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A forma com que a sociedade se apropria dos recursos naturais complexifica e fragiliza a resiliência dos ecossistemas, acelerando a degradação do seu próprio meio. A paisagem brasileira dos Mares de Morros é formada por uma cadeia de montanhas pertencentes ao Planalto Atlântico, abrangendo 13 estados brasileiros. Se, por um lado, a topografia declivosa limita a mecanização, aumentando as fragilidades socioeconômicas, por outro, intensifica os riscos de degradação ambiental, sobretudo quando associada ao sobrepastoreio do gado. Esta pesquisa revisou 748 documentos acadêmicos e não acadêmicos produzidos entre 1963 e 2020, com o objetivo de sintetizar a origem, a evolução e a sustentabilidade dos Mares de Morros, a fim de que esses conhecimentos sejam aplicados na produção sustentável de alimentos. A pesquisa realizada sinaliza que a falta de conhecimento do contexto dos processos históricos dessa paisagem contribuiu para intensificar o ciclo de degradação antropogênica, sendo a matriz extrativo-agroexportadora dos recursos naturais adotada pelos sistemas produtivos considerada como seu principal vetor. Também foi identificada a existência de sistemas de produção modernos e inteligentes, capazes de iniciar um novo ciclo produtivo e sustentável para essa paisagem, mesmo em terras não mecanizáveis, que trazem uma perspectiva positiva para a reversão desse cenário.

The complete or partial collapse of the forests of Amazonia is consistently named as one of the top ten possible tipping points of Planet Earth in a changing climate. However, apart from a few observational studies that showed increased mortality after the severe droughts of 2005 and 2010, the evidence for such collapse depends primarily on modelling. Such studies are notoriously deficient at predicting the rainfall in the Amazon basin and how the vegetation interacts with the rainfall is poorly represented. Here, we use long-term surface-based observations of the air temperature and rainfall in Amazonia to provide a constraint on the modelled sensitivity of temperature to changes in precipitation. This emergent constraint also allows us to significantly constrain the likelihood of a forest collapse or dieback. We conclude that Amazon dieback under IPCC scenario RCP8.5 (crossing the tipping point) is not likely to occur in the twenty-first century.

Amazonian environments are being degraded by modern industrial and agricultural activities at a pace far above anything previously known, imperiling its vast biodiversity reserves and globally important ecosystem services. The most substantial threats come from regional deforestation, because of export market demands, and global climate change. The Amazon is currently perched to transition rapidly from a largely forested to a nonforested landscape. These changes are happening much too rapidly for Amazonian species, peoples, and ecosystems to respond adaptively. Policies to prevent the worst outcomes are known and must be enacted immediately. We now need political will and leadership to act on this information. To fail the Amazon is to fail the biosphere, and we fail to act at our peril.

Global climate change, the conversion of large areas of tropical forest to agriculture and rangelands, and forest degradation driven by wildfires are pushing the Amazon towards irreversible thresholds, often called tipping points. We need an immediate deforestation moratorium in areas more likely to cross a tipping point (e.g., Southern Amazon), and in protected areas and Indigenous territories; so that there is zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2030.

Territorios indígenas (ITs, en sus siglas en inglés) en la Amazonia protegen aproximadamente 24,GtC sobre el suelo, funcionan como barreras significativas contra la deforestación y la degradación del bosque, y sirven como una defensa importante contra el cambio climático. Los ITs demarcados tienen significativamente menos deforestación en comparación con tierras no reconocidas, demostrando la importancia de demarcar ITs para proteger los sustentos y la cultura de los indígenas Amazónicos y para conservar sus bosques y ríos.

Global climate change, the conversion of large areas of tropical forest to agriculture and rangelands, and forest degradation driven by wildfires are pushing the Amazon towards irreversible thresholds, often called tipping points. We need an immediate deforestation moratorium in areas more likely to cross a tipping point (e.g., Southern Amazon), and in protected areas and Indigenous territories; so that there is zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2030.

Territórios Indígenas (TIs) na Amazônia protegem aproximadamente 24.5 gigatoneladas de carbono (GtC) acima do solo, atuam como barreiras significativas contra o desmatamento e a degradação florestal, e funcionam como importantes amortecedores contra as mudanças climáticas. TIs demarcadas apresentam desmatamento significativamente menor do que terras não reconhecidas oficialmente, demonstrando a importância de se demarcar TIs tanto para proteger os meios de subsistência e as culturas dos povos nativos da Amazônia, quanto para conservar suas florestas e rios.

In recent years, the area affected by forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon has frequently been higher than deforestation. From August 2006 to July 2019, the degraded area totaled 194,058 km

The impact of natural hazards on nations and societies is a global challenge and concern. Studies worldwide have been conducted within and among countries, to examine the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of fatalities and their consequences in societies. In Brazil, no studies have comprehensively identified fatalities associated with all natural hazards and their singularities by decade, region, sex, age, and other victim characteristics. This study develops a deep analysis on the Brazilian Data Mortality of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, from 1979 to 2019, identifying the natural hazards that kill the greatest number of people in Brazil and its surrounding particularities. Lightning is the deadliest natural hazard in Brazil during this period, with a gradual decrease in the number of fatal victims. Hydrogeological fatalities increases from 2000, and the most fatalities develop from 2010 to 2019. Despite Brazil being a tropical country affected by severe droughts, extreme heat had the lowest number of fatalities, almost irrelevant when compared with that of other natural hazards. The period from December to March is with the higher number of fatalities, and the Southeast region is the most populous regions were the most are fatally affected. The number of male victims is double that of female victims, of all ages, and unmarried victims died the most. Thus, it is fundamental to recognize and make public the knowledge of different natural hazards’ impacts on communities and societies, namely people and their livelihoods, to evaluate challenges and recognize opportunities to reduce natural hazards’ impacts on Brazil.

Historically, during periods of extreme drought, food security in the drylands of the semiarid region of Northeast Brazil (NEB) is under severe risk due to agricultural collapse. The drought that started in 2012 continues to highlight the vulnerability of this region, and arid conditions have been detected during the last years mainly in the central semiarid region, covering almost 2% of the NEB. Climate projections show an increase in the area under water stress condition, covering 49% and 54% of the NEB region by 2700 and 2100, respectively, with a higher likelihood with warming above 4 °C. The projections of vegetative stress conditions derived from the empirical model for Vegetation Health Index (VHI) are consistent with projections from vegetation models, where semi-desert types typical of arid conditions would replace the current semiarid bushland vegetation (“caatinga”) by 2100. Due to the impacts of the 2012–2017 drought, public policies have been implemented to reduce social and economic vulnerability for small farmers but are not enough as poor population continues to be affected. In the long term, to make the semiarid less vulnerable to drought, strengthened integrated water resources management and a proactive drought policy are needed to restructure the economy. Integrating drought monitoring and seasonal climate forecasting provides means of assessing impacts of climate variability and change, leading to disaster risk reduction through early warning. Lastly, there is an urgent need for integrated assessments because the possibility that under permanent drought conditions with warming above 4 °C, arid conditions would prevail in NEB since 2060.

The element phosphorus total (Pt) is considered a basic element for life on earth. It controls key processes of CO2 absorption from tropical forests to food production. For the Amazon region, estimates of Pt in the soil are scarce. In this study, we developed models through equations of pedotransfer function (PTF's) using data collected in the field (RAINFOR data). Were generated 16 regression models based on the Akaike information criteria (AIC) with R² above 65% was validated with independent RAINFOR data. The results Pt distribution were spatialized using interpolations by geostatistical method of inverse distance weights (IDW) and shown through maps.

A central constituent of the ATTO project is the deployment of an array of sonic anemometers to measure vertical profiles of means and second-order moments of the wind velocity vector. The two instruments used are the Campbell Scientific Instruments CSAT-3B and the Thies Ultrasonic Anemometer 3D. The accuracy of the vertical profiles of turbulent quantities critically depensds on an absence of bias between the measurement levels; however, dedicated intercomparisons of the sonic anemometers used in ATTO have not been previously performed. The main objective of the experiment was to check how close the sonic anemometers designated to be installed respond to the same atmospheric conditions, and to develop confidence in interpreting the measured data.

The Amazon is hypothesized to reach an irreversible ‘tipping point’ when deforestation slows the hydrological cycle sufficiently that tropical forest ecosystems cannot be sustained. However, inception of such a tipping point has not been supported by observations and the relevant links between deforestation and atmospheric moisture recycling are poorly understood. Here we show that reduction in evapotranspiration from 20 years of deforestation dried the atmosphere persistently and caused moisture decoupling, i.e. an opposite sign of moisture change between the lower and middle troposphere. Increased deforestation exacerbated the lower troposphere drying and caused it to penetrate deeper into the middle troposphere in the dry and transition seasons over monsoon forests and savannas. Deforestation induced warming-enhanced buoyant updrafts, elevated hot and dry air and thereby reduced downward mixing of water supplies from the tropical Atlantic that normally moisten the Amazon forests. The severe atmospheric desiccation in the southern and eastern Amazon cannot be compensated by enhanced water supplies from the Atlantic Ocean, demonstrating an irreversible transition in Amazon hydrological cycle exacerbated by rapid deforestation. The more recent drying through the seasons over rainforests and during the wet season over the transition zones from rainforests to monsoon forests and savannas, however, suggests a window of opportunity for preventing ecosystem collapse with forest conservation.

Losses in agricultural production, mainly caused by extreme temperature, rainfall and drought, have demanded the adaptation of the Brazilian agriculture to the ongoing climate change. This study aimed to evaluate, through an integrative review, the effects of agricultural practices established by two Brazilian public policies (ABC Plan and Planaveg) on the resilience and adaptation of the country’s agricultural systems, considering the effects on local climate and extreme events. All the Embrapa library collections were used as main sources, and the Google Scholar was used as a secondary source. The search included publications from 1998 to April 2022 and resulted in 334 data, extracted from 51 references, covering at least one factor and one practice. The review showed that the proposed practices may contribute to the resilience and adaptation of the Brazilian agricultural and forestry sectors to climate change in the main production regions. Studies have indicated that the incorporation of the arboreal component into production systems may provide an environment more resilient to droughts, increased air humidity, reduced temperature impact and reduced fire risks, among other benefits. The adoption of the ABC Plan and Planaveg practices by the agricultural sector is an option feasible, strategic and well-aligned with a low-carbon economy, while it increases the resilience to present and future climate change impacts.

The relationships between deforestation and non-timber forest products (NTFPs) supply chains are investigated in 532 municipalities throughout the Brazilian Amazon. The NTFP production of acai berry (Euterpe spp.), andiroba (Carapa spp.), Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl.), and tonka bean (Dipteryx spp.) has reduced with increasing deforestation rates (p

Discutimos as articulações federativas verticais e horizontais em contextos metropolitanos, partindo da problemática do “lugar” da metrópole frente ao sistema federativo brasileiro. Se, por um lado, municípios que integram regiões metropolitanas se articulam verticalmente com governos estaduais e Federal; por outro lado, estes mesmos municípios se desarticulam horizontalmente. O resultado seria a fragmentação e desintegração da metrópole. Advogamos a necessidade de uma solidariedade institucional a partir das dinâmicas internas à metrópole, ao tempo em que propomos repensar outra configuração federativa para enfrentamento dos problemas metropolitanos.

Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects biophysical systems and human well-being. The Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change entered into force in 2016 with the objective of strengthening the global response to climate change by keeping global temperature rise this century well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 °C. The agreement requires all Parties to submit their “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. Reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is an important strategy for mitigating climate change, particularly in developing countries with large forests. Extensive tropical forest loss and degradation have increased awareness at the international level of the need to undertake large-scale ecological restoration, highlighting the need to identify cases in which restoration strategies can contribute to mitigation and adaptation. Here we consider Brazil as a case study to evaluate the benefits and challenges of implementing large-scale restoration programs in developing countries. The Brazilian NDC included the target of restoring and reforesting 12 million hectares of forests for multiple uses by 2030. Restoration of native vegetation is one of the foundations of sustainable rural development in Brazil and should consider multiple purposes, from biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation to social and economic development. However, ecological restoration still presents substantial challenges for tropical and mega-diverse countries, including the need to develop plans that are technically and financially feasible, as well as public policies and monitoring instruments that can assess effectiveness. The planning, execution, and monitoring of restoration efforts strongly depend on the context and the diagnosis of the area with respect to reference ecosystems (e.g., forests, savannas, grasslands, wetlands). In addition, poor integration of climate change policies at the national and subnational levels and with other sectorial policies constrains the large-scale implementation of restoration programs. The case of Brazil shows that slowing deforestation is possible; however, this analysis highlights the need for increased national commitment and international support for actions that require large-scale transformations of the forest sector regarding ecosystem restoration efforts. Scaling up the ambitions and actions of the Paris Agreement implies the need for a global framework that recognizes landscape restoration as a cost-effective nature-based solution and that supports countries in addressing their remaining needs, challenges, and barriers.

The performance of the coupled ocean–atmosphere component of the Brazilian Earth System Model version 2.5 (BESM-OA2.5) was evaluated in simulating the historical period 1850–2005. After a climate model validation procedure in which the main atmospheric and oceanic variabilities were evaluated against observed and reanalysis datasets, the evaluation specifically focused on the mean climate state and the most important large-scale climate variability patterns simulated in the historical run, which was forced by the observed greenhouse gas concentration. The most significant upgrades in the model's components are also briefly presented here. BESM-OA2.5 could reproduce the most important large-scale variabilities, particularly over the Atlantic Ocean (e.g., the North Atlantic Oscillation, the Atlantic Meridional Mode, and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation), and the extratropical modes that occur in both hemispheres. The model's ability to simulate such large-scale variabilities supports its usefulness for seasonal climate prediction and in climate change studies.

Humid tropical forests play a dominant role in the functioning of Earth but are under increasing threat from changes in land use and climate. How forest vulnerability varies across space and time and what level of stress forests can tolerate before facing a tipping point are poorly understood. Here, we develop a tropical forest vulnerability index (TFVI) to detect and evaluate the vulnerability of global tropical forests to threats across space and time. We show that climate change together with land-use change have slowed the recovery rate of forest carbon cycling. Temporal autocorrelation, as an indicator of this slow recovery, increases substantially for above-ground biomass, gross primary production, and evapotranspiration when climate stress reaches a critical level. Forests in the Americas exhibit extensive vulnerability to these stressors, while in Africa, forests show relative resilience to climate, and in Asia reveal more vulnerability to land use and fragmentation. TFVI can systematically track the response of tropical forests to multiple stressors and provide early-warning signals for regions undergoing critical transitions.

This study demonstrates that the economic activity of the Amazon's natural forest has great potential yet to be developed when considering Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) and those coming from agro-ecosystems (SAFs). Preliminary financial analyzes, in systems that are still incipient, point to a great potential for profitability of these alternative systems compared to traditional activities such as soybean and livestock farming, with the advantage of being conducted without degradation and deforestation, allowing the continuation with the support of the Amazonian ecological system. More research is needed to scale successful cases and more “dialogue” between the models of modern agriculture and the traditional knowledge to reach an integrated natural forest management system.

Under the Amazon Third Way paradigm and its implementation strategy Amazon 4.0 the Amazon Creative Labs (ACL) were conceived, as a tool for training and for testing proposed concepts. Amazon 4.0 is an attempt to show that it is possible to achieve a stage of high human development combined with valuing of tropical forest through knowledge. This study demonstrates how to add value to value chains of the immense Amazon biodiversity and how to enable Amazonian populations to master bio-industrialization technologies of forest assets. The following example deals with the potential to develop bio-industries in the value chain of two forest products with high potential: cupuaçu and cocoa through the development of the so-called ACL. This will serve as an important experiment to guide several proposals being elaborated by the Scientific Panel for the Amazon.

Considering the size of the Amazon region and the need for studies to establish soil trace metal concentrations in natural environments, the objective of this work was to evaluate heavy metal contents in a toposequence of an Amazon State microbasin. Soil samples were collected in three native forest topographic positions. Samples were opened for analysis by two methods: exchangeable cations were determined by the silver thiourea method and total metal elements by sulfuric acid. The metals were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. In general, it was observed low concentration of several elements considered essential to plant growth in the studied soils, indicating low concentration in the source material of these soils and the intense weathering leaching. The higher concentrations of heavy metals found in the Plateau / Shed areas may be related to clay soils and more acidic pH than other topographies. Exchangeable Al was found at higher concentrations, while Na was the element with the lowest concentration. Total metallic elements presented higher availability potential in the Plateau / Shed areas, except for B, Cr, Mo and Ni. These differences justify the development of regionalized studies for heavy metals in soils appropriate to the conditions of each environment.

We review the consequences of environmental changes caused by human activities on forest products and forest-dependent communities in the Amazon region—the vast Amazonas River basin and the Guiana Shield in South America. We used the 2018 and 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and recent scientific studies to present evidence and hypotheses for changes in the ecosystem productivity and geographical distribution of plants species. We have identified species associated with highly employed forest products exhibiting reducing populations, mainly linked with deforestation and selective logging. Changes in species composition along with a decline of valuable species have been observed in the eastern, central, and southern regions of the Brazilian Amazon, suggesting accelerated biodiversity loss. Over 1 billion native trees and palms are being lost every two years, causing economic losses estimated between US$1–17 billion. A decrease in native plant species can be abrupt and both temporary or persistent for over 20 years, leading to reduced economic opportunities for forest-dependent communities. Science and technology investments are considered promising in implementing agroforestry systems recovering deforested and degraded lands, which could engage companies that use forest products due to supply chain advantages.

Providing food and other products to a growing human population while safeguarding natural ecosystems and the provision of their services is a significant scientific, social and political challenge. With food demand likely to double over the next four decades, anthropization is already driving climate change and is the principal force behind species extinction, among other environmental impacts. The sustainable intensification of production on current agricultural lands has been suggested as a key solution to the competition for land between agriculture and natural ecosystems. However, few investigations have shown the extent to which these lands can meet projected demands while considering biophysical constraints. Here we investigate the improved use of existing agricultural lands and present insights into avoiding future competition for land. We focus on Brazil, a country projected to experience the largest increase in agricultural production over the next four decades and the richest nation in terrestrial carbon and biodiversity. Using various models and climatic datasets, we produced the first estimate of the carrying capacity of Brazil's 115 million hectares of cultivated pasturelands. We then investigated if the improved use of cultivated pasturelands would free enough land for the expansion of meat, crops, wood and biofuel, respecting biophysical constraints (i.e., terrain, climate) and including climate change impacts. We found that the current productivity of Brazilian cultivated pasturelands is 32–34% of its potential and that increasing productivity to 49–52% of the potential would suffice to meet demands for meat, crops, wood products and biofuels until at least 2040, without further conversion of natural ecosystems. As a result up to 14.3Gt CO2 Eq could be mitigated. The fact that the country poised to undergo the largest expansion of agricultural production over the coming decades can do so without further conversion of natural habitats provokes the question whether the same can be true in other regional contexts and, ultimately, at the global scale.