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.

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The environmental unsustainability of African oil palm crops is a growing worldwide concern, and the macauba palm in tropical Southern America surges as the most viable substitute for the production of first‐generation biodiesel as a renewable fuel. Large‐scale cultivation of the macauba palm, however, is bound to suffer a major setback due to the fast emergence of a florivorous pest threat, Cyclocephala forsteri, a scarab beetle species that can severely reduce fruit yield. Like other congenerics, female and male C. forsteri are night‐foraging and driven in large numbers to macauba palm inflorescences by specific volatile organic compounds. In the present study, we assessed the kairomonal cues involved in this plant–florivore interaction and their potential application in selective pest management strategies. Headspace samples of the floral fragrance of macauba palms at our study site in Central Brazil were largely dominated by 4‐methylanisole (>97% relative amount), which along with the minor constituents 2‐isopropyl‐3‐methoxypyrazine and 2‐sec‐butyl‐3‐methoxypyrazine triggered electroantennographic responses from both female and male C. forsteri. Field behavioural assays evidenced that beetles of this species were exclusively attracted to scented traps baited with 4‐methylanisole. Increased total scent discharge attained with an ultrasonic piezoelectric diffuser has positively influenced attractiveness efficiency of the trapping setup. 4‐Methylanisole is hereby identified as yet another volatile kairomone involved in highly selective attraction of potential pest florivorous cyclocephaline scarabs associated with economically exploitable palms and should be viewed as a key element in short‐term integrated management plans for the cultivation of the macauba palm in South America.

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The practice of using green manure for ecological restoration has grown so significantly that there is a shortage of seeds for purchase on the market. Nonetheless, there is very little literature available demonstrating the effects and benefits commonly cited for green manure for addressing important environmental filters, such as herbivory and invasive grasses. Our objective is to determine which spatial sowing arrangement including green manure promotes the lowest rates of herbivory on native species and decreases cover by invasive grasses in ecological restoration. We experimentally tested three sowing configurations of green manure intercropping with native species: T1 the lowest herbivoy rate for both native and green manure, mixture of native and green manure species in the same row, T2, alternating rows of green manure and native species, and T3, rows of native species intercropped with a 2 m wide strip of green manure. We found that (1) green manure species experience greater damage from herbivory than do native species, with average values ranging from 1.8 times higher values in green manure than natives in T1, 2.9 times in T2, and 2.7 times in T3 (when sown in rows and in broader strips, green manure and native species attract more herbivorous insects than if they were sown together [muvuca]); and (2) when green manure and native species are planted mixed in the same row they produce greater soil cover, and thus limit invasion by undesired species. The use of green manure has been identified as an alternative method for overcoming the environmental filters of herbivory and invasive grasses in restoration areas. Considering the demand for information that supports the use of green manure for purposes of ecological restoration, the novel results of the present study fill a void and should prove to be of great interest to researchers and practitioners. In addition, the presented results provide information on efficient and low-cost restoration techniques that are necessary for the activity to gain scale, enabling countries to meet the large restoration targets.

Optimal sexual reproduction in relation to fire effects varies in Fabaceae species. Calliandra species have a large investment in reproduction. We investigated the consequences of fire during the fruiting period of Calliandra parviflora Benth., by checking fruit exposure to fire, pre‐dispersal seed predator infestation, and the effect of fruit burning on germination. We conducted this study in a floodable savanna in central Brazil, where we collected burnt and unburnt fruits. We measured the fruit and seed mass, and counted the number of damaged and undamaged seeds and live larvae per fruit. We analyzed the seed germination percentage from burnt and unburnt fruits. The burnt fruits presented greater mass than the unburnt fruits, despite their seed mass being similar. The number of damaged seeds per fruit was only slightly higher in burnt compared to unburnt fruits (p = 0.047). The number of larvae on pre‐dispersal seeds per fruit varied from 0 to 4 and did not differ between burnt and unburnt fruits. The germination percentage of unburnt fruit seeds (mean = 22 ± 17%), was significantly higher than that of burnt fruit (mean = 3.0 ± 2.0%, p < 0.001). Fire during fruiting or pre‐dispersion decreases seed germination from 22 to 3%, but it does not hurt vegetative regeneration or resprout capacity of C. parviflora, which is a facultative seeder. Hence, we suggest that C. parviflora has potential for post‐fire restoration in floodable open grassy savannas, in the ecotone between Cerrado and Pantanal, because this species may sprout quickly after first post‐fire rains.