April 19th  2024

Today is Science Friday! But it will be a bit different. I want to give all the attention to an important study published this week by my colleagues Carolina Bello and Marco Aurélio Pizo, and conducted in my home state of São Paulo in Brazil. This study features two topics that I very much care about: seed dispersal and climate change.

The message in the paper is clear: restored forests will not achieve high diversity and carbon sequestration potential when the movement of seed dispersers is limited. It is therefore critical that restoration projects consider and work to also restore diverse plant–frugivore interactions, such as those between large birds and large-seeded trees.

https://lnkd.in/gYw3YPz8 

Hoje é sexta-feira científica! Mas essa será um pouco diferente. Quero dar toda a atenção a um importante estudo publicado esta semana pelos meus colegas Carolina Bello e Marco Aurélio Pizo, no meu estado natal, São Paulo, Brasil. Este estudo apresenta doi tópicos que muito me interessam: dispersão de sementes e mudanças climáticas.

A mensagem é clara: as florestas restauradas não alcançarão uma diversidade alte e um alto potencial de sequestro de carbono enquanto o movimento dos dispersores de sementes for limitado nessas áreas. É, portanto, fundamental que os projetos de restauração considerem e trabalhem para também restaurar as diversas interações entre plantas e frugívoros, como as entre aves de grande porte e árvores com sementes grandes. 

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