Expanding the Soy Moratorium to Brazil’s Cerrado

The Cerrado biome in Brazil is a tropical savanna and an important global biodiversity hot spot. Today, only a fraction of its original area remains undisturbed, and this habitat is at risk of conversion to agriculture, especially to soybeans. Here, we present the first quantitative analysis of expanding the Soy Moratorium (SoyM) from the Brazilian Amazon to the Cerrado biome. The SoyM expansion to the Cerrado would prevent the direct conversion of 3.6 million ha of native vegetation to soybeans by 2050. Nationally, this would require a reduction in soybean area of approximately 2%. Relative risk of future native vegetation conversion for soybeans would be driven by the Brazilian domestic market, China, and the European Union. We conclude that, to preserve the Cerrado’s biodiversity and ecosystem services, urgent action is required, including a zero native vegetation conversion agreement such as the SoyM.

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Elevated trawling inside protected areas undermines conservation outcomes in a global fishing hot spot

Science ◽

10.1126/science.aau0561 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 362 (6421) ◽

pp. 1403-1407 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Manuel Dureuil ◽

Kristina Boerder ◽

Kirsti A. Burnett ◽

Rainer Froese ◽

Boris Worm

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Marine Protected Areas ◽

Hot Spots ◽

Hot Spot ◽

Fishing Pressure ◽

The European Union ◽

Sensitive Species ◽

Trawl Fishing ◽

Global Biodiversity ◽

Nonprotected Areas

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly used as a primary tool to conserve biodiversity. This is particularly relevant in heavily exploited fisheries hot spots such as Europe, where MPAs now cover 29% of territorial waters, with unknown effects on fishing pressure and conservation outcomes. We investigated industrial trawl fishing and sensitive indicator species in and around 727 MPAs designated by the European Union. We found that 59% of MPAs are commercially trawled, and average trawling intensity across MPAs is at least 1.4-fold higher as compared with nonprotected areas. Abundance of sensitive species (sharks, rays, and skates) decreased by 69% in heavily trawled areas. The widespread industrial exploitation of MPAs undermines global biodiversity conservation targets, elevating recent concerns about growing human pressures on protected areas worldwide.

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Investigating Changes Driving Cumulative Impacts on Native Vegetation in Mining Regions in the Northeastern Brazilian Amazon

Environmental Management ◽

10.1007/s00267-021-01578-4 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Juliana Siqueira-Gay ◽

Diogo Santos ◽

Wilson R. Nascimento ◽

Pedro Walfir M. Souza-Filho ◽

Luis Enrique Sánchez

Keyword(s):

Brazilian Amazon ◽

Native Vegetation ◽

Cumulative Impacts ◽

Mining Regions

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What Marxist Theory of the State and the Brazilian Amazon Imply For the Prospects of Sustainable Ecological Regulation in the European Union and the United States

Sustainable Development - An Integrative Paradigm? ◽

10.5771/9783845230610-79 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 79-102

Author(s):

Samuel Cohn ◽

David Watkins

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

European Union ◽

Brazilian Amazon ◽

The United States ◽

The State ◽

Marxist Theory ◽

The European Union

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Evaluating the skill of satellite data on the individuation of extreme precipitation events in Calabria (southern Italy)

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-3071 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Tommaso Caloiero ◽

Roberto Coscarelli ◽

Giulio Nils Caroletti

Keyword(s):

Satellite Data ◽

Extreme Precipitation ◽

Southern Italy ◽

Hot Spot ◽

Rain Gauge ◽

Precipitation Event ◽

The European Union ◽

Extreme Precipitation Events ◽

Daily Data ◽

Precipitation Events

In this study, the skill of TRMM Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) data to locate spatially and temporally extreme precipitation has been tested over Calabria, a region in southern Italy.Calabria is a very challenging region for hydrometeorology studies, as i) it is a mainly mountainous region with complex orography; ii) it is surrounded by sea, providing&#160; an abundance of available moisture; iii) it belongs to the Mediterranean region, a hot-spot for climate change.TMPA, which provides daily data at a 0.25&#176; resolution (i.e., about 25 km at southern Italy latitudes), was tested with regards to three extreme precipitation events that occurred between 1998 and 2019, i.e., the years of TMPA&#8217;s operational time frame. The first event, taking place on 07-12/09/2000, lasted for several days and involved most of Calabria. The second (01-04/07/2006) was a very localized midsummer event, which hit a very small area with destructive consequences. Finally, the 18-27/11/2013 event was a ten-day long heavy precipitation event that hit the region in spots.TMPA daily data were compared against validated and homogenized rain gauge data from 79 stations managed by the Multi-Risk Functional Centre of the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection. TMPA was evaluated both in relative and absolute terms: i) the relative skill was tested by checking if TMPA evaluated correctly the presence of extreme precipitation, defined as daily precipitation passing the 99th percentile threshold; ii) the absolute skill was tested by checking if TMPA reproduced correctly the cumulated precipitation values during the events.TMPA proved sufficiently able to locate areas subject to heavy cumulated precipitation during large spatially distributed events over the region. However, it showed difficulties in reproducing very localized events, as the 2006 case study was not detected at all, showing that 25-km spatial resolution and daily time resolution proved inadequate to resolve this type of rainfall event.Results might give insights into the possibility of using satellite data for real-time monitoring of extreme precipitation, especially since the transition from the old TMPA to the new Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) set was completed in January 2020.&#160;Acknowledgments:The Project INDECIS is part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), DLR (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR) with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462).

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Regional Distribution of Adult Education in Hungary (2010, 2019)

Regionalnaya ekonomika Yug Rossii ◽

10.15688/re.volsu.2021.2.7 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 58-70

Author(s):

Dávid Hajdú ◽

Keyword(s):

Adult Education ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Hot Spot ◽

Regional Distribution ◽

County Government ◽

Access To Education ◽

The European Union ◽

Main Research ◽

Service Areas ◽

Data Collection Program

This article presents the results of a study related to the regional distribution of participants in adulteducation programs in Hungary. Adult education is one of the cornerstones of lifelong learning supported by the European Union. The author performed a secondary database analysis from the OSAP 1665 (National Statistical Data Collection Program on Adult Education) database operated by the Pest County Government Office. To answer the main research questions, the author used the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, Local Moran I Autocorrelation and Hot Spot analysis methods used in regional statistics. Access to education in rural areas is one of the components of reducing unfavorable demographic changes and emigration caused by unemployment. The purpose of the study is to draw attention to the lack of access to education for people living in rural areas and to the fact that education is the first step in keeping the rural population in place. During the study period (2010 and 2019), training centers covered more than 50 percent of the country’s municipalities. Training centers are located along the main roads of the country. A study of the service areas of the district centers revealed which districts lacked such centers. With the help of the research methods, the author obtained data indicating that the training achievements of rural areas are weak, and this may lead to their further backlog. In the southern part of Western Hungary, due to the peculiarities of the economic and settlement structure, area with no training centers was formed. Over time, the problems will also appear in other social and economic indicators, which may require the organization of major catch-up programs.

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An annotated check list of the Cicadomorpha and Fulgoromorpha (Hemiptera) of the Madeira and Salvages archipelagos

Zootaxa ◽

10.11646/zootaxa.1762.1.1 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 1762 (1) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

DORA AGUIN-POMBO ◽

CARLOS FREITAS

Keyword(s):

New Records ◽

Hot Spot ◽

Cape Verde ◽

Food Plants ◽

The European Union ◽

Check List ◽

African Coast ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

Annotated Checklist ◽

Cicadella Viridis

The volcanic archipelagos of Madeira and Salvages located respectively at 635 km and 373 km offshore of the northeastern African coast are very rich in endemic species. These two archipelagos together with the Canary Ils and the archipelagos of Cape Verde and Azores represent part of the Mediterranean hot spot which is considered the richest area in flora and fauna of Europe. To synthesize the knowledge on these groups, an annotated checklist of Cicadomorpha and Fulgoromorpha of the archipelagos of Salvages and Madeira is presented based on published literature including data on distribution and food plants. In addition 9 new species records are reported: Austragallia caboverdensis, Austragallia sinuata, Balclutha rufofascia, B. hebe, Cicadella viridis, Macrosteles sexnotatus, Recilia angusticeps, Tamaricella cf fasciolata and Zyginidia lineata. The checklist comprises 79 species of 7 different families. Of these species 87% occur in Madeira and 10% in the Salvages archipelago. As a whole 27% are endemic to Madeira and 8% are endemic to Macaronesia. Despite this diversity, knowledge of their habitats and food plants is still very scarce.KEY WORDS: Homoptera, Auchenorrhyncha, distribution, new records, Madeira, Hemiptera, MacaronesiaMacaronesian archipelagos are included in the Mediterranean hot spot which is the richest area in flora and fauna of the European Union (Médail and Quézel, 1999). The Macaronesia subregion located between Eurasia

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Safeguarding Freshwater Life Beyond 2020: Recommendations for the New Global Biodiversity Framework from the European Experience

10.20944/preprints202001.0212.v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Charles B. van Rees ◽

Kerry A. Waylen ◽

Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber ◽

Stephen J. Thackeray ◽

Gregor Kalinkat ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Biological Diversity ◽

Integrated Water Resources Management ◽

Convention On Biological Diversity ◽

The European Union ◽

Freshwater Biodiversity ◽

Biodiversity Crisis ◽

Implementation Planning ◽

European Experience ◽

Global Biodiversity ◽

Freshwater Monitoring

The drafting of a new Global Biodiversity Framework for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Biodiversity Strategy for the European Union (EU) render 2020 a critical crossroad for biodiversity conservation. Freshwater biodiversity is disproportionately threatened and poorly studied relative to marine and terrestrial biota, despite providing numerous essential ecosystem services. The urgency of the mounting freshwater biodiversity crisis necessitates approaches catered to the unique ecology and threats of freshwater life, which are not adequately addressed by current strategies. We present a set of 15 special recommendations for freshwater biodiversity to guide the CBD’s post-2020 framework and the 2020 EU strategy based on European case studies, both challenges and successes. Our recommendations cover key outcomes and guiding concepts, enabling conditions and methods of implementation, planning and accountability modalities, and cross-cutting issues. They address topics including invasive species, integrated water resources management, strategic conservation planning, data management, and emerging technologies for freshwater monitoring, among others. These recommendations will enhance the ability of global and European post-2020 biodiversity agreements to halt and reverse the rapid global decline of freshwater biodiversity.

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Venezuela: Political Confrontation and the World Community

Moscow University Bulletin of World Politics ◽

10.48015/2076-7404-2020-12-2-71-111 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 71-111

Author(s):

Z. W. Iwanowski ◽

D. M. Rozental

Keyword(s):

Latin American ◽

Hot Spot ◽

The United States ◽

World Politics ◽

The European Union ◽

Case Scenario ◽

Worst Case ◽

Systemic Crisis ◽

The Government ◽

External Forces

The paper examines a complex web of domestic and external issues which have both provoked a systemic crisis in Venezuela and, at the same time, determined its speciﬁcity in comparison with the wave of protests sweeping across Latin America in 2019.The authors conclude that the escalation of the conﬂict in Venezuela was caused not only by the standoﬀ between the legislative and the executive branches of the government, but also by the split of the whole society into proponents and opponents of ‘socialism of the 21st century’. The contradictions have led to the formation of the parallel branches of power: two presidents, two parliaments and two supreme courts (one of them in exile) which de facto coexist in the country and each claims exclusive rights and legitimacy.The authors also stress that the situation in Venezuela has obvious regional consequences. The miscalculations of the incumbent president were used in election campaigns in other Latin American countries and became one of the reasons for the defeat of left candidates, the subsequent ‘right drift’ leading to the isolation of the republic. The new political landscape has also aﬀected the architecture of integration associations, which failed to develop a uniﬁed position toward the Bolivarian regime.Furthermore, in a current heightened state of international tensions Venezuela has turned into a theatre of international rivalry and conﬂict involving all the key subjects of world politics. The United States, China, Russia and the European Union compete for the energy resources of the country and pursue their own strategic interests. The inability or unwillingness of external forces to reach compromise and to bring the parties to the negotiating table can pose a threat to peace and international security.As a result, Venezuela has become one of the most turbulent countries in the region. At the same time, the repeated outbursts of protest waves are signiﬁcantly diﬀerent from popular uprisings in other Latin American states. In the worst-case scenario, a constantly worsening situation may result in a social explosion which threatens to make the Bolivarian Republic another hot spot of the planet.

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What do insects, anurans, birds, and mammals have to say about soundscape indices in a tropical savanna

Journal of Ecoacoustics ◽

10.22261/jea.pvh6yz ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 1-1 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Renata S. Sousa-Lima ◽

Luane M. Ferreira ◽

Eliziane G. Oliveira ◽

Lara C. Lopes ◽

Marcos R. Brito ◽

...

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

Hot Spot ◽

Temporal Trends ◽

Minas Gerais ◽

Tropical Savanna ◽

Acoustic Ecology ◽

Future Studies ◽

Minas Gerais State ◽

Acoustic Niche ◽

Acoustic Diversity

The application of acoustic indices is incipient and still needs validation before it can reliably characterize soundscapes and monitor rapidly disappearing hot-spot areas as the Brazilian tropical savanna (Cerrado). Here we investigate which of six acoustic indices better correlate with the 24 h zoophony richness of insects, anurans, birds, and mammals. We sampled one minute every 30 minutes for seven days on three sites in Serra da Canastra National Park (Minas Gerais state, Brazil) and extracted the sonotype richness and six indices based on recordings with a bandwidth of up to 48 kHz. The Acoustic Diversity, Evenness, Entropy, and Normalized Difference Soundscape indices followed the temporal trends of the sonotype richness of insects and anurans. The Acoustic Complexity (ACI) and Bioacoustic (BIO) indices did not correlated with sonotype richness. ACI and BIO were influenced by sonic abundance and geophony. We emphasize the need to include insects and anurans on soundscape and acoustic ecology analyses and to avoid bias on avian fauna alone. We also suggest that future studies explore measures of sonic abundance and acoustic niche occupation of sonotypes to complement measures of zoophony richness and better understand what each faunal group is telling us about indices.

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