311 espécies, depois de examinadas e determinadas, dentro das referências mais atualizadas possíveis. Para cada espécie foram anotadas em fichas os nomes vulgares, partes usadas e indicaçóes medicinais, e o número de vezes que foram citadas no total de entrevistas realizadas. O trabalho é cumulativo, podendo ser constantemente ampliado com a reunião e sistematização de novas informações, servindo como base para escolha das espécies a serem estudadas no campo da fitoquímica, farmacologia e parasitologia. Palavras-chave: Plantas medicinais -uso popular -Minas Gerais.ABSTRACT -This study is based on interviews during 1983 -1988 of people who use and market medicinal plants in the state of Minas Gerais in south east on Brazil. The aim is to preserve popular local knowledge regarding the use of plants for medicinal purposes. The popular common name, the medical prescription and methods of preparation, the plant part use and the frequency with each plant was cited in the interview samples, are described for each species. The profession, age and social condition are given for each interviewee. A total of 84 cities were visited, resulting in the collection of 5000 dried herbarium specimes which have been classified into 311 species of 246 genera and 84 families, according to the most recent taxonomic nomencIature. This study permits constant revision and updating and serves as a basis for the choice of species with pharmacological, parasitological and therapeutic potential.

Recreational fisheries in Brazil have increased in importance and attracted many foreign recreational fishers. The objectives of this article were to summarise the available data on Brazilian recreational fisheries, to discuss some of their features and to analyse how they are performing in different regions compared with international trends. A review of published and unpublished sources together with data from recreational fishing licences was used. The participation rate was low (0.9%). Overall, there was a high diversity of fish species, with the following species/group of species repeatedly reported: Menticirrhus spp., Centropomus spp., Cynoscion spp., and Micropogonias furnieri (marine/estuarine water), and Cichla spp., Hoplias malabaricus, and Piaractus mesopotamicus, together with the introduced Oreochromis niloticus and Coptodon rendalli (fresh water). The north‐eastern region differs from the other regions: fishing occurs mostly in marine waters and fishers acquire mainly shore‐based licences, have minimum fishing expenditures and rarely release fishes. There is no estimate of the total harvest or economic value. Conflicts include catch‐and‐release‐oriented freshwater and marine recreational fishers vs consumption‐oriented coastal fishers, tournament participants vs non‐participants, commercial fishers and other leisure activities, pollution, ports, species introductions and translocations, protected areas, and federal and state laws. Cases of smooth shifts from artisanal to recreational fishing were detected, possibly associated with changes in the societal relationship with natural resources.

The stomach contents of 24 species of fish and unidentified species from four genera in a floodplain lake of the Pantanal were studied. Fish were collected during the dry season when the lake was isolated from the main river. A community food ingestion index (feeding index weighted by consumer biomass, FIWCB, where 0 < FIWCB < 1) was calculated to quantify feeding patterns. Detritus and algae ingested by Curimatidae were responsible for 46.5% of the FIWCB, while that for algae ingested by Loricariidae (armoured catfish) accounted for 13.2%. The importance of detritus in fish diets is discussed as a strategy for shortening food chains, thereby increasing community efficiency, and as a consequence, fish biomass. It was learnt that the main route of energy flow in this perennial lake was through the detritus chain. The floodplain lakes function as a dry season feeding ground for small‐sized species of fish, which are potential prey for the more highly valued larger species of fish.

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