Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable

Kehoe, Laura; Reis, Tiago N.P. dos; Virah‐Sawmy, Malika; Balmford, Andrew; Kuemmerle, Tobias; signatories,

doi:10.1126/science.aaw8276

Cited by 57 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Contrary to the commitment signed by Brazil to protect 17% of the area of each biome by 2020, during the Convention on Biology Diversity (2010), Brazil's new administration (Kehoe, Reis, Virah‐Sawmy, Balmford, & Kuemmerle, 2019) has undermined Brazilian protected areas with legal proposals, constitutional amendments, provisional measures (Azevedo‐Santos et al, 2017) and policies that encourage more deforestation. In this context, our study reinforces the importance of the existence of NPs and their buffer zones to preserve the fish and the diversity between species and ecosystems that characterise these NPs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representativeness of national parks in protecting freshwater biodiversity: A case of Brazilian savanna

Casarim

Caldeira

2020

Ecology of Freshwater Fish

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The establishment of national parks are an important and often‐used tool to protect biodiversity. However, when considering freshwater ecosystems, many of these areas in Brazil are habitat mosaics in which a small part of the ecosystem is protected and strongly influenced by the surrounding environment. By assessing the fish fauna and their diversity patterns in five national parks (NPs) within the Brazilian savanna, we discuss whether the establishment of new NPs or the expansion of their current conservation limits would potentially conserve additional species. We selected all national parks within the third largest drainage area in Brazil. To sample fish communities, we explored 60 streams through a standardised field protocol. We also simulated the potential impact of the enlargement or implementation of a new national park. Our results reinforce the importance of national parks and their surrounding areas to preserve fish species. The enlargement of national parks would result in an increase of potentially protected species; however, the same achievement would be obtained if their buffer zones were effectively managed and protected. We recommend an alternative conservation approach to increase protection of tropical savanna fish biodiversity, especially in developing countries such as Brazil with scarce financial resources available for management, monitoring and creation of protected areas.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representativeness of national parks in protecting freshwater biodiversity: A case of Brazilian savanna

Casarim

Caldeira

2020

Ecology of Freshwater Fish

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“…The letter addressed to the European Commission by 24 national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in 2019 [28] points out that "removing trade barriers with this [Mercosur] region would increase European demand for cheap, unsustainable agricultural products and biofuels from South America, drive additional deforestation and conflicts over land, contribute to wildlife trafficking, biodiversity loss, and higher overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions". In a letter published in Science in 2019, more than 600 scientists and 300 Brazilian indigenous groups urged the EU to reconsider the trade agreement and put human rights and deforestation above economic gains [29]. The indigenous communities in Brazil and organizations such as Amazon Watch and Global Witness trace the destruction of forests to European and North American financial flows and investments by large investors, including international banks.…”

Section: Embedded Deforestation In Current Global Trade and Financementioning

confidence: 99%

Embedded Deforestation: The Case Study of the Brazilian–Italian Bovine Leather Trade

Mammadova

Masiero

Pettenella

2020

Forests

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Deforestation and forest degradation driven by Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) are important sources of carbon emissions. Market globalization and trade liberalization policies reinforce this trend and risk deforestation to be embedded in global value chains. Due to the complexity of global production and trade systems, deforestation risk is also embedded in the supply chains of the products and sectors that are not direct deforestation drivers. Bovine leather is a commodity closely entangled in the debates about deforestation as it is a by-product of cattle. This research focuses on leather trade between Brazil and Italy to demonstrate the channels through which Italian imports of Brazilian leather could possess embedded Amazonian deforestation and related risks. The data employed for the analysis was searched at three different levels for the leather trade between Brazil and Italy: (a) the country level annual leather trade statistics for the years 2014–2018 taken from the Comtrade database; (b) the state level leather trade data, for the years 2014–2018 taken from the Comexstat database; and (c) the exporter–importer level leather trade data for the period of August 2017–August 2018, based on customs declarations. The analysis helps to demonstrate that the Italian leather trade with Brazil possesses the risk of deforestation unless the proper traceability and due diligence systems are in place to claim the opposite. The European and Italian leather industry need to be more proactive in acknowledging the existence of the risk at different levels, putting full traceability systems in place and sending out clear market signals that deforestation is not tolerated, and that sustainability is valued.

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“…Three years later, in 2019, Norway and Germany decided to suspend their contributions to the fund as a retaliation to the unusual increase in fire activity in the Amazon biome attributed to the advance of agrobusiness (Escobar, 2019). Together with the recession caused by the COVID-19, potential retaliations due to divergences in environmental policies can negatively impact Brazil's economy (Bozorgmehr et al, 2020;Kehoe et al, 2019).…”

Section: Strategies To Burst Brazilian Economy Without Promoting Amazonia Destructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 and Amazonia: Sustainable alternatives for an economic collapse

Diele‐Viegas¹,

Pereira²

2020

Preprint

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The severity of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak demand from countries to adopt extreme measurements of social isolation to stop the spread and flatten the curve of contamination. Although social isolation measures may have negative impacts on economy, historically it has been showed to be more effective in saving lives and less damaging to economy than not adopting these measurements during a viral pandemic. In Brazil, despite the positioning of the president against social isolation due to the consequent economic recession, the rapid spread of the virus has worried the governors of the Brazilian states, which are thus managing stringent social isolation measurements to avoid the advance of the virus. Since one of the main strategies to guarantee progress and economic growth in Brazil has been the exploitation of natural resources from the Amazonia biome, here we discuss the importance of this biome to Brazilian economy during the post-pandemic recession and highlights potential strategies to burst the economy without promoting Amazonia destruction. We show that, together with the REDD+ and the Amazon Fund, the Forest bonds represents good strategies to burst Brazilian economy in a sustainable way, showing that it is possible to improve the commodities without increasing Amazonia deforestation or the greenhouse gases emissions. Amazonia is a biome of global importance for the avoidance of another global crisis, which will occur if we reach the climatic tipping point of 1.5°C. Thus, governmental actions should go towards its preservation, not exploitation and depletion. The commitment of the government with environmental conservation is paramount so that these economic strategies have positive results, especially in a post-pandemic scenario, where the economy will be extremely weakened. The COVID-19 brings us a lesson regarding how our attitudes can impact the world, and what we can expect from a global crisis. Perhaps we can apply these lessons and focus on change our economy towards a sustainable direction to avoid another global crisis in the years to come.

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Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable

Cited by 57 publications

References 8 publications

Representativeness of national parks in protecting freshwater biodiversity: A case of Brazilian savanna

Representativeness of national parks in protecting freshwater biodiversity: A case of Brazilian savanna

Embedded Deforestation: The Case Study of the Brazilian–Italian Bovine Leather Trade

COVID-19 and Amazonia: Sustainable alternatives for an economic collapse

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