Brazilian researchers are awarded by Unesco – 09/05/2023 – Environment

Two Brazilians are among the 13 winners of a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) award for young researchers who develop work in protected areas known as biosphere reserves.

One of the winning projects is focused on public policies for green areas and the other on the reintroduction of Spix’s Macaws into nature (Cyanopsitta spixii). Each researcher receives US$5,000 (almost R$25,000 at current exchange rates) from the MAB Young Scientists Award, to continue their work.

One of the champions is Danilo Sato, researcher at the Otavio Frias Filho Chair of Studies in Communication, Democracy and Diversity, linked to the IEA (Institute of Advanced Studies) at USP (University of São Paulo). His project is developed in the São Paulo Green Belt Biosphere Reserve.

The other winner from Brazil is researcher Ariane Ferreira, whose base is the Caatinga Biosphere Reserve.

Biosphere reserves are part of the SNUC (National System of Conservation Units) in Brazil, but their origin is in the program Man and the Biosphere, of Unesco. In addition to their conservation role, these sites function as “places of learning for sustainable development”, as defined by the entity.

According to Unesco, there are 738 biosphere reserves spread across 134 countries.

One of these is the Cinturão Verde de São Paulo, which, as the name says, “embraces” the capital of São Paulo. It occupies an area of ​​over 2 million hectares and passes through 78 municipalities, reaching the border of Minas Gerais. The reserve enters part of the coast of São Paulo, overlapping with other conservation units and indigenous lands.

In the midst of urban concentration, it plays an important role in regulating the region’s climate and also in the water issue, according to a recent analysis of the area’s ecosystem services. The reserve concentrates the production of 88.6% of the volume of water and 100% of the reservoirs responsible for supplying the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo.

Despite the importance of the reserve, it is common that even the residents of the region have never heard of this conservation and research area. Sato claims that ignorance of biosphere reserves is not exclusive to Brazil.

In the project he is working on, the researcher makes a comparison between the reserve in São Paulo and the Wienerwald Biosphere Reserve, in Austria.

The project’s objective is to verify the impact of the biosphere reserve on sustainable development, on the formation of public policies and on land use. One of the evaluated points is the deforestation pressure on the conservation area.

The central question, however, is how to apply the idea of ​​sustainable development in areas that seem very far from the ideal of sustainability.

“Vienna is not so conflicted, but São Paulo is a lot. How do we think about conservation and sustainable development for the metropolitan region? It is even possible to ask: can we think that the metropolitan region of São Paulo can be sustainable in some way?”, he asks Sato, who says that the cash prize will help him finish the job with a trip to Vienna.

Ariane Ferreira’s research focuses on a bird that, possibly, you’ve already met — at least on a movie or TV screen, as in the animation “Rio” (2011), starring a Spix’s Macaw.

The biologist, however, lives closely with these animals in Curaçá, Bahia. In 2022, several captive-raised Spix’s Macaws were released in the municipality, in an attempt to reintroduce this species into nature, which, in 2000, was considered extinct in the wild.

Ferreira coordinates the team that monitors the life of the reintroduced birds in the caatinga. For her, she says, the value of the prize will help in the continuity of this follow-up.

“We believe that the reintroduction was really successful”, says Ferreira, just over a year after the release of the first macaws in Curaçá.

Eight macaws were released in the dry season and another 12 in the rainy season. Apparently, the dry period was the most suitable for the practice, says Ferreira, because “the birds are much more united, cohesive”.

“It’s very important for them to be in groups, because while one is eating, the other is taking care of, watching,” he explains.

Currently, 12 Spix’s Macaws are accompanied by the project, carried out with the efforts of more than a decade by ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation) and the German NGO ACTP (Association for the Conservation of Threaten Parrots).

The thirteenth macaw that was part of the study, because it often got lost and had to be rescued in these episodes, had to return to live in captivity, to be prepared for a next release.

In general, macaws don’t get names, says Ferreira, but the ones that take the most work end up stealing attention and, thus, end up nicknamed by project participants. The custom in Curaçá is to call the runaways by the name of the person who managed to spot the escape.

There is Bizé, for example. And Liete, who, as it was the researchers’ first escape experience, in an escape that almost took her to another state, ended up creating a greater bond of affection. “And also because she is very smart”, recognizes Ferreira.