The UN Biodiversity Convention is convening two meetings in Montreal this week, to lay the groundwork for negotiations to achieve an ambitious and effective post-2020 global biodiversity framework at next years’ UN Biodiversity Conference2 in Kunming, China. Some 500 delegates representing 118 countries are expected to convene in Montreal for the twenty-third meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-23), being held from 25-29 November. Amongst other agenda items, the SBSTTA-23 will inform the scientific and technical evidence base for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Bernardo Strassburg, CSRio coordinator is one of the Brazilian representantives, and will be speaking at two side events: “NatureMap: a new global effort to make biodiversity and ecosystem services hotspots visible”, on the 25th; and “One or a small number of overarching objectives (‘apex goal’) – proposals from science”, on the 26th. The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) is one of the CBD’s two subsidiary bodies and meets annually. SBSTTA’s mandate is, among other things, to provide assessments on biodiversity, assessments on the efficiency of measures taken under the CBD, and support for the implementation of the programmes of work of the Conference of the Parties and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.

Large environmental impacts can directly influence the economy. Studies show increasing deforestation in Brazil in the first half of 2019 compared to the same period last year, while agricultural research has been a central theme in the debate on economic development. In this context, it is necessary to understand the relationship between deforestation reduction, agricultural sector and Brazilian economy. At the next CSRio seminar, on 11th november, at 6pm, we will be pleased to welcome Juliano Assunção, who will address the determinants of deforestation in Brazil, showing how policies to combat deforestation have worked and their effects on economic activity, as well as the relationship between increased agricultural studies and reducing deforestation pressures. Juliano J. Assunção is executive director of CPI’s Rio Office, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) and associate Editor of Revista Brasileira de Economia and Environment and Development Economics. He is a member of the Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty at the University of Chicago and works as a consultant for firms, governments, and multi-lateral organizations. Juliano’s research focuses on different aspects of development economics, including agricultural economics, institutions, and financial intermediation.

Study shows socio-economic and environmental benefits of integrated landscape planning that combines agricultural production, conservation and restoration; In addition to reversing degradation, the process increases climate resilience, ensures the presence of pollinators – increasing national agricultural productivity by up to 90% – and also provides timber products, fruits and forest bioactive products that diversify the market and generate income for landowners. Rio de Janeiro, August 23, 2019 – The Brazilian Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BPBES) and the International Institute for Sustainability (IIS) launch today the summary for decision makers of the thematic report “Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration”. Prepared by 45 researchers from 25 institutions amongst CSRio, the study brings together scientific knowledge on initiatives, practices and public policies aimed at more sustainable land use in Brazil, contributing directly to the mitigation of climate change and the achievement of global goals. The objective is to inform government, business and other managers and leaders, from the public and private spheres, about the best way to go. Given the growing alteration of natural environments by human activities, the restoration of landscapes and ecosystems has become a priority internationally. So much so that the United Nations (UN) declared the period between 2021 and 2030 as the Decade on Restoration of Ecosystems. And, amid a critical juncture for the Brazilian environmental agenda, the BPBES and IIS document presents data and proposals to demonstrate the mutual benefit between agricultural production, conservation and restoration. The study is being launched in due course: two weeks after the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report that addresses the relationship between land use and climate change, warning of the importance combat deforestation, protect natural ecosystems and promote the recovery of native vegetation. Brazil has lost 70 million hectares of native vegetation in the last 30 years. For the most part, they are abandoned, misused, eroding lands that add little to the country. “These areas do not contribute to food production, any other economic activity, or ecosystem services. Restoring it should be a national priority! ”Points out Bráulio Dias, professor at UnB and former executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The study notes that each biome and its level of degradation require specific ecological restoration methods to ensure the most cost-effective, and details the most appropriate techniques for each area, including conducting natural regeneration. Synergy and interdependence – According to the document, restoration of landscapes and ecosystems does not compete with agricultural activities; on the contrary, they are synergistic actions. The report coordinator, Renato Crouzeilles, professor at the UFRJ Graduate Program in Ecology and the Rio Conservation and Sustainability Science Center (CSRio) at PUC-Rio and associated with IIS, points out that science and politics go hand in hand and benefit. “Intelligent planning and integrated landscape management lead to a win-win situation, where the environment wins, agricultural production wins and society wins,” he explains. In the same vein, Ricardo Rodrigues, professor at Esalq / USP, where he coordinates the Laboratory of Ecology and Forest Restoration (Lerf), and also one of the study’s coordinators, argues that agriculture and environment are not competing, but interdependent. Therefore, they must be approached jointly, from the perspective of ‘environmental and agricultural adequacy of rural properties’, a concept that has been practiced for more than 20 years at Lerf, resulting in environmental and productive benefits. To this end, he argues that scientific knowledge needs to come closer to society and society should better appropriate this knowledge. “We have to break this barrier. We cannot continue to generate quality knowledge for ourselves by discussing among peers. I believe this study is an interesting instrument for this approach. ” For Rodrigues, the differential of Brazilian agriculture should be the latest technology, high productivity and low environmental impact, in an environment rich in biodiversity and, therefore, with environmental and socioeconomic sustainability. For this to happen, Crouzeilles believes it is essential to raise government awareness of the synergy between the environment and agriculture, which can lead to better environmental, economic and social quality, vital to tackling climate change. “Restoration is the nature-based solution with the greatest potential to mitigate the effects of climate change, which, if not tackled now and with intensity, will lead to the loss of agricultural productivity, greater social and economic inequity and the destruction of natural Bernardo Strassburg, PUC-Rio professor, IIS executive director, CSRio coordinator and also document coordinator, also underscores the enormous potential of ecological restoration to contribute to the attainment of multiple Sustainable Development Goals in a cost-effective manner. “In addition to the Goals related to biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation and adaptation, restoration can significantly support the goals associated with food, water and energy security, poverty reduction, job creation and sustainable production and consumption.” According to the report, restoration of landscapes and ecosystems ensures the presence of pollinators, which increase the productivity of Brazilian agricultural crops by up to 90%. “About 40% of the country’s agricultural crops have a 40-100% reduction in production in the absence of pollinators, and in another 45% of crops, the decrease is between 1-40%,” says the text. According to the study, if well planned and implemented in the landscape, restoration can increase biodiversity conservation by over 200%. Socioeconomic Benefits – In addition to reversing environmental degradation and restoring ecosystem functionality, the recovery of native vegetation also provides economic opportunities for inclusion and reduction of social inequalities. “It is estimated that 200 direct jobs will be created (through seed collection, seedling production, planting and maintenance) per 1,000 hectares under human intervention restoration. Depending on the balance between recovery with high human intervention and conducting natural regeneration, it is projected that between 112 and 191 thousand jobs will be generated annually by 2030 to reach the Brazilian target of 12 million hectares of native vegetation ”, details the document. The text goes on to explain that restored areas, in addition to providing pollinators for surrounding crops, also offer timber products, fruits and bioactives of native vegetation under restoration, which diversify local markets and benefit

Researchers pinpoint restoration hotspots in 15 countries, including Brazil, Indonesia, India and Colombia, across four continents where reviving forests would deliver the biggest carbon, water and wildlife benefits for the buck In a peer-reviewed report released today, researchers identified more than 100 million hectares of lost lowland tropical rain forests—restoration hotspots— spread out across Central and South America, Africa and Southeast Asia that present the most compelling opportunities for restoration to overcome rising global temperatures, water pollution and shortages, and the extinction of plant and animal life. Brazil, Indonesia, Madagascar, India and Colombia have the largest accumulated area of restoration hotspots; six African countries–Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Togo, South Sudan, and Madagascar–are home to the areas presenting the best restoration opportunities on average. “Restoring tropical forests is fundamental to the planet’s health, now and for generations to come,” said lead author Pedro Brancalion, from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. “For the first time, our study helps governments, investors and others seeking to restore global tropical moist forests to determine precise locations where restoring forests is most viable, enduring and beneficial. Restoring forests is a must do–and it’s doable.” The 12 authors of the Science Advances study, Global restoration opportunities in tropical rainforest landscapes, used high-resolution satellite imagery and the latest peer-reviewed research on four forest benefits (biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation and water security) and three aspects of restoration effort (cost, investment risk and the likelihood of restored forests surviving into the future) to assess and “score” all tropical lands worldwide in 1 kilometer square blocks that retained less than 90 percent of their forest cover. Restoration hotspots are those lands that scored in the top 10 percent, meaning that restoring them would be the most beneficial and the least costly and risky. The top 15 countries with the largest restoration hotspots were found across the all tropical forest biomes, or zones: three in the Neotropics, five in the Afrotropics, and seven in Indo-Malaysia and Australasia. The five countries with the largest restoration hotspot by area are Brazil, Indonesia, India, Madagascar, and Colombia. The six countries with the highest mean score were found in Africa: Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Togo, South Sudan, and Madagascar. “We were surprised to find such a concentration of highly ranked countries in a single continent,” co-author Robin Chazdon said. “The study really highlights the high potential for successful rainforest restoration outcomes in these African countries.” Nearly 87 percent of the restoration hotspots were found within biodiversity conservation hotspots, areas that hold high concentrations of species found nowhere else, but are at high risk for deforestation. The Atlantic Forest was the global hotspot for biodiversity conservation with the largest hotspot area for restoration, highlighting the great opportunity that this biome presents to receive international restoration investments; Seventy-three percent of the restoration hotspots were found in countries that have made restoration commitments as part of the Bonn Challenge, a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030. “It’s encouraging that so many hotspots are located in countries where restoring forests and landscapes is already a priority,” said Brancalion. In most cases, restoration hotspots overlap with fields and pastures currently in use by farmers. As a result, the study shows, restoring forests is most feasible on lands of low value for agricultural production. Alternatively, the researchers argue, restoration could be coupled with income-generating forms of production through, for example, enriching pastures with trees, harvesting forest-based products like rattan and growing coffee or cocoa beneath a forest canopy. Any decisions about changing land use must fully engage local communities, as restoration should complement rather than compete with food security and land rights. In other cases, these hotspots include abandoned, degraded farmlands or government lands. “Identify restoration hotspots is a critical approach to inform policies and actions related with forest landscape restoration at large scale,” said Renato Crouzeilles, CSRio´s associate professor and one of the authors of the study. “It is a big opportunity to combine restoration and conservation actions in a same place as there is more than 85% overlap between areas that fall within both biodiversity conservation and restoration hotspots”  

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)