Anthropogenic disturbance in tropical forests can double biodiversity loss from deforestation.

Concerted political attention has focused on reducing deforestation, and this remains the cornerstone of most biodiversity conservation strategies. However, maintaining forest cover may not reduce anthropogenic forest disturbances, which are rarely considered in conservation programmes. These disturbances occur both within forests, including selective logging and wildfires, and at the landscape level, through edge, area and isolation effects. Until now, the combined effect of anthropogenic disturbance on the conservation value of remnant primary forests has remained unknown, making it impossible to assess the relative importance of forest disturbance and forest loss. Here we address these knowledge gaps using a large data set of plants, birds and dung beetles (1,538, 460 and 156 species, respectively) sampled in 36 catchments in the Brazilian state of Pará. Catchments retaining more than 69­80% forest cover lost more conservation value from disturbance than from forest loss. For example, a 20% loss of primary forest, the maximum level of deforestation allowed on Amazonian properties under Brazil's Forest Code, resulted in a 39­54% loss of conservation value: 96­171% more than expected without considering disturbance effects. We extrapolated the disturbance-mediated loss of conservation value throughout Pará, which covers 25% of the Brazilian Amazon. Although disturbed forests retained considerable conservation value compared with deforested areas, the toll of disturbance outside Pará's strictly protected areas is equivalent to the loss of 92,000­139,000 km2 of primary forest. Even this lowest estimate is greater than the area deforested across the entire Brazilian Amazon between 2006 and 2015 (ref. 10). Species distribution models showed that both landscape and within-forest disturbances contributed to biodiversity loss, with the greatest negative effects on species of high conservation and functional value. These results demonstrate an urgent need for policy interventions that go beyond the maintenance of forest cover to safeguard the hyper-diversity of tropical forest ecosystems.

The Amazon basin in transition.

Agricultural expansion and climate variability have become important agents of disturbance in the Amazon basin. Recent studies have demonstrated considerable resilience of Amazonian forests to moderate annual drought, but they also show that interactions between deforestation, fire and drought potentially lead to losses of carbon storage and changes in regional precipitation patterns and river discharge. Although the basin-wide impacts of land use and drought may not yet surpass the magnitude of natural variability of hydrologic and biogeochemical cycles, there are some signs of a transition to a disturbance-dominated regime. These signs include changing energy and water cycles in the southern and eastern portions of the Amazon basin.

A global land cover training dataset from 1984 to 2020.

State-of-the-art cloud computing platforms such as Google Earth Engine (GEE) enable regional-to-global land cover and land cover change mapping with machine learning algorithms. However, collection of high-quality training data, which is necessary for accurate land cover mapping, remains costly and labor-intensive. To address this need, we created a global database of nearly 2 million training units spanning the period from 1984 to 2020 for seven primary and nine secondary land cover classes. Our training data collection approach leveraged GEE and machine learning algorithms to ensure data quality and biogeographic representation. We sampled the spectral-temporal feature space from Landsat imagery to efficiently allocate training data across global ecoregions and incorporated publicly available and collaborator-provided datasets to our database. To reflect the underlying regional class distribution and post-disturbance landscapes, we strategically augmented the database. We used a machine learning-based cross-validation procedure to remove potentially mis-labeled training units. Our training database is relevant for a wide array of studies such as land cover change, agriculture, forestry, hydrology, urban development, among many others.

Mobile devices for community-based REDD+ monitoring: a case study for Central Vietnam.

Monitoring tropical deforestation and forest degradation is one of the central elements for the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries (REDD+) scheme. Current arrangements for monitoring are based on remote sensing and field measurements. Since monitoring is the periodic process of assessing forest stands properties with respect to reference data, adopting the current REDD+ requirements for implementing monitoring at national levels is a challenging task. Recently, the advancement in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and mobile devices has enabled local communities to monitor their forest in a basic resource setting such as no or slow internet connection link, limited power supply, etc. Despite the potential, the use of mobile device system for community based monitoring (CBM) is still exceptional and faces implementation challenges. This paper presents an integrated data collection system based on mobile devices that streamlines the community-based forest monitoring data collection, transmission and visualization process. This paper also assesses the accuracy and reliability of CBM data and proposes a way to fit them into national REDD+ Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) scheme. The system performance is evaluated at Tra Bui commune, Quang Nam province, Central Vietnam, where forest carbon and change activities were tracked. The results show that the local community is able to provide data with accuracy comparable to expert measurements (index of agreement greater than 0.88), but against lower costs. Furthermore, the results confirm that communities are more effective to monitor small scale forest degradation due to subsistence fuel wood collection and selective logging, than high resolution remote sensing SPOT imagery.

Historic emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in Mato Grosso, Brazil: 1) source data uncertainties.

BACKGROUND: Historic carbon emissions are an important foundation for proposed efforts to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation and enhance forest carbon stocks through conservation and sustainable forest management (REDD+). The level of uncertainty in historic carbon emissions estimates is also critical for REDD+, since high uncertainties could limit climate benefits from credited mitigation actions. Here, we analyzed source data uncertainties based on the range of available deforestation, forest degradation, and forest carbon stock estimates for the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso during 1990-2008. RESULTS: Deforestation estimates showed good agreement for multi-year periods of increasing and decreasing deforestation during the study period. However, annual deforestation rates differed by > 20% in more than half of the years between 1997-2008, even for products based on similar input data. Tier 2 estimates of average forest carbon stocks varied between 99-192 Mg C ha-1, with greatest differences in northwest Mato Grosso. Carbon stocks in deforested areas increased over the study period, yet this increasing trend in deforested biomass was smaller than the difference among carbon stock datasets for these areas. CONCLUSIONS: Estimates of source data uncertainties are essential for REDD+. Patterns of spatial and temporal disagreement among available data products provide a roadmap for future efforts to reduce source data uncertainties for estimates of historic forest carbon emissions. Specifically, regions with large discrepancies in available estimates of both deforestation and forest carbon stocks are priority areas for evaluating and improving existing estimates. Full carbon accounting for REDD+ will also require filling data gaps, including forest degradation and secondary forest, with annual data on all forest transitions.

Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento de Fitoterápicos: Relatos de Experiência em Indústria Farmacêutica Nacional

Relata-se experiência profissional de cinco anos em uma empresa farmacêutica brasileira. Nesse período, montou-se uma equipe técnica e buscou-se o desenvolvimento de uma linha fitoterápica a partir de literatura científica, aproveitamento de estudos nacionais já realizados bem como com ajustes de pesquisas internacionais ao padrão regulatório brasileiro. Como resultados desta atividade profissional foram desenvolvidos cinco fitoterápicos: cápsulas duras com extrato de isoflavonas agliconas de soja (Glycine max), resultado de parceria com outra empresa e universidade; comprimidos de extrato padronizado de incenso (Boswellia serrata) indicados em patologias inflamatórias intestinais; comprimidos de extrato padronizado de garra do diabo (Harpagophytum procumbens) indicados em patologias reumáticas; cápsulas gelatinosas moles com óleo essencial de hortelã-pimenta (Mentha piperita) recomendadas na fase espástica da síndrome do intestino irritável; e, por fim, pomada com extrato padronizado das cascas de barbatimão (Stryphnodendron adstringens) indicada como cicatrizante em escaras de graus I e II. Apesar das dificuldades e complexidade de cumprimento dos requisitos da cadeia de pesquisa e desenvolvimento, o presente relato mostra ser possível esta atividade, com geração de produtos fitoterápicos seguros, eficazes e de qualidade compatível com as exigências regulatórias nacionais e internacionais.

Política Nacional de Fitoterápicos e Plantas Medicinais: Concepções do Setor Produtivo

O presente artigo resume uma reflexão conjunta sobre a criação da Política Nacional de Práticas Integrativas e Complementares (PNPIC) no Brasil, sob a ótica do setor produtivo que utiliza matéria-prima vegetal em seus processos, em especial os produtos farmacêuticos. O estabelecimento de uma política para as plantas medicinais e os fitoterápicos é importante, mas seu avanço e consolidação ainda dependerá da implementação de programas que prevejam investimentos nos múltiplos aspectos da cadeia produtiva ­ da planta ao produto final ­ em especial aqueles envidados à solução de gargalos tecnológicos em nível nacional, aqui reconhecidos e pontuados por especialistas nos vários segmentos da cadeia tecnológica e do setor produtivo fitofarmacêutico.