Dismantling Brazil's science threatens global biodiversity heritage

Fernandes, G. Wilson; Vale, Mariana M.; Overbeck, Gerhard Ernst; Bustamante, Mercedes M. C.; Grelle, Carlos Eduardo Viveiros; Bergallo, Helena Godoy; Magnusson, William E.; Akama, Alberto; Alves, Suelen S.; Amorim, André M.; Araújo, J.L. de; Barros, Cláudia Franca; Bravo, Freddy; Carim, Marcelo J. Veiga; Cerqueira, Rui; Collevatti, Rosane Garcia; Colli, Guarino R.; Cunha, Cátia Nunes da; D’Andrea, Paulo Sérgio; Dianese, J. C.; Diniz, Soraia; Cordeiro‐Estrela, Pedro; Fernandes, Mariluce R.M.; Fontana, Carla Suertegaray; Giacomin, Leandro Lacerda; Gusmão, Luís Fernando Pascholati; Juncá, Flora Acuña; Silva, Ana Carolina Borges Lins e; Lopes, Célia Regina; Lorini, Maria Lúcia; Queiroz, Luciano Paganucci de; Malabarba, Luiz Roberto; Marimon, Beatriz Schwantes; Marques, Márcia C. M.; Martinelli, Bruno; Martins, Marlúcia Bonifácio; Medeiros, Hermes Fônseca de; Menin, Marcelo; Morais, Paula B.; Muniz, Francisca Helena; Neckel‐Oliveira, Selvino; Oliveira, João Alves de; Oliveira, Reyjane Patrícia de; Pedroni, Fernando; Penha, Jerry; Podgaiski, Luciana Regina; Rodrigues, Domingos de Jesus; Scariot, Aldicìr; Silveira, Luís Fábio; Silveira, Marcos; Tomás, Walfrido Moraes; Vital, Marcos José Salgado; Pillar, Valério D.

doi:10.1016/j.pecon.2017.07.004

Cited by 54 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A nefarious combination of rapid agribusiness and infrastructure development, illdesigned and poorly enforced environmental laws, alongside few incentives for research and conservation are engendering a major biodiversity collapse in the Cerrado (Alves et al 2018;Fernandes et al 2017;Overbeck et al 2018;Strassburg et al 2017). De Marco et al (2020) assessed species and landscape vulnerability for threatened species of Cerrado mammals.…”

Section: Synopsismentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity and conservation of the Cerrado: recent advances and old challenges

2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Covering about 2 Mio. km 2 by the arrival of the first European settlers, the Cerrado savannas are second in extent only to Amazonian forests amongst the South American biomes (Diniz et al. 2010; Eiten 1972; Oliveira and Marquis 2002). The Cerrado sits strategically at the centre of the continent, connecting two open vegetation biomes-the Chaco to the southwest and the Caatinga to the northeast-thus forming a diagonal corridor of dry habitats in South America, and simultaneously establishing a biogeographical barrier between two forest biomes-Amazonia to the northwest and the Atlantic Forest to the southeast (Schmidt and Inger 1951; Vanzolini 1963; Werneck 2011). Moreover, it also occurs as isolated patches within other biomes, presumably relicts of a more extensive past distribution (

show abstract

Section: Synopsismentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity and conservation of the Cerrado: recent advances and old challenges

2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Hence, recommendations, guidelines and experimental scenarios must account for legal and socioeconomic aspects to be effectively applied and useful for decision-makers. The current scant resources for environmental research should advance our understanding of ecosystem functioning and services, as well as sustainable conservation goals (Costanza et al, 1997;Fernandes et al, 2017). Therefore, what should our research priorities be?…”

Section: Mountain Headwater Streams and Water Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

A Humboldtian Approach to Mountain Conservation and Freshwater Ecosystem Services

Callisto

Solar

Silveira

et al. 2019

Front. Environ. Sci.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Tackling complex environmental issues requires transdisciplinary solutions that cannot be achieved, unless we integrate scientific disciplines and communicate science directly with civil society actors, decision-makers, and stakeholders. Alexander von Humboldt offered an approach to integrate knowledge across disciplines aiming to broadly understand human-environmental issues, yet current scientific practices largely ignore that holistic transdisciplinary approach. Here, we develop a conceptual framework for sustaining mountain environmental integrity and securing their ecosystem services based on transdisciplinarity. We use headwater systems located in old tropical mountains as examples of meta-ecosystems because they supply water for multiple human uses and are home to disproportionately high levels of species richness and endemism. We describe the vulnerability of mountains to global changes in the Anthropocene and discuss difficulties in implementing sustainable development goals for them. Specifically, we indicate the importance of mountains to human water supplies and the conflicts between anthropogenic disturbances and riparian stream meta-ecosystems for providing ecosystem services particularly failures. We also argue that the interplay between academia and other sectors of society must improve and increase the permeability of scientific knowledge into policy-and decision-making, which is crucial for improving natural resource management and sustaining ecosystem services. We argue that the prioritization of tropical montane headwater systems is a feasible, desirable and strategic issue to be included in the global sustainability agenda. Failure to implement sustainable development goals in global mountains is likely to continue resulting in catastrophic events with harsh consequences for both humans and global biodiversity.

show abstract

“…Surely, the main obstacles for improving species' threat status through the implementation of strategies set out in recovery plans are the inadequate funding for conservation and science in general. This situation is exacerbated by the interaction of inadequate funding with poor governance, internal corruption, lack of political will and the current political instability (Loyola 2014;Fearnside 2016;Fernandes et al 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effectiveness of protected areas and indigenous lands in representing threatened plant species in Brazil

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Brazil is signatory of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which provides guidelines and directions to existing national policies. This strategy aims to halt the continuing loss of plant diversity through the achievement of 16 outcome-based targets set for 2020. One of these targets (target 7) states that at least 75% of known threatened plant species should be preserved in situ. Here, we assessed the effectiveness of the Brazilian current network of protected areas (PAs) and indigenous lands (ILs) in representing all known threatened plant species. We found that the number of species represented inside PAs and ILs varied according to data type. When using occurrence records, we found that 699 (33%) threatened plant species lie completely outside PAs (and/or ILs) and that 1,405 species (67%) have at least one record inside at least one PA (and/or IL). The number of species unrepresented decreased when we considered polygons of distribution. In this case, only 219 (10%) are supposedly unprotected. Although Brazil is almost reaching GSPC Target 7 in terms of absolute numbers, the government still needs to allocate resources for properly managing and improving the conservation status of its imperiled flora and expand the network of PAs.

show abstract

Dismantling Brazil's science threatens global biodiversity heritage

Cited by 54 publications

References 11 publications

Biodiversity and conservation of the Cerrado: recent advances and old challenges

Biodiversity and conservation of the Cerrado: recent advances and old challenges

A Humboldtian Approach to Mountain Conservation and Freshwater Ecosystem Services

The effectiveness of protected areas and indigenous lands in representing threatened plant species in Brazil

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About