Agriculture can be an ally to biodiversity conservation

By Karina Toledo

Agência FAPESP – In addition to producing food, services and energy, agricultural pastures have a secondary but equally important role, a role that should be strengthened: the conservation of biological diversity.

Professor Luciano Martins Verdade, of the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture at Universidade de São Paulo (CENA/USP), discussed this topic during the last meeting of the 2013 BIOTA-FAPESP Education Conference Cycle, organized by the FAPESP Research Program for the Characterization, Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity (BIOTA-FAPESP). Held on November 21, 2013 at FAPESP’s headquarters, the theme was “Biodiversity in Urban and Rural Anthropic Environments.” >>Continue Reading<<

Source and Photo: FAPESP, January 22nd, 2014

Labex Korea on Twitter and Facebook

Traditional people have a crucial role in conservation of biodiversity

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP – Along the upper and lower reaches of the River Negro in Amazonas, there are more than 100 varieties of cassava, grown for generations in the indigenous communities that normally plant together and share crop experiences, experimenting with dozens of varieties at the same time on their small farms.

An example of conservation of agrobiodiversity by traditional populations, the River Negro agricultural system was registered in 2010 as a priceless heritage at the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage.

 

Click here to access the complete article

Source and Photo: Agência FAPESP, 14th August, 2013

Labex Korea on Twitter

Experiment in Amazonia becomes global model for research

By Frances Jones
Agência FAPESP – A scientific project begun 35 years ago in the heart of the Amazon Forest is bearing fruit around the globe. A million-dollar experiment developed by an international team on the island of Borneo in Asia is the most recent study to replicate and expand upon the Dynamic Biological Project on Forest Fragments (PDBFF), the result of cooperation between the National Institute of Amazon Research (Inpa) and the Smithsonian Institution.

Indonesians cultivate food diversity

The Korea Herald – Indonesia’s heavy dependence on rice as the primary staple food has triggered the need for food diversification, but up to now it is still a work in progress.
If there is any food that deserves to be identified as the Asian food, it is rice ― people have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“I always have rice,” said Ardi, a 39-year-old private company employee living in West Jakarta. “If I don’t have rice, I am still hungry.”
Rice is the staple food of more than 50 percent of the world’s population, including in Indonesia where per capita rice consumption is estimated at 139 kilograms per year.

Challenges of food production and bioenergy in Brazil

By Manoel Teixeira Souza Jr.
Embrapa Agroenergy – In 2050, according to various estimates, our planet will have a population slightly more than nine billion people. The challenge for all of us over the coming decades is to ensure the means for producing food and energy in sufficient quantity and quality to meet the demand from a population with two billion more people than today. Demand this already suffering and will continue to suffer, more changes in its nature than its volume, which results in significant increase of input of water and soil, to name only two of the most used features. These resources need to be sustainable, both economically, as the social and the environmental.

Biodiversity fading fast in farmed plants and animals

MSN News – A decline in the diversity of farmed plants and livestock breeds is gathering pace, threatening future food supplies for the world’s growing population, the head of a new United Nations panel on biodiversity said on Monday.
Preserving neglected animal breeds and plants is necessary, as they could have genes resistant to future diseases or to shifts in the climate to warmer temperatures, more droughts or downpours, Zakri Abdul Hamid said.
“The loss of biodiversity is happening faster and everywhere, even among farm animals,” Zakri told a conference of 450 experts in Trondheim, Norway, in his first speech as founding chair of the U.N. biodiversity panel.
Many traditional breeds of cattle, sheep and goats have fallen out of favor, often because they yield less meat or milk than new breeds. Globalization also means that people’s food preferences narrow down to fewer plants.

Artificial forests threaten the biodiversity of the Pampas

By Karina Toledo
Agência FAPESP – The Amazon Forest in such states as Mato Grosso and Pará is being transformed into pastureland. However, the problem is the opposite in Rio Grande do Sul: the field vegetation of the Pampas – which for years has existed harmoniously with cattle rearing – is being decimated to make way for forests planted by humans.
Although the visual impact of the destruction could be greater in Amazonia, anyone who considers that the biological loss in the Pampas Biome is smaller is mistaken. According to a study coordinated by Professor Ilsi Boldrini of Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), a vegetation diversity is concentrated in the southern region that is three times greater than that of the forests when the area occupied by each is taken into consideration… >>Continue Reading<<

Source and Photo: FAPESP, 24rh April, 2013
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Plant Genomes Can Help Solve Global Problems

BSAS/WPSA – A leading plant scientist has outlined to a meeting of animal scientists how advanced plant breeding techniques have the potential to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems – including the prevention and treatment of human and farm animal diseases and more sustainable food production.
Plant biologists have tended to follow rather than lead scientists in other fields, according to Professor Maurice Moloney, Director and CEO of Rothamsted Research in the UK.

Impacts of changes in land use on bodies of water

By Elton Alisson
Agência FAPESP – The changes in land use that are currently taking place in most of the world, with the greatest intensity in the tropical regions – caused by population increases and the demand for food and energy –, have had numerous impacts on the chemical composition and biodiversity of bodies of water.
In Brazil, groups of researchers in partnership with colleagues from other countries have studied some of the alterations in rivers and lakes due to the expansion of sugarcane and soybean cultivation and the replacement of forests by pastureland.

Archaeologists to help uncover the origin of Amazonian biodiversity

By Elton Alisson

Agência FAPESP – Questions about the origin and the transformation of the Amazon’s megabiodiversity over millions of years have intrigued many biologists in different parts of the world. In an attempt to answer these questions, several hypotheses have been advanced over the last few decades. However, many of these hypotheses have not undergone scientific scrutiny due to a lack of paleoecological data and geomorphological evidence. Now, specialists from diverse areas – including paleoecology and archaeology – are investigating the topic. … >>Continue Reading<<

Source and Photo: Agencia FAPESP, 10th April, 2013
Follow Labex Korea by Twitter and Facebook