December 16th 2024.

As the year comes to an end, I have reflected on the moments that were important to my professional life in 2024. Both the bad and good news had an impact on me and continue to energize the work I do. For example, the unprecedented droughts in the Amazon, but the achievement of zero deforestation in some areas, showed me that our conservation work matters and is more important than ever!

À medida que o ano chega ao fim, tenho refletido sobre os momentos que foram importantes para a minha vida profissional em 2024. Tanto as más como as boas notícias me impactaram e continuarão a me dar disposição para trabalhar em 2025. Por exemplo, as secas sem precedentes na Amazônia, mas o desmatamento zero no Estado do Amapá, me mostraram que o nosso trabalho de conservação faz diferença e é mais importante do que nunca! 

December 

Minha conversa com Felipe de Carvalho da ONU news sobre o importante papel da natureza na adaptação às mudanças climáticas.

My conversation with Felipe de Carvalho da UN news about the important role of nature for climate change adaptation. 

https://news.un.org/pt/story/2024/11/1841051 

October 22nd 2024

Esta semana eu comemoro 13 anos da defesa da minha tese de doutorado. Minha tese foi resultado de anos de pesquisa estudando as interações animal-planta no Pantanal brasileiro, com a ajuda dos meus grandes mentores e colegas Rodolfo Dirzo, Mauro Galetti, alexine keuroghlian, Paulo Guimarães, Marco Aurélio Pizo e Pedro Jordano e com o apoio dos mais maravilhosos anfitriões na Fazenda Barranco Alto, Marina Schweizer e Lucas Leuzinger, e Reinaldo Lourival e Mônica Barcellos Harris na Fazenda Rio Negro. O Pantanal é o lugar mais incrível que já vi. Sou muito privilegiada por ter vivido no Pantanal, por ter visto as mais incríveis espécies e por ter criado laços de amizade com muitas pantaneiras e pantaneiros.

Esse post é um lembrete de que o Pantanal está sob constante pressão da expansão agrícola e das queimadas. Assim como é o caso da Amazônia e da Mata Atlântica, o Pantanal (e devemos incluir aqui também o Cerrado) precisa de ação internacional para ser protegido (https://lnkd.in/g9GQfHVV).

Essa semana, todos os olhos estão voltados para a COP16, a Conferência das Nações Unidas sobre a Biodiversidade. Espero que esse interesse continue após esse importante evento já que a crise da biodiversidade não pode ser ignorada!

******

This week, I celebrate 13 years of my PhD thesis defense. My thesis was the result of years of research studying plant-animal interactions in the Brazilian Pantanal, with the help of my great mentors and colleagues Rodolfo Dirzo, Mauro Galetti, alexine keuroghlian, Paulo Guimarães, Marco Aurélio Pizo and Pedro Jordano, and the support of the most wonderful hosts at Fazenda Barranco Alto, Marina Schweizer and Lucas Leuzinger, and Reinaldo Lourival and Mônica Barcellos Harris at Fazenda Rio Negro. Pantanal is the most amazing place I have ever seen. I feel so very fortunate to have lived in that precious place, to have seen the most amazing species and to have met the beautiful people that live there.

This post is a reminder that the Pantanal is in constant pressure from agriculture expansion and fires. As is the case of the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest, the Pantanal (and let me include here the Cerrado as well) is in need of international action to be saved (https://lnkd.in/g9GQfHVV).

This week, all eyes are on the COP16, the United Nations Convention on Biological Biodiversity. I hope interest continues after this important event as the biodiversity crisis cannot be ignored! 

October 1st 2024

Just finished reading "Solvable- How we healed the Earth and how we can do it again" by Dr. Susan Solomon.

The book presents some examples of past environmental issues we have experienced and how we have overcome them, given some ideas and insights into how we can also solve the climate change challenge. Dr. Solomon highlights that for a problem to be solvable, it has to be personal and perceptible, and be addressed with practical solutions. It seems like we are on the right track.

Some of the take home messages I got:

- We need to remember that developing countries want and need to develop, so that has to be considered as we decarbonize.

- We need tough recycle rules for alternative energy materials.

- 2050 are so far in the future that actions seem aspirational. What really matters are near-term promises and actions.

- Do nothing because we are not sure about the complete step-by-step route to the finish line is the worst thing we can do.

- The climate change challenge will only be conquered with public engagement. Players of every kind are needed to make climate change solvable.

- It is definitely time to hurry but it is still not too late!!

Want a new job in Science? This cool piece at Nature by Linda Nordling gives you some tips!

Está em busca de um trabalho na área de Ciências?  Dê uma olhada nessas dicas!

Want a new job in science? Six charts to help you land it

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03343-z 

September 20th 2024

I have a passion for seed dispersal, as this topic was the focus of my research for a long time (and the topic of my very first reserch project when I was studying howler monkeys during college).

I have been following the field pretty close along all those years, and this is why this news came as a big surprise to me. I did not know that manatees are seed dispersers in the Amazon! This role was revealed during the 2023 droughts, uncovering manatee feces on the beaches of Lake Amanã.

This discovery presents exciting research opportunities and emphasizes the manatee's significance in maintaining aquatic plant diversity.

Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/gKPkm_jp.

Original article: https://lnkd.in/geYb-JKd 

August 13th 2024

I am happy to share a new comment "Nature-based solutions are essential for climate and health sectors" published today at The Lancet. This piece highlights the importance of bringing nature into the growing climate and health movement.

https://lnkd.in/eRwFceCh

In this piece, we argue that Nature-based Solutions, actions to protect, restore and sustainably manage natural ecosystems to address societal challenges, are critical for this movement to meet its mandate to reduce human morbidity and mortality from climate change.

The health sector can meaningfully engage to enhance uptake of Nature-based solutions through:

- recognizing humanity's interdependence with nature by changing how health professionals are educated; broadening the expertise represented on health teams to also include professionals with backgrounds in fields such as anthropology, ecology, and veterinary medicine and investing more in generalists who can see the big picture;

-advocating for policies that promote Nature-based solutions;

-expanding the evidence base of the health benefits of Nature-based solutions 

July 22nd 2024

When you’re hungry and far from home, you might find yourself being less picky about what you eat.

Not so for birds. The further they are from the core of their habitats, the pickier they get, according to a first-of-its-kind study from Conservation International, the University of Canterbury, Sao Paulo State University- The Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) and others that investigated the feeding behavior of nearly 100 bird species across six continents.

Turns out, birds’ feeding preferences are highly connected to environmental stressors — and changes in their behavior could have major impacts on forests and other critical ecosystems that rely on birds to disperse seeds, said Conservation International climate expert Camila Donatti, a study co-author. 

https://www.conservation.org/blog/new-study-links-birds-diets-to-forest-health 

July 19th 2024

Our paper “ Birds optimize fruit size consumed near their geographic range limits” was published today in Science. The study was led by Dr. Lucas Martins from University of Canterbury and based on a very large dataset of interactions between 97 birds and 831 plant species, many of those collected during my PhD research at the Brazilian Pantanal. https://lnkd.in/gAGY8Pym

Pure ecology research like this one, that involves thousand of hours of field work, is extremely important to help us understand how nature works so we are better equipped to conserve, restore and manage the places we care for:

-The study sheds light on the ways that species interact, how populations within species vary in the use of their habitat and how nature works. Nature is extremely important for climate mitigation and climate adaptation, and pure ecology research like this one is critical to help us better understand and manage places that we care for.

-The study provides insights into how interactions between birds and fruiting species might respond to shifts in geographic range. This is especially important as climate change causes range shifts and contractions, forcing many animals' populations to live near or outside their historic range limits.

-The results can guide our restoration efforts. Plants are key for carbon sequestration, but restoration efforts have to facilitate the movement of seed dispersers for restored sites to function as expected. Also, both the core and the boundaries of the restored area are both likely important in supporting animals that strictly feed on fruits.

July 19th 2024

Science Friday!

Those are the papers that I enjoyed reading his week:

In addition to do good science, we must do pop Science! Agustín Fuentes. We need better and more PopSci by scientists. Science 385,eadq8026(2024). DOI:10.1126/science.adq8026https://lnkd.in/gJJCZhnW

Exposure to more comprehensive evolution teaching improved the probability of accepting evolution in adulthood, but did not affect political beliefs or religiosity. Benjamin W Arold, Evolution vs. Creationism in the Classroom: The Lasting Effects of Science Education, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2024;, qjae019, https://lnkd.in/gNsxUD73

Whereas carbon sink in global forests was steady through time, it has increased in temperate and tropical regrowth forests, but decreased in boreal and tropical intact forests, as a result of intensified disturbances and losses in intact forest area. Pan, Y., Birdsey, R.A., Phillips, O.L. et al. The enduring world forest carbon sink. Nature 631, 563–569 (2024). https://lnkd.in/gxp6sUf3

The magnitude of degradation effects on canopy structure are greater than previously reported, with a 20–80% decrease in canopy height and aboveground biomass density. Bourgoin, C., Ceccherini, G., Girardello, M. et al. Human degradation of tropical moist forests is greater than previously estimated. Nature 631, 570–576 (2024). https://lnkd.in/gtbhSU8j 

July 12th 2024

Science Friday!

Those are the interesting papers I read this week:

Economic demand originating in the more developed Brazilian center-south imposes a much stronger pressure on the Amazon’s deforestation than local (within the Amazon) and foreign export demand. https://lnkd.in/g4DKHfMm

A simple, inexpensive and widely applicable strategy to buffer frogs against fungal diseases in nature: a mini sauna! https://lnkd.in/gw-ZNJB7

The fates of cleared primary forests, immediately after clearing and over time, to track deforestation drivers in Indonesia show that about half of Indonesia’s deforested land had no detectable land use for 5+ years after clearing. https://lnkd.in/gSPaH6EM

A coalition of male lions just set a record: they were observed swimming >1 km across Uganda's Kazinga channel located in the Queen Elizabeth National Park. https://lnkd.in/gWsinjAK

Calcareous termite mounds found in Namaqualand are not only the oldest ever dated (dating 34,000 years and already ancient when woolly mammoths were still around !!) but are also important to sequester CO2 through dissolution and leaching of soil carbonate-bicarbonate to groundwater.

https://lnkd.in/gJqubnAa

“People say we are playing God with our work [of reviving the Tasmanian tiger]. But we played God when we wiped them out. My research is looking at ways to heal lost biodiversity.” https://lnkd.in/gckHwPDp 

June 14th 2024

Today is Science Friday! Lots of interesting papers this week. Below are my favorites:

Hoje é sexta feira científica! Muitas publicações interessantes essa semana. Essas foram as minhas favoritas:

The High seas Treaty, a new agreement that forms part of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea will enable implementation of marine conservation in parts of the ocean that are beyond national jurisdictions, but there is an urgent need to lay the groundwork before the agreement enters into force. Hannah, L. et al. To save the high seas, plan for climate change. Nature 630, 298-301 (2024). doi: https://lnkd.in/gdK5fcpH

Many Species at risk from three of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss—habitat loss, overexploitation for international trade and invasive species appear to lack the appropriate types of conservation interventions. Senior, R.A., Bagwyn, R., Leng, D. et al. Global shortfalls in documented actions to conserve biodiversity. Nature 630, 387–391 (2024). https://lnkd.in/gkPVqhud

52,000-y reconstruction of woolly rhinoceros population dynamics shows that the combination of cooling temperatures and low but sustained hunting by humans trapped woolly rhinoceroses in suboptimal habitats along the southern edge of their range. Fordham, D. et al. 52,000 years of woolly rhinoceros population dynamics reveal extinction mechanisms.  PNAS. 121 (24) e2316419121. https://lnkd.in/gGNetgtq

Climate change is negatively affecting vital social networks for children and exposing them to material and emotional hardship. de Carvalho, T. (2024). The cascading effects of climate change on children: extreme floods, family mobility and child well-being in Amazonia. Climate and Development, 1–9. https://lnkd.in/gk8S9sAX

Hybrid working improved job satisfaction and reduced quit rates, especially for non-managers, female employees and those with long commutes. Bloom, N., Han, R. & Liang, J. Hybrid working from home improves retention without damaging performance. Nature (2024). https://lnkd.in/g8M2JvGj

Companion animals are distinctly positioned to be sentinels of public health, social welfare, and the health of individuals. Sexton C, & Ruple, A. Canine sentinels and our shared exposome. Science p. 1170, 10.1126/science.adl0426 

May 17th 2024

Please see below the text and video about the flooding in Brazil and how nature is essential for climate adaptation. 

Veja abaixo o texto e o vídeo sobre as enchentes no Brasil e como a natureza é essencial para a adaptação e resiliências às mudanças climáticas.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7197363530042372097/

May 8th 2024

It took me several days to get the courage to read the news and see the pictures of the torrential rains that poured over the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in my home country Brazil, last week. And as I was anticipating, the numbers and images are heartbreaking. The state received 70% of the rain typically recorded for the entire month in just 4 days. As of now, 107 people have died, about 150 are missing and over 232,600 were forced to flee their homes. Many are still waiting in the roofs of their flooded homes to be rescued by boat or helicopter. This gives you an idea of how a city may look like. But the floods did not just affect part of one city. They have stretched across 428 of the 497 municipalities of that beautiful state.

In the newspaper The New York Times, Dr. Mercedes Bustamante clearly explains what has happened: "The effects of El Niño have been exacerbated by a mix of climate change, deforestation and haphazard urbanization. You are really looking at a recipe for disaster". Dr. Bustamante continues: "as deforestation advances in the Amazon, and elsewhere in Brazil, precipitation patterns are shifting and leading to more erratic rain patters. As a result, rainfall is coming in torrential downpours over shorter periods."

This should not be treated as normal, but it may become the new normal if we do not implement drastic measures to cut deforestation, mitigate climate change and make our cities more resilient to what is expected to come. 

Infographics in Portuguese: https://media.licdn.com/dms/document/media/D4D1FAQExsrNFfh-tdQ/feedshare-document-pdf-analyzed/0/1715295740563?e=1716422400&v=beta&t=2kcw7EV4FbCVUl9bIHwkgKvHqOL_xO3ra1ytUu11FXc 

******************************

Levei vários dias para ter coragem de ler as notícias e ver as fotos das chuvas torrenciais que caíram sobre o estado do Rio Grande do Sul na semana passada. E como eu esperava, os números e as imagens são de partir o coração. O estado recebeu 70% da chuva normalmente registrada durante todo o mês em apenas 4 dias. Até agora, 107 pessoas morreram, cerca de 150 estão desaparecidas e mais de 232.600 foram forçadas a deixar suas suas casas. Muitos ainda aguardam nos telhados de casas inundadas para serem resgatados de barco ou helicóptero. Isso dá uma ideia da situação. Mas as inundações não afetaram apenas parte de uma cidade. Elas se estenderam por 428 dos 497 municípios daquele lindo estado.

A Dra. Mercedes Bustamante explica claramente o que aconteceu: "Os efeitos do El Niño foram exacerbados por uma mistura de alterações climáticas, desmatamento e urbanização descontrolada. Isso é uma receita para o desastre". Dr. Bustamante continua “a medida que o desmatamento avança na Amazônia e em outras partes do Brasil, os padrões de precipitação começam a mudar. Como resultado, as chuvas chegam de forma torrencial em períodos muito curtos de tempo”.

O que está acontecendo no Rio Grande do Sul não deve ser tratado como normal, mas pode tornar-se o "novo normal" se não implementarmos medidas drásticas para reduzir o desmatamento, mitigar as mudanças climáticas e tornar as nossas cidades mais resilientes ao que está por vir. 

Infografico em Português: https://media.licdn.com/dms/document/media/D4D1FAQExsrNFfh-tdQ/feedshare-document-pdf-analyzed/0/1715295740563?e=1716422400&v=beta&t=2kcw7EV4FbCVUl9bIHwkgKvHqOL_xO3ra1ytUu11FXc 

May 3rd 2024

Science Friday today is dedicated to our study "Global hotspots of climate-related disasters" published today by colleagues from Conservation International, Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.

Take home messages:

➡ Countries with high levels of human development were the least impacted by climate-related disasters.

➡ Countries in Africa showed an increase in the percentage of people impacted by climate-related disasters through time, despite a decrease in the number of climate-related disaster events.

✔ Climate change adaptation interventions are critically needed especially in developing countries.

✔ Nature-based Solutions could be important interventions to help people adapt to the impacts of climate change, especially in areas of low human development and where people have experienced high and very high climate impacts

Here you  can find the the blog and the press release 

Here you can find the paper: https://lnkd.in/g3XrswTk

********************************************

A sexta-feira cientifica de hoje é dedicada ao nosso estudo "Hotspots globais de impactos relacionados às mudanças climáticas", publicado hoje por colegas da Conservation International, da Université Catholique de Louvain na Bélgica e da King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) na Arábia Saudita.

Mensagens:

➡ Os países com níveis altos de desenvolvimento humano foram os menos impactados pelas catástrofes relacionadas com o clima.

➡ Os países da África registaram um aumento na percentagem de pessoas impactadas por catástrofes relacionadas com o clima ao longo do tempo, apesar de uma diminuição no número de catástrofes climáticas.

✔ As intervenções de adaptação às mudanças climáticas são extremamente necessárias, especialmente nos países em desenvolvimento.

✔ As soluções baseadas na natureza podem ser intervenções importantes para ajudar as pessoas a adaptarem-se aos impactos das mudanças climáticas, especialmente em áreas com baixo desenvolvimento. 

Aqui você encontra o  blog e o press release 

Paper pode ser baixado aqui: https://lnkd.in/g3XrswTk

March 8th  2024

Today is Science Friday! Here are the papers that I enjoyed reading this and last week:

A quantitative framework for identifying the role of individual species in Nature's Contributions to People - Bianco - 2024 - Ecology Letters - Wiley

Online Library

A diverse portfolio of marine protected areas can better advance global conservation and equity | PNAS

Tropical field stations yield high conservation return on investment: https://lnkd.in/gRWAiu7D

Conflicts and opportunities for commercial tree plantation expansion and biodiversity restoration across Brazil: Global Change Biology | Environmental Change Journal | Wiley Online Library

Today is also International Women’s Day! Even though we have made some progress to close the gender gap, and (I believe) have come to an understanding that we are stronger together, leading to more collaboration than competition among females in the workplace (at least that is my experience!), we still have a long way to go 👇 (note that all the papers that I highlighted above are led by male scientists)...

Nature publishes too few papers from women researchers — that must change

https://lnkd.in/ggpS4JY9 

February16th  2024

Today is Science Friday. I must confess that the take home messages of some of the papers below are not what I would like to be sharing today. But we must be aware of what is happening, and what could happen, to do all we can, individually and collectively, to change the course of climate change and biodiversity loss. I believe we can do it!

Hoje é sexta-feira científica. Devo confessar que as mensagens de alguns dos artigos abaixo não são o que eu gostaria de compartilhar hoje. Mas devemos estar conscientes do que está acontencendo do que poderá acontecer, para fazermos tudo o que estiver ao nosso alcance, individual e colectivamente, para mudar o curso das alterações climáticas e da perda de biodiversidade. Acredito que podemos fazer isso!

A few millimeters of rain, instead of the usual 500mm, 6oC above average, river bedrocks believed to be last exposed 1,000 years ago, and far reaching and devasting consequences to species and people. This was the reality of the Amazon River in 2023, but scientists predict that those extreme droughts and floodings will be the new norm:

https://lnkd.in/gAc2HR2D

By 2050, 10% to 47% of Amazonian forests will be exposed to compounding disturbances that may trigger unexpected ecosystem transitions and potentially exacerbate regional climate change:

Flores, B.M., Montoya, E., Sakschewski, B. et al. Critical transitions in the Amazon forest system. Nature 626, 555–564 (2024). https://lnkd.in/gx2YbunN 

Tree planting as part of restoration initiatives is widespread across nonforest systems: https://lnkd.in/gTTEwmKZ 

Whereas humans were an important driver of the extinction of the European bison in the wild, vast areas of its range vanished during the Pleistocene– Holocene transition because of post-glacial environmental change. Those areas should therefore not be considered in reintroduction efforts: Pilowsky JA et al. 2023 Millennial processes of population decline, range contraction and near extinction of the European bison. Proc. R. Soc. B 290: 20231095. https://lnkd.in/gwVeZSNX

And finally, a bit of good news:

Assemblages of bird species in revegetation diverged away from those in unrestored farmland and converged toward those in remnant native vegetation:

Haslem A. et al. 2024. Temporal dynamics in the composition of bird communities along a gradient of farmland restoration. Ecological Applications. 2024;e2947 https://lnkd.in/gMfdKgYx 

February  2nd 2024

Happy "Science Friday"! Here are the articles that I enjoyed reading this week. What about you?

Feliz "sexta-feira científica"! Aqui estão os artigos que eu gostei de ler essa semana. Você tem alguns para sugerir?

Climate change may increase the conflicts between humans and both African and Asian elephants due to projected human population growth, agriculture expansion and expected decrease in future suitability for elephants:

Garnieri, M., Kumaishi, G., Brock C., Chaterjee M., Fabiano E., Katrak-Adefowora R., Larsen A., Lockmann, T.,Roehrdanz, P.R. Effects of climate, land use, and human population change on human–elephant conflict risk in Africa and Asia. PNAS 121 (6) e231256912 (2024). https://lnkd.in/gi4X6vcQ.

The presence of an invasive ant affected the mutualism between native ants and whistling-thorn tree, making trees more vulnerable to elephant browsing, creating a landscape with less trees and more visibility, decreasing zebra kills by lions:

Douglas N. Kamaru et al. Disruption of an ant-plant mutualism shapes interactions between lions and their primary prey. Science 383,433-438(2024) https://lnkd.in/gyn62sWu

In addition to all the negative impacts of climate change, one more has emerged, the “extinction of experience”, the progressive loss of direct sensory interactions that people have with nature:

Soga, M., Gaston, K.J. Extinction of experience due to climate change. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2024). https://lnkd.in/gRrn8mQ2

Five fundamental principles have been outlined for Natural Climate Solutions that can be used to identify those worthy of support:

Ellis, P.W., Page, A.M., Wood, S. et al. The principles of natural climate solutions. Nat Commun 15, 547 (2024). https://lnkd.in/g_J_DZh4

Changes in plant communities and an increase in open forest environment are believed to have driven the largest ever primate to extinction:

Zhang, Y., Westaway, K.E., Haberle, S. et al. The demise of the giant ape Gigantopithecus blacki. Nature 625, 535–539 (2024). https://lnkd.in/gGRXcuiB 

January  16th 2024

Happy Friday everyone! 

And today is "Science Friday"! Here are the articles that I enjoyed reading this week. What about you?

Feliz sexta-feira! Dia de "sexta-feira científica"! Aqui estão os artigos que eu gostei de ler essa semana. E você, gostaria de compartilhar alguns?

S. Pironon et al. The global distribution of plants used by humans. Science 383,293-297(2024).DOI:10.1126/science.adg8028

Sietsma, A.J., Ford, J.D. & Minx, J.C. The next generation of machine learning for tracking adaptation texts. Nat. Clim. Chang. 14, 31–39 (2024). https://lnkd.in/g5dK59zP.

Rohini Pande. Fixing forest carbon credits. Science 383, eadn 4923 (2024). DOI:10.1126/science.adn4923

Tye, S.P., Fey, S.B., Gibert, J.P. et al. Predator mass mortality events restructure food webs through trophic decoupling. Nature (2024). https://lnkd.in/g2uwBiPP.

And a bonus:

Audrey G. Rowe et al.A female woolly mammoth’s lifetime movements end in an ancient Alaskan hunter-gatherer camp.Sci. Adv.10, eadk0818 (2024). DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adk0818 

January  15th 2024

I am so very happy to share the results of one of the projects I have been working all for several years The project“ Sustainable landscapes in Eastern Madagascar”, implemented by CI-Madagascar and supported by the Green Climate Fund, aims to increase the resilience of smallholder farmers and reduce carbon emissions by implementing climate-smart agriculture and more sustainable forest management in two landscapes around protected areas, the Ankeniheny-Zahamena Forest Corridor (CAZ) and the Ambositra-Vondrozo Forest Corridor (COFAV). These two corridors are the remaining large blocks of forest in the Eastern part of Madagascar. This project was the first GCF project on climate adaptation in Africa and the very first CI project supported by the Green Climate Fund.

Today, we just published the project’s midline impact assessment report, an effort of multiple divisions within CI and multiple organizations, including CI-Madagascar, the Moore Center for Science, the Center for Natural Climate Solutions, the Independent Evaluation Unit of the Green Climate Fund and the Center for Evaluation and Development. This report summarizes the results of the most comprehensive impact evaluation of Nature-based Solutions on climate adaptation done to date.

And here blog associated with this report.

January  9th 2024

Happy 2024 everyone!

This year, I will start a series of "Science Friday" posts, to share with you the interesting scientific publications and articles on conservation, biodiversity and climate change that I read during the week. Here are the ones I read this week (sorry that some cannot be accessed by everyone--they are not open access, which is a big problem, but this is for another post...):

Este ano, iniciarei uma série de posts chamados “Sexta-feira científica”, para compartilhar algumas publicações científicas e artigos sobre conservação, biodiversidade e mudanças climáticas que li durante a semana. Aqui estão os que li esta semana (desculpem que alguns não possam ser acessados ​​por todos - não são de acesso aberto, o que é um grande problema, mas isso fica para outro post...):

Deevesh A. Hemraj et al. Nature protection must precede restoration.Science383,158-158(2024).DOI:10.1126/science.adn0543

Van Nes, E.H., et al., A tiny fraction of all species forms most of nature: Rarity as a sticky state. PNAS. https://lnkd.in/g7hFfZbw

Neugarten, R.A., Chaplin-Kramer, R., Sharp, R.P. et al. Mapping the planet’s critical areas for biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. Nat Commun 15, 261 (2024). https://lnkd.in/gxfaiyMe

Renato A. F. de Lima et al. ,Comprehensive conservation assessments reveal high extinction risks across Atlantic Forest trees.Science383,219-225(2024).DOI:10.1126/science.abq5099

Allan, R.P et al., An even drier future for the arid lands

https://lnkd.in/g4pyfBHy

And a bonus:

If you want something done right, do it yourself: the scientists who build their own tools. https://lnkd.in/gazgiZUP 

July 24th 2023

Those are my highlights from the participation at the Women Innovators & Leaders Development (WILD) Network's Women in Global Development Leadership Forum. The forum took place virtually 3-4 May 2023.

• Key leadership competency 

• Having a vision and a purpose, and communicate it clearly, gives you power. 

• "It is not that other’s purposes and goals are more important than yours, is that they sell it better than you." 

• Coaching for career development 

• Career coaching, and do it consistently, is an important tool to reflect on your career trajectory and to identify a way forward.

• Limiting beliefs and assumptions can affect our career 

• burnout is related to the way we see ourselves as leaders.

• Very common for women to think that, to be a leader, the work needs to be perfect, that we have to always be available, that I have to help out 

• The recommendation is then to pay attention at those behaviors and really say "no" when you feel like you have too much on your plate—which allows us to see that something needs to change before it gets too late 

• Latest on DEI issues

• the term used now is EDIA- equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. 

• Be aware and careful about "The Illusion of inclusion"—people are hired and placed in less powerful influential positions.

• I learned a new term: intersectional leadership is considering, being aware of and listening to the experiences of employees who belong to multiple social groups rather than relying on categorization only, such as gender and race 

• Intersectionality is not just by seen, but also about listening and not assuming that people that belong to a specific group would behave in a specific way 

• The importance of supporting each other 

• Importance of sponsors, which are senior people that speak highly of you 

• The conference last year and this year really opened my eyes to the importance of supporting each other, which can be done by checking on your female colleagues and setting up a women's network in your organization, team or research group.

Starting the new year with good news for nature! The United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) ended in Montreal, Canada, on 19 December 2022 with a landmark agreement to guide global action on nature through to 2030. The COP 15 resulted in the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) on the very last day of negotiations, which includes 23 targets such as:

• Effective conservation and management of at least 30% of the world’s land, coastal areas and oceans ( 17% of land and 8% per cent of marine areas are currently under protection)

• Restoration of 30 % of terrestrial and marine ecosystems

• Reduce to near zero the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance and high ecological integrity

• Halving global food waste

• Phasing out or reforming subsidies that harm biodiversity by at least $500 billion per year, while scaling up 

• Mobilizing at least $200 billion per year from public and private sources for biodiversity-related funding

• Raising international financial flows from developed to developing countries to at least US$ 30 billion per year

• Requiring transnational companies and financial institutions to monitor, assess, and transparently disclose risks and impacts on biodiversity through their operations, portfolios, supply and value chains

Everybody is hopeful, but we need to pay attention to and demand that those targets are in fact implemented by all committed in the next few years. More information here: https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/cop15-ends-landmark-biodiversity-agreement 

•Tone of negotiations was one of urgency, as it is very unlikely that the agreed global goal on climate mitigation of the Paris Agreement to limit climate warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial levels will be achieved.

•Parties committed to increase efforts toward achieving this goal --this will require 43% reductions in emissions from 2019 levels by 2030!!!!

•Th negotiations brought us some good news: Countries were able to come to an agreement to establish a loss and damage fund-- a fund established to help those that have suffered the impacts of climate change the most

•The Glasgow-Sharm-el-Sheikh (GLASS) work programme was not able to define the global goal on climate adaptation

•Momentum to mobilize adaptation finance and increase implementation will likely come at CO28, in 2023

•Importance of nature for climate change was highlighted in many fronts

COP27 stands for the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, an annual meeting  of delegates from almost every country on Earth to negotiate global goals for tackling climate change, present their individual countries’ plans for contributing to those goals, and report on their progress. 

This 27th meeting will be held next week (November 6-18)  Egypt. During this meeting, countries will need to discuss and decide on how they are going to accomplish the goals they have set as part of the Paris Agreement.

This year, the meeting is expected to discuss a lot of issues related to climate change adaptation including the global goal on adaptation, and how countries can track their achievements regarding that. Nature is a very important ally in climate adaptation. Habitats like coral reefs, mangroves and wetlands greatly reduce the impacts of  storms, floods and erosion, helping protect coastal communities. Making space for nature within cities can reduce dangerous heatwaves and soak up flood waters.  

Yet nature-based solutions receive less than 10% percent of all climate funding. As countries update their climate plans following the COP, I really hope that Nature is put at the forefront of the discussions, not only for climate mitigation, but also for climate adaptation. More reports on that to come!

If you want to know more, please check our brief here.

October 16th 2022

Climate change is real, and the consequences of it are just going downhill from now on. But if you are not a policy maker or the owner of a large company, what can you do about climate change? 

Basically, anything that can be done to protect the environment and to reduce your energy consumption can be done to fight climate change:

• drive less and bike or commute more: non-electric cars are a huge source of greenhouse gases

• turn off lights when you are not using them and adjust your thermostat: energy generation emits a large chunk of the greenhouse gases by burning fossil fuel.

• save water: pump, heat and treat water uses a lot of energy, which is reflected in high greenhouse emissions

• Do not waste food: 25% of the food produced in the planet is wasted, but food production emits a lot of greenhouse gases 

• eat less red meat: red meat is often produced in ways that causes deforestation and degradation of natural ecosystems, which are our allies in removing CO2, an important greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere

• buy products with less packaging: many products use a lot of unnecessary packaging, which requires energy to be produced

• buy local products or those that are already available in local stores: the production of packaging material and transportation are huge sources of greenhouse gas emissions

• recycle your trash: producing new packaging, such as plastic and paper produce a lot more greenhouse gases than making them from recycled materials.

• buy less: the fashion industry is one of the most important sources of greenhouse emissions, bigger than the aviation and shipping industries combined!

• talk about climate change and educate others on the list above! Remember that ordinary people can do extraordinary things!!

September 20th 2022

Throughout my life, I have had some insights on personal and professional development that may be helpful for professionals of every field:

1. Identify your true purpose and interests

2. Be authentic to them

3. Build your network and cultivate it 

4. Find mentors that can support and push you forward, and cultivate those relationships

5. Understand that the "NOs" you receive just mean “not yet”

6. Provide mentorship and volunteer your time to causes that you care

7. Open your mind to new ideas, and make connections that other people do not see

8. Never stop studying and learning

9. Be consistent 

10. Do not forget that is never too late to (re)start and to change

11. Remember that, unfortunately, no one (with exception of your family members) will fight for you 

12. You do not need to compete to be successful