LET TERS Edited by Jennifer Sills
Conserving Brazil’s Atlantic forests
PHOTO: GUARÁWOLF/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
IN THEIR REPORT “Using ecological Private Natural Heritage Reserve in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
outright land purchase. Expanding this approach may provide the best practical short-term prospect to conserve remaining biodiversity in Brazil’s Atlantic forests. Ralf Buckley* and Fernanda de Vasconcellos Pegas Grifth University, Gold Coast, QLD 4222, Australia. *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] REFERENCES
1. D. Kleijn, W. J. Sutherland, J. Appl. Ecol. 40, 947 (2003). 2. Government of Brazil, Código Florestal, Lei 12.651 (2012); www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2011-2014/2012/lei/ l12651.htm. 3. Government of Brazil, Lei 9.985 (2000); www.planalto. gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l9985.htm. 4. ICMBio (www.icmbio.gov.br). 5. ICMS Ecológico, Repasses (www.icmsecologico.org.br). 6. F. Pegas, G. Castley, J. Sust. Tour. 24, 604 (2014). 7. SOS Mata Atlântica (www.sosma.org.br). 8. Associação Mico Leão Dourado (www.micoleao.org.br).
Response BUCKLEY AND PEGAS claim that it would
be politically difficult to reallocate agricultural subsidies to conservation. In our Report, we compare the economic costs of a strategy in which land is set aside for restoration to what is currently spent on agricultural subsidies. We do not suggest that agricultural subsidies be reallocated to conservation, but we also do not believe that such a strategy is improbable, as this has already been implemented in the United States (1, 2) and is currently being discussed in Europe (3). Buckley and Pegas then suggest that creating more Private Natural Heritage Reserves would be a more cost-effective strategy to protect the biodiverse regions of the Atlantic Forest. However, as we explained in our Report, preserving the Atlantic Forest is not enough; this biome needs to be restored to fully protect biodiversity. Private Natural Heritage Reserves are essentially a mechanism to preserve existing areas of pristine habitat inside private property and are only rarely used to set aside land to reforestation. The reserves are often managed to attract ecotourism, but it is unclear how degraded
SCIENCE sciencemag.org
land undergoing restoration would serve such a purpose. Private Natural Heritage Reserves would protect additional, pristine land, but the most biodiverse regions of the Atlantic Forest are already protected. One of our main conclusions is that 30% is the minimum amount of habitat needed to preserve biodiversity, and that restoration should be focused on landscapes that currently have between 20 and 30% forest cover. To this end, the protection of remaining Atlantic forest areas through private or public reserves has to be complemented with incentives for forest restoration. Cristina Banks-Leite,1,2* Renata Pardini,3 Leandro R. Tambosi,2 William D. Pearse,4 Adriana A. Bueno,5 Roberta T. Bruscagin,2 Thais H. Condez,6 Marianna Dixo,2 Alexandre T. Igari,7 Alexandre C. Martensen,8 Jean Paul Metzger2 1
Grand Challenges in the Ecosystem and Environment, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot SL5 7PY, UK. 2 Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508–090, São Paulo SP, Brazil. 3Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508–090, São Paulo SP, Brazil. 4Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA. 5Fundação Florestal, 02377–000, São Paulo SP, Brazil. 6Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista, 13506–900, Rio Claro SP, Brazil. 7Curso de Gestão Ambiental, Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades, Universidade de São Paulo, 03828–000, São Paulo SP, Brazil. 8Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3B2, Canada. *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] REFERENCES
1. S. S. Batie, A. G. Sappington, Am. J. Agricult. Econ. 68, 880 (1986). 2. R. A. Kramer, S. S. Batie, Agricult. Hist. 59, 307 (1985). 3. H. van Zeijts et al., Greening the Common Agricultural Policy: Impacts on Farmland Biodiversity on an EU Scale (PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 2011).
ERRATA Erratum for the Report: “Washing away your sins: Threatened morality and physical cleansing” by C.-B. Zhong and K. Liljenquist, Science 346, aaa2510 (2014). Published online 21 November 2014; 10.1126/science.aaa2510 5 DECEMBER 2014 • VOL 346 ISSUE 6214
Published by AAAS
1193
Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on December 4, 2014
thresholds to evaluate the costs and benefits of set-asides in a biodiversity hotspot” (29 August, p. 1041), C. Banks-Leite et al. calculate that Brazil could protect the most biodiverse 30% of its 143 million hectares of endangered Atlantic forests by reallocating 6.5% of its agricultural subsidies to pay landowners to set aside land for restoration. Reallocations are unlikely, however, because agrosubsidies serve different political constituencies than conservation incentives (1). Meanwhile, a successful and much cheaper stepwise program could be expanded. The region is subdivided into small, scarcely viable, private farm holdings, which are partially forested and partially cleared. For rural properties in this biome, the current Brazilian Forest Code (2) requires 20% of the land to be set aside as protected Legal Reserves (Reservas Legais). These are managed for sustainable use, which includes selective logging. A voluntary land covenant program (3, 4) allows an owner to establish a Private Natural Heritage Reserve (Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural) at the federal, state, or municipal level. Private Natural Heritage Reserves must be managed only for conservation, ecotourism, or education. Because the land is already required to be set aside as a Legal Reserve, opportunity costs for establishing the more conservation-friendly Private Natural Heritage Reserves are minimal. However, landholders are deterred by application and establishment costs. The state government pays conservation incentives to municipalities but not to landholders (5). A few Private Natural Heritage Reserve landholders meet costs through ecotourism, but as yet, only 4% nationally (6). A partnership of local and international nongovernmental organizations (7, 8) has provided strategic small grants known as editais to cover application and management costs for Private Natural Heritage Reserves. For one-third of Private Natural Heritage Reserves nationally, editais were critical in lifting landholders over this final hurdle for forest conservation. To date, this includes 57,000 ha in the Atlantic Forest biome, where the cost of this stepwise approach (7) is only 1 to 5% of the cost of
INSIGHTS | L E T T E R S
ONLINE BUZZ: HIGHER EDUCATION
China’s balancing act
I
n his Editorial “China’s private universities” (24 October, p. 401), H. Jin expresses hope that the Chinese government will soon treat public and private universities equally, giving private institutions the funding and opportunities they need to flourish. Readers analyzed the trade-offs involved in such a decision in the online comments section. Excerpts from their comments are below. Read the full comments, and add your own, at http://comments.sciencemag.org/ content/10.1126/science.1262035.
A selection of your thoughts: …[I]f you…receive any funds from government, then it is impossible to get [around] its constraints. [W]hy are there no investors interested in the private universities? What’s more, nearly all the talented students in China are enrolled in the best public universities…. Thus, it seems unwise to distribute the education funds to the private universities rather than the public ones for the government, as the money is always insufficient. Tong Ruif …From the private university’s perspective…, it’s hardly possible to get any funding from the government, which results in extremely high tuition…; from China’s common families’ perspective, the bad environment of study is [not worth the] expense, [so] the public school will be the priority; from the government’s perspective, lots of private universities are supported or funded by commercial companies or groups (e.g., [Jin] is the president of Sanlian Group), and how to…manage such connections [and potential resulting conflicts of interest] remains to be considered. Eniac Gui …While students and faculty are both eager to embrace an U.S. private university model, in which philanthropists often seed the initial development, such a high-profile, high-impact private university hasn’t flourished…. I believe the private universities need to rely on innovative educational models and show their national stature in attracting bright faculty and students first. Without doing so, [moving] money from any public sources to private [institutions] would be hard to justify for Chinese taxpayers. Jake Chen
April 1-7, 2015
Science & Diplomacy provides an open access forum for rigorous thought, analysis, and insight to serve stakeholders who develop, implement, or teach all aspects of science and diplomacy. Learn more about the latest ideas in science diplomacy and receive regular updates by following @SciDip on Twitter, liking the quarterly’s page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/sciencediplomacy), and registering for free at www.sciencediplomacy.org/user/register.
Join geologist and naturalist Dr. Andre Potochnik to explore the great beauty of these intriguing landscapes! See historic Scotty’s Castle, an immense petroglyph field, tour Hoover Dam, and peer at the Colorado River far below. Learn about adaptations of plants and animals to life in the desert, geologic heritage, and man’s attempts at making a living in this vast desert paradise. $2,795 pp + air
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BETCHART EXPEDITIONS Inc.
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Conserving Brazil’s Atlantic forests
PHOTO: GUARÁWOLF/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
IN THEIR REPORT “Using ecological Private Natural Heritage Reserve in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
outright land purchase. Expanding this approach may provide the best practical short-term prospect to conserve remaining biodiversity in Brazil’s Atlantic forests. Ralf Buckley* and Fernanda de Vasconcellos Pegas Grifth University, Gold Coast, QLD 4222, Australia. *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] REFERENCES
1. D. Kleijn, W. J. Sutherland, J. Appl. Ecol. 40, 947 (2003). 2. Government of Brazil, Código Florestal, Lei 12.651 (2012); www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2011-2014/2012/lei/ l12651.htm. 3. Government of Brazil, Lei 9.985 (2000); www.planalto. gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l9985.htm. 4. ICMBio (www.icmbio.gov.br). 5. ICMS Ecológico, Repasses (www.icmsecologico.org.br). 6. F. Pegas, G. Castley, J. Sust. Tour. 24, 604 (2014). 7. SOS Mata Atlântica (www.sosma.org.br). 8. Associação Mico Leão Dourado (www.micoleao.org.br).
Response BUCKLEY AND PEGAS claim that it would
be politically difficult to reallocate agricultural subsidies to conservation. In our Report, we compare the economic costs of a strategy in which land is set aside for restoration to what is currently spent on agricultural subsidies. We do not suggest that agricultural subsidies be reallocated to conservation, but we also do not believe that such a strategy is improbable, as this has already been implemented in the United States (1, 2) and is currently being discussed in Europe (3). Buckley and Pegas then suggest that creating more Private Natural Heritage Reserves would be a more cost-effective strategy to protect the biodiverse regions of the Atlantic Forest. However, as we explained in our Report, preserving the Atlantic Forest is not enough; this biome needs to be restored to fully protect biodiversity. Private Natural Heritage Reserves are essentially a mechanism to preserve existing areas of pristine habitat inside private property and are only rarely used to set aside land to reforestation. The reserves are often managed to attract ecotourism, but it is unclear how degraded
SCIENCE sciencemag.org
land undergoing restoration would serve such a purpose. Private Natural Heritage Reserves would protect additional, pristine land, but the most biodiverse regions of the Atlantic Forest are already protected. One of our main conclusions is that 30% is the minimum amount of habitat needed to preserve biodiversity, and that restoration should be focused on landscapes that currently have between 20 and 30% forest cover. To this end, the protection of remaining Atlantic forest areas through private or public reserves has to be complemented with incentives for forest restoration. Cristina Banks-Leite,1,2* Renata Pardini,3 Leandro R. Tambosi,2 William D. Pearse,4 Adriana A. Bueno,5 Roberta T. Bruscagin,2 Thais H. Condez,6 Marianna Dixo,2 Alexandre T. Igari,7 Alexandre C. Martensen,8 Jean Paul Metzger2 1
Grand Challenges in the Ecosystem and Environment, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot SL5 7PY, UK. 2 Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508–090, São Paulo SP, Brazil. 3Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508–090, São Paulo SP, Brazil. 4Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA. 5Fundação Florestal, 02377–000, São Paulo SP, Brazil. 6Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista, 13506–900, Rio Claro SP, Brazil. 7Curso de Gestão Ambiental, Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades, Universidade de São Paulo, 03828–000, São Paulo SP, Brazil. 8Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3B2, Canada. *Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] REFERENCES
1. S. S. Batie, A. G. Sappington, Am. J. Agricult. Econ. 68, 880 (1986). 2. R. A. Kramer, S. S. Batie, Agricult. Hist. 59, 307 (1985). 3. H. van Zeijts et al., Greening the Common Agricultural Policy: Impacts on Farmland Biodiversity on an EU Scale (PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 2011).
ERRATA Erratum for the Report: “Washing away your sins: Threatened morality and physical cleansing” by C.-B. Zhong and K. Liljenquist, Science 346, aaa2510 (2014). Published online 21 November 2014; 10.1126/science.aaa2510 5 DECEMBER 2014 • VOL 346 ISSUE 6214
Published by AAAS
1193
Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on December 4, 2014
thresholds to evaluate the costs and benefits of set-asides in a biodiversity hotspot” (29 August, p. 1041), C. Banks-Leite et al. calculate that Brazil could protect the most biodiverse 30% of its 143 million hectares of endangered Atlantic forests by reallocating 6.5% of its agricultural subsidies to pay landowners to set aside land for restoration. Reallocations are unlikely, however, because agrosubsidies serve different political constituencies than conservation incentives (1). Meanwhile, a successful and much cheaper stepwise program could be expanded. The region is subdivided into small, scarcely viable, private farm holdings, which are partially forested and partially cleared. For rural properties in this biome, the current Brazilian Forest Code (2) requires 20% of the land to be set aside as protected Legal Reserves (Reservas Legais). These are managed for sustainable use, which includes selective logging. A voluntary land covenant program (3, 4) allows an owner to establish a Private Natural Heritage Reserve (Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural) at the federal, state, or municipal level. Private Natural Heritage Reserves must be managed only for conservation, ecotourism, or education. Because the land is already required to be set aside as a Legal Reserve, opportunity costs for establishing the more conservation-friendly Private Natural Heritage Reserves are minimal. However, landholders are deterred by application and establishment costs. The state government pays conservation incentives to municipalities but not to landholders (5). A few Private Natural Heritage Reserve landholders meet costs through ecotourism, but as yet, only 4% nationally (6). A partnership of local and international nongovernmental organizations (7, 8) has provided strategic small grants known as editais to cover application and management costs for Private Natural Heritage Reserves. For one-third of Private Natural Heritage Reserves nationally, editais were critical in lifting landholders over this final hurdle for forest conservation. To date, this includes 57,000 ha in the Atlantic Forest biome, where the cost of this stepwise approach (7) is only 1 to 5% of the cost of
INSIGHTS | L E T T E R S
ONLINE BUZZ: HIGHER EDUCATION
China’s balancing act
I
n his Editorial “China’s private universities” (24 October, p. 401), H. Jin expresses hope that the Chinese government will soon treat public and private universities equally, giving private institutions the funding and opportunities they need to flourish. Readers analyzed the trade-offs involved in such a decision in the online comments section. Excerpts from their comments are below. Read the full comments, and add your own, at http://comments.sciencemag.org/ content/10.1126/science.1262035.
A selection of your thoughts: …[I]f you…receive any funds from government, then it is impossible to get [around] its constraints. [W]hy are there no investors interested in the private universities? What’s more, nearly all the talented students in China are enrolled in the best public universities…. Thus, it seems unwise to distribute the education funds to the private universities rather than the public ones for the government, as the money is always insufficient. Tong Ruif …From the private university’s perspective…, it’s hardly possible to get any funding from the government, which results in extremely high tuition…; from China’s common families’ perspective, the bad environment of study is [not worth the] expense, [so] the public school will be the priority; from the government’s perspective, lots of private universities are supported or funded by commercial companies or groups (e.g., [Jin] is the president of Sanlian Group), and how to…manage such connections [and potential resulting conflicts of interest] remains to be considered. Eniac Gui …While students and faculty are both eager to embrace an U.S. private university model, in which philanthropists often seed the initial development, such a high-profile, high-impact private university hasn’t flourished…. I believe the private universities need to rely on innovative educational models and show their national stature in attracting bright faculty and students first. Without doing so, [moving] money from any public sources to private [institutions] would be hard to justify for Chinese taxpayers. Jake Chen
April 1-7, 2015
Science & Diplomacy provides an open access forum for rigorous thought, analysis, and insight to serve stakeholders who develop, implement, or teach all aspects of science and diplomacy. Learn more about the latest ideas in science diplomacy and receive regular updates by following @SciDip on Twitter, liking the quarterly’s page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/sciencediplomacy), and registering for free at www.sciencediplomacy.org/user/register.
Join geologist and naturalist Dr. Andre Potochnik to explore the great beauty of these intriguing landscapes! See historic Scotty’s Castle, an immense petroglyph field, tour Hoover Dam, and peer at the Colorado River far below. Learn about adaptations of plants and animals to life in the desert, geologic heritage, and man’s attempts at making a living in this vast desert paradise. $2,795 pp + air
www.ScienceDiplomacy.org
For a detailed brochure, call (800) 252-4910 All prices are per person twin share + air
Science & Diplomacy is published by the Center for Science Diplomacy of the American Associaton for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientfc society.
BETCHART EXPEDITIONS Inc.
17050 Montebello Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014 Email: [email protected] www.betchartexpeditions.com Published by AAAS
