SummaryJair Bolsonaro (Brazil’s new president) and “ruralists” (large landholders and their representatives) have initiated a series of measures that threaten Amazonia’s environment and traditional peoples, as well as global climate. These include weakening the country’s environmental agencies and forest code, granting amnesty to deforestation, approving harmful agrochemicals, reducing protected areas, and denying the existence of anthropogenic climate change. Both the measures themselves and the expectation of impunity they encourage have spurred increased deforestation, which contributes to climate change and to land conflicts with traditional peoples. Countries and companies that import Brazilian beef, soy and minerals are stimulating these impacts.
syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19. In addition to their history of susceptibility to epidemics (6), many of these isolated communities lack medical posts, doctors, and basic medications, to say nothing of the ventilators that would be needed to treat a COVID-19 outbreak. Bolsonaro's administration recently dismissed 8000 Cuban doctors who served small communities in the country's interior (9), which has been especially harmful to Indigenous and traditional communities in the Amazon region. Brazil's government must take action in the Amazon to protect these people. Instead of allowing evangelical missionaries to enter into contact with isolated Indigenous groups (10), all means of transport to these areas should be restricted. The first Indigenous case of the disease was confirmed on 1 April (11). In line with international guidelines (11), Brazil's government should ensure isolation and monitoring in Indigenous areas as well as for all those who have contact with them. The government must act quickly to provide doctors, personal protective equipment, and testing capabilities in these areas. On the national scale, Brazil must maintain a nationwide quarantine to mitigate the disease's impact. Measures favored by Brazil's president, such as "vertical isolation" or a partial breach of isolation (1), conflict with World Health Organization recommendations and scientific studies (3, 12), thereby putting Brazil's entire population at risk. The effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine has not been confirmed, although its risks have been (2). Protecting Indigenous and traditional peoples from COVID-19 by acknowledging their increased risk and acting accordingly will protect public health for all Brazilians
Aim Habitat loss and fragmentation are considered the main drivers of species population declines and extinctions in the world. The large-scale replacement of natural habitats with human-modified habitats, such as the replacement of forests with agricultural and livestock farming areas, creates a scenario where natural habitat patches are immersed in an inhospitable land use matrix. We sought to evaluate how forest fragments (FFs) are influenced by the different surrounding landscape components, where we assessed how agricultural matrices that differ in structure and seasonality affect the structure of FFs and their amphibian assemblages.Location Atlantic Forest, Brazil.Methods Using diverse methods including satellite imagery, historical land use and field data, we evaluated the effects of representative agricultural matrices on the structure of FFs and their amphibian composition, species richness and abundance.Results Our results suggest that the structure of FFs and amphibian composition, species richness and individual abundance are intimately linked to the type of matrix and its proportion around FFs. The nature of the matrix is more likely to affect species richness, individual abundance and composition of amphibian assemblages than FF size, reducing the species-area relationship in FFs. There is strong support for the hypothesis that certain agricultural matrices facilitate FF exposure to the elements and a decrease in forest integrity within the fragment, which is reflected in a loss of strict forest inhabitants. Those matrices that allow for a greater exposure of FFs also appear to favour their occupation by habitat generalists.Main conclusions Surrounding matrices affect the structure and dynamics of forest remnants and should therefore be considered in management plans of severely fragmented landscapes. The influence of the land matrix should be urgently assessed, as it has effects on species occurrences and distribution. This is especially relevant considering the increasing deforestation rates in biodiversity hotspots world-wide.
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