The challenge of restoring tropical freshwater ecosystems (original) (raw)
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ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION IN THE STATE OF SAO PAULO, BRAZIL: GUIDENCES, GUIDELINES AND CRITERIA (Atena Editora), 2022
Brazil, specifically the state of São Paulo, is at the forefront in legislating on ecological restoration. Since the first resolution, published in 2001, by the Secretary of the Environment of the State of São Paulo with the objective of providing guidelines and guidelines for Heterogeneous Reforestation with native species, others were published in which the knowledge acquired was incorporated as they put it. techniques for planting and recovering degraded areas are put into practice. However, previous resolutions (from Resolution SMA 21/2001 to Resolution of SMA 08/2008) focused on techniques to be used in planting seedlings in the total area to be restored without leaving room for other methods – sometimes more appropriate and access to certain areas – a fact that has led to criticism from professionals and scientists linked to the field of ecological restoration. The current São Paulo state legislation, Resolution SMA 32/2014 and its complement, Ordinance CBRN 01/2015, replaced the term Heterogeneous Reforestation with Ecological Restoration, expanding the objective of the forest restoration process and also changing the previous focus on the method used and emphasizing the result to be obtained; in other words, the establishment of a self-sustaining ecosystem.
ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION IN THE STATE OF SAO PAULO, BRAZIL: GUIDANCES, GUIDELINES AND CRITERIA
Journal of Engineering Research, 2022
Brazil, specifically the state of São Paulo, is at the forefront in legislating on ecological restoration. Since the first resolution, published in 2001, by the Secretary of the Environment of the State of São Paulo with the objective of providing guidances and guidelines for Heterogeneous Reforestation with native species, others were published in which the knowledge acquired was incorporated as they put it. Techniques for planting and recovering degraded areas are put into practice. However, previous resolutions (from Resolution SMA 21/2001 to Resolution of SMA 08/2008) focused on techniques to be used in planting seedlings in the total area to be restored without leaving room for other methods – sometimes more appropriate and access to certain areas – a fact that has led to criticism from professionals and scientists linked to the field of ecological restoration. The current São Paulo state legislation, Resolution SMA 32/2014 and its complement, Ordinance CBRN 01/2015, replaced the term Heterogeneous Reforestation with Ecological Restoration, expanding the objective of the forest restoration process and also changing the previous focus on the method used and emphasizing the result to be obtained; in other words, the establishment of a self-sustaining ecosystem. All content in this magazine is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Attribution-Non-Commercial-Non-Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 2019
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.
Around the world, there is growing desire and momentum for ecological restoration to happen faster, with better quality, and in more extensive areas. The question we ask is how can laws and governmental regulations best contribute to effective, successful, and broad-scale restoration? In the state of S˜ao Paulo, Brazil, there is a legal instrument (SMA 08-2008) whose aim is to increase the effectiveness of tropical forest restoration projects in particular. It establishes, among other things, requirements regarding the minimum number of native tree species to be reached within a given period of time in restoration projects and the precise proportion of functional groups or threatened species to be included when reforestation with native species is used as a restoration technique. There are, however, two differing perspectives among Brazilian restoration ecologists on the appropriateness of such detailed legal rules. For some, the rules help increase the chances that mandatory projects of ecological restoration will succeed. For the other group, there is no single way to achieve effective ecosystem restoration, and the existing science and know-how are far from sufficient to establish standardized technical and methodological norms or to justify that such norms be imposed. Both points of view are discussed here, aiming to help those developing new legislation and improving existing laws about ecological restoration. The precedents established in S˜ao Paulo, and at the federal level in Brazil, and the ongoing debate about those laws are worth considering and possibly applying elsewhere.