Help restore Brazil’s governance of globally important ecosystem services

1Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia (PPGECO), Departamento de Ecologia e Zoologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil. 2Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Universidade de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil. 3Programa de Pós-graduação em Biologia de Fungos, Algas e Plantas (PPGFAP), Centro de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil. 4Arvorecer Pesquisa & Consultoria Ambiental, Campinas, Brazil. 5Instituto de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió, Brazil. 6Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway. 7Programa de Pós-graduação em Engenharia Ambiental (PPGEA), Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil. 8Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil. 9Coordenação de Tecnologia e Inovação, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Brazil. 10These authors contributed equally: Carolina Levis, Bernardo M. Flores. *e-mail: carollevis@gmail.com; mflores.bernardo@gmail.com In the format provided by the authors and unedited. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-1093-x


Help restore Brazil's governance of globally important ecosystem services
To the Editor -Since 2005, successful conservation policies have made Brazil a global example of environmental governance, in particular expanding Protected Areas and Indigenous Lands, developing advanced monitoring systems to detect vegetation loss, and intervening in soy and beef supply chains 1 . Now, the administration of president Jair Bolsonaro is dismantling the country's social-environmental policies 2 , jeopardizing the governance of globally important ecosystem services 3 (Supplementary Table 1).
Brazil is a country with an immense responsibility towards humanity. First, because it contains the largest portion of the Amazon rainforest, a critical element stabilizing the Earth's climate system 4 . Second, its well-conserved terrestrial ecosystems store immense amounts of carbon and 12% of global water resources 5 . Third, its terrestrial and marine ecosystems harbour 10% of the world's biodiversity 5 , including many species useful for food, medicine and construction (Fig. 1). Moreover, Brazil's cultural diversity includes over 300 ethnic groups that preserve ancient Indigenous Ecological Knowledge 5 and have historically provided essential services for societies 5,6 .

Global ecosystem services that flow naturally
Global ecosystem services that depend on human activities to flow To help Brazil restore a resilient and participatory governance system, we suggest three main priorities aligned with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, Aichi Targets), the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement.

Develop sustainable agro-industry
Biodiversity and ecosystem losses in Brazil are mainly driven by commodity production, implying that the agribusiness sector has a pivotal role in determining the fate of ecosystem assets 7 . The enhancement of productivity without further ecosystem loss could be achieved by: (1) promoting the strategic use of incentives to expand biodiversity-based production systems and low carbon agriculture; (2) eco-certification; (3) strengthening local public systems for sustainable agricultural development; (4) strengthening local public systems for pesticide use control; and (5) investing in science, biotechnology and innovation based on native biological diversity.

Protect and restore terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems
It is essential to invest in the protection of well-conserved ecosystems and the restoration of degraded ones to enhance ecosystem assets 5,6 . This requires: (1) implementing, maintaining and expanding protected areas; (2) strengthening the resilience of ecosystems and local societies to global changes; (3) strengthening the public system for socio-environmental management at all levels, to enforce environmental laws; (4) promoting the sustainable management of biodiversity and ecosystem assets by local communities inside and outside of Protected Areas; and (5) developing supply and value chains of locally managed biodiversity assets with sustainable infrastructure logistics that connect remote communities and markets.

Strengthen indigenous and traditional peoples' rights
Indigenous peoples and traditional communities have been interacting with their environments for millennia, playing a fundamental role in ensuring the protection of ecosystems 5,6 . To maintain their participation in environmental governance requires: (1) the constitutional demarcation and non-intrusion of indigenous and traditional lands; (2) strengthening the resilience of indigenous food production systems; (3) protecting cultures and their local ecological knowledge; (4) effectively including indigenous and traditional peoples in decision-making and public socio-environmental management; and (5) strengthening public policies for indigenous peoples and traditional communities.
The global consequences of the newly degraded governance system in Brazil imply that all stakeholders share a common interest: making Brazil's ecosystems resilient. International markets can exert pressure on how farmers produce commodities in Brazil 1 , helping to place the country in the global trend towards sustainable agriculture 8 . Countries can support companies committed to SDGs through strategic use of incentives, while state and municipal governments in Brazil can stimulate the production of sustainable and biodiversity-based agriculture, attracting external investments 9