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This article is a preliminary attempt to understand the corporate social responsibility claims and impacts of Aracruz Celulose sa, Brazil's largest pulp and paper manufacturer. Aracruz locates its operations in the vulnerable biodiversity hotspot of the Atlantic Forest, having acquired 800 000 hectares of land in five states of Brazil for the planting of eucalyptus. It owns some of the largest pulp and paper mills in the country. Both its record of land acquisition and its impact on the environment have resulted in considerable social conflict with the indigenous inhabitants, former slave communities and other small farmers in the state of Espírito Santo, and with supportive activist ngos. The company's application of formal corporate social responsibility practices often flies in the face of its social and environmental impacts. This raises questions about the nature of corporate social responsibility and its claims in developing countries like Brazil and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in climate mitigation pathways is critical and can be reached by assessing their consequences through the deployment of appropriate indicators to that end. Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) are important tools for understanding possible impacts caused by adopting new policies. We investigate terrestrial biodiversity trends (life on land: SDG 15) for three different climate mitigation scenarios for Brazil: (1) A scenario compatible with a world that maintains its current policies with current deforestation rates in the Amazon and the Cerrado biomes; (2) A scenario in which Brazil fulfils its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC); and (3) A scenario compatible with a world that limits warming to 1.5°C. We use the Brazilian Land-Use and Energy System model (BLUES), a national IAM, to show the implications of the transitions involved in the above-mentioned scenarios for the country up to 2050. We conduct a post-processing analysis using consolidated biodiversity indicators to emphasize how different IAM greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mitigation solutions present distinct positive and negative potential impacts on biodiversity in Brazil. However, our analysis does not consider the impacts associated with climate change, but only the risks imposed by mitigation policies. Our results indicate that biodiversity loss decreases in the scenarios from (1) to (3), implying that stronger climate change mitigation actions could result in smaller biodiversity losses. We conclude that Brazil has the opportunity to align its biodiversity and climate goals through nature-based solutions (NBS), such as forest conservation, restoration, pasture recovery, and the use of crop-pasture and agroforestry systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the foliicolous mycobiota associated with Coussapoa floccosa. This is a tree belonging to the Cecropiaceae, endemic to the Brazilian tropical seasonal semideciduous montane forest. It is listed as an endangered species because of habitat destruction. Until now no fungus has been recorded in association with this plant species. This paper describes six foliicolous fungi associated with this plant that were collected during a survey of the mycobiota occurring in a locality where a small population of C. floccosa was discovered. All fungi described here are new to science, namely Dennisiella coussapoae, Mycosphaerella coussapoae, Pseudoallosoma nervisequens (which also represents a newly proposed genus), Pseudocercospora coussapoae, Pseudocercospora atrofuliginosa and Tripospermum acrobaticum. The high proportion of taxonomic novelties revealed in this study reflects the general lack of mycological information for forest ecosystems in Brazil and also indicates that vulnerable plant species such as C. floccosa may harbor unique mycobiota. Such mycobiota may depend on their nearly extinct hosts and consequently can be equally endangered with extinction and therefore also deserve consideration for in situ and ex situ conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decades research efforts studying Amazonian biodiversity have increased substantially, with many new localities surveyed, new specimens collected, and some new regional collections established. In our study, we revised, updated, and summarized the available data on the diversity, distribution, species richness, and conservation status of lizards from the Brazilian Amazonia. We recorded 138 species-level taxa of lizards in the Brazilian Amazonia that presented five general patterns of distribution, plus some cases of unique distributions. Species richness is unevenly distributed across the region, varying between one and 44 species in a single grid, with 37–44 species in the richest areas. Based on the overlap of occurrence area of each species with protected areas (strict nature reserves; managed resource protected areas; protected indigenous peoples’ territories) and deforested layers, we show that 58% of the analyzed species (n = 75) present more than 50% of their occurrence area outside of any protected area, and 20% (n = 26) of them present 33% or less occurrence in protected areas. Strict nature reserves (strictly protected areas) are responsible for the main protection (≥50% of the protected area) of only 3% of the species (n = 4). Indigenous peoples’ territories represent the main protection area for 31% of the species (n = 40). Ten species present more than 50% of their occurrence in area deforested, and for 12 species the range varied between 33 and 50% of habitat loss. Revising the International Union for Conservation of Nature conservation status categories for a regional assessment, three species were classified as EN (Endangered), six as VU (Vulnerable), and 15 as NT (Near Threatened). Species with occurrence in Southern Amazonia are the most threatened. We presented the core areas for conservation of species richness and discussed their conservation status. Habitat loss due to mechanized agriculture (mainly from soy plantation), pastures, fire, and infrastructure project (e.g. roads and hydroelectric dams) are the main threats to the lizard fauna. Southern Amazonia is the region with the highest human pressure and, at the same time, it is the least protected. We suggest a revision to the mosaic of interconnected conservation areas, mainly in Southern Amazonia, and recommend that new infrastructure projects in the region take preventive actions to mitigate the direct and indirect impacts on the local lizard fauna. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tropical deforestation is a significant driver of global environmental change, given its impacts on the carbon cycle and biodiversity. Loss of the Amazon forest, the focus of this article, is of particular concern because of the size and the rapid rate at which the forest is being converted to agricultural use. In this article, we identify what has been the most important driver of deforestation in a specific colonization frontier in the Brazilian Amazon. To this end, we consider (1) the land-use dynamics of smallholder households, (2) the formation of pasture by large-scale ranchers, and (3) structural processes of land aggregation by ranchers. Much has been written about relations between smallholders and ranchers in the Brazilian Amazon, particularly those involving conflict over land, and this article explicates the implications of such social processes for land cover. Toward this end, we draw on panel data (1996-2002) and satellite imagery (1986-1999) to show the deforestation that is attributable to small- and largeholders, and the deforestation that is attributable to aggregations of property arising from a process that we refer to as frontier stratification. Evidently, most of the recent deforestation in the study area has resulted from the household processes of smallholders, not from conversions to pasture pursuant to the appropriations of smallholders' property by well-capitalized ranchers or speculators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]