The Cerrado biome is a global biodiversity hotspot and its vegetation has special relevance in mitigating climate change  It is one of the largest water reservoirs in the country, and plays a key role in food production, providing water, soil, pollination and pest control – important ecosystem services. Agricultural production in the Cerrado is an important part of the Brazilian economy and the north of the biome was determined as the agricultural frontier in MATOPIBA (Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia), where an expansion of 3 to 5.2 Mha is projected. However, agricultural productivity in the Cerrado is threatened both by the commitment it causes to the ecosystem services on which it depends and by the accentuation of the drought envisaged in the climate change scenarios. Commodity farming is the main cause of deforestation in MATOPIBA, and the main threat to biodiversity in the Cerrado. Although the area planted with soybeans in this region has grown steadily in recent years, agricultural productivity has been very sensitive and unstable. In this context, the biologist and consultant Branca Opazo Medina presented in the CSRio Seminar “Conservation of the Cerrado on the last large Brazilian agricultural frontier, MATOPIBA”, whose results of the mapping of the region, related to water APPs and other protected areas, reveal socioeconomic data and vulnerability to drought in the context of climate change. The lecture was held on June 27, 2019, at PUC-Rio. Watch the full presentation (in Portuguese only)  

Bernardo Strassburg,  IIS´director, presented the main results of the Global Biodiversity Assessment published by the Intergovernmental Platform for Scientific Policies on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in his lecture held at the “Museu do Amanhã”, (Rio de Janeiro). The Report, published in May 2019,  is the most comprehensive ever completed. It is the first intergovernmental Report of its kind and builds on the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005, introducing innovative ways of evaluating evidence. Compiled by 145 expert authors from 50 countries over the past three years, with inputs from another 310 contributing authors, the Report assesses changes over the past five decades, providing a comprehensive picture of the relationship between economic development pathways and their impacts on nature. It also offers a range of possible scenarios for the coming decades. According to Bernardo, one of the study’s lead authors, the great goals we set for the conservation and preservation of nature are perfectly feasible. We already know what needs to be done to achieve them, and in fact, we are already doing it. What we need is to scale up, and social mobilization is critical to realizing these transformative changes needed to secure the future of the planet. Watch the presentataion (Portuguese only)

Analysis of the Pact for the Atlantic Forest Restoration identified the recovery of approximately 740 thousand hectares of forests. The goal is to recover 1 million hectares by 2020. For the first time a study was able to estimate the current stage of restoration of native forests in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. According to the article “There is hope for achieving ambitious Atlantic forest restoration commitments“, published on Sunday (2) in the scientific journal Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation, about 740 thousand hectares of forests were recovering between 2011 and 2015 in the biome. The study was produced by the Pact for the Atlantic Forest Restoration, a movement created in 2009 by companies, government agencies, civil society organizations and research centers to stimulate the restoration of 15 million hectares of degraded areas in the biome by 2050. The work involved more than 20 authors from 10 different institutions. In 2011, the Pacto committed to the Bonn Challenge with the goal of restoring 1 million hectares of forests in the Atlantic Forest by 2020. The results of the study show that it is possible to meet this goal. “The numbers bring hope that ambitious restoration goals can be met, bringing benefits to the population and helping Brazil meet its international commitments,” said Renato Crouzeilles, study leader and researcher at the Centre for Conservation and Sustainability Science (CSRio). Brazil has committed to recovering 12 million hectares of native vegetation by 2030 in its National Plan for the Recovery of Native Vegetation and the Bonn Challenge. The forest and landscape restoration is a crucial activity to recover degraded areas of the country, protecting biodiversity, springs, rivers, soil and widespread promotion of ecosystem services. In addition, restoration can move a native forest economy based on non-timber products, planting native trees for wood, collecting fruits, nuts, seeds and extracting active ingredients for drugs and essences. “The study demonstrates the importance of multisectoral initiatives to gain scale and open up socioeconomic opportunities in the forest restoration chain,” says Severino Ribeiro, who was the coordinator of the Pact for the Atlantic Forest Restoration during the development of the study. Ludmila Pugliese, current coordinator of the Pacto, stresses: “Society’s engagement in expanding the scale of restoration is vital, since this activity must be seen as a means of transforming society. We are communicating the positive response of all society to one of the greatest challenges of the century.” The numbers of forest recovery  Using satellite mapping of the MapBiomas project, the work estimates that 673,000 to 740,000 hectares of native forests were recovering between the years 2011 and 2015 in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. If this trend continues until 2020, the Pacto will exceed its restoration commitment, reaching the recovery of about 1.4 million hectares of native forests in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The study estimates that about 300,000 hectares of forests were recovered by active restoration interventions by one of the 350 members of the Pacto. The rest may have been restored by other actors or be the result of natural regeneration, however, it is not possible to distinguish the contribution of each restoration technique. According to the authors, the Brazilian Atlantic Forest registered positive results in the forest recovery due to three main factors: the development of a strategy of governance, communication and articulation in 14 of the 17 states within the Brazilian Atlantic Forest; establishment of a restoration monitoring system; and the promotion of vision and strategy to influence public policies and restoration actions in different spheres. Public policies Despite the good news of the Atlantic Forest recovery reported by the Pacto, these advances are at risk due to changes in environmental policies including collective governance structures without broad debate, and proposed changes to weaken the New Forest Code. Brazil’s socio-environmental policy for decades is an international reference, giving an additional value to Brazilian agricultural production and drawing great discussions about climate change, payment for environmental services, combating deforestation and consequently forest restoration. Harmonizing productive areas, the protection and recovery of forests and natural vegetation has been a differential for Brazil that needs to be conserved and deepened. About Pacto The Pact for the Atlantic Forest Restoration is a movement of Brazilian society, multistakeholder, integrating institutions willing to support or participate in forest restoration efforts. The aim of the Pacto is to articulate public and private institutions, governments, companies and landowners to integrate their efforts and resources in generating results in restoration and conservation of biodiversity. The goal of the Pacto is to enable forest restoration of 15 million hectares by the year 2050 in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.