In an opinion article published in the magazine Nature Ecology and Evolution, Researchers from all over Brazil are against the dismantling, by the Federal Government, of socio-environmental policies adopted since 2005. The publication brings the endorsement of 1230 professors and postgraduate students from several Brazilian and international universities and institutions. Signatures were collected within a week.
The document states that the governance of services offered by ecosystems is compromised, that is, ecosystems such as the Amazon Forest, for example, could be lost thanks to mistaken actions, resulting in the end of a chain of benefits for humanity.
The text has the character of a manifesto, pointing out Brazil's strategic importance to the world in socio-environmental issues. The title translated into Portuguese is “Help Restore the Brazilian Governance of Ecosystem Services of Global Importance”. The document provides a map of the United Nations (UN) environmental program, highlighting how Brazil stands out for keeping many assets in its ecosystems.
“Ecosystems provide an accumulation of services for humanity such as carbon stocks, climate regulation or even cultural assets, which can be lost and generate very serious consequences”, says Bernardo Monteiro Flores, post-doctoral student in Plant Biology at Unicamp. He shares the first authorship of the document with researcher Carolina Levis, from the Federal University of Santa Catarina.
Bernardo says that the idea for the article arose when, in 2019, European scientists asked governments to stop selling products with Brazilian companies that were in disagreement with environmental conservation and the rights of indigenous peoples. The letter signed by 602 scientists from European institutions was published in the journal Science. (see here)
“We decided to write a letter, written by Brazilians, with a similar message. We believe that the scientific community needs to tell the world that it does not agree with the country's socio-environmental policy and that the consequence of the loss of ecosystems not only affects Brazil, but also other countries”, he states.
The authors emphasize in the text the importance of cultural assets, such as the way of life of traditional people, such as indigenous people, also threatened by current politics. “One of the global services provided by ecosystems is cultural: people in Asia can be inspired by indigenous peoples to develop new ways of life that can help solve problems that society faces”, explains Bernardo.
The document proposes three solutions based on scientific evidence, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and international agreements signed by Brazil: developing sustainable agroindustry, protecting and restoring terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems, and strengthening the rights of indigenous peoples. and traditional.
Access to the article: Help restore Brazil's governance of globally important ecosystem services
Complementary material containing translation into Portuguese and list of researchers
