The Atlantic Forest and the role of Indigenous people in Reforestation
There is a lot of information coming your way every single day. Much of it is not even really conscious. We scroll through social media and see news headlines and have to make a judgment call. Do I click the link to learn more? Am I expecting to read something positive? or am I going to read about YET ANOTHER THING I HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT? And I’ve always wondered how this newsletter could be a part of this constant stream of information you get.
When I was 18 I started a radio show in which I mostly played music. However, since I was always interested in “sciency” stuff, I added a “Scientific fact of the day” segment after a while. At the time, I was mostly reciting things from pop science magazines and I was using it mostly as something fun to differentiate myself from other producers of the radio show. I thought to myself, it’s fun and people also might learn something so there is no downside! As I grew older, did my own research (cliche term but I do mean actual research, a PhD, and the works) and started trying to change the way I talk about science. I still try to make it as fun as possible but always with the intent to make people understand both the new information but also the work it takes in order to obtain those results. Sometimes the research deals with a global problem that needs attention. A problem that if we neglect could have catastrophic implications for millions of people.
This means that sometimes the newsletter will deal with “yet another thing you have to worry about”. As it has in the past. But I also consider the position that this newsletter has in your life and in the larger scheme of things as well. My audience is small (almost reaching 100 subscribers by the way… please share to hit that number) and quite diverse. Not everyone can worry about everything. Hell, I can’t worry about everything. But when I share things like today’s newsletter I hope that you just become more aware of how big the world is and if by any chance you hear about “The Atlantic Forest” you know where that is. Because before I read the study we’ll talk about today, I had no idea what the Atlantic Forest was, and what was happening there.
Where is the Atlantic Forest?
This week I came across an article from Yale Environment360 talking about the Atlantic Forest. The Atlantic Forest spans from northeast Brazil and reaches as far as Paraguay and Argentina. The first is home to a big variety of animals like jaguars, sloths, toucans, and more. Just 1 hectare of the Atlantic Forest can support 450 species of trees. Seven percent of the world’s plant species and 5% of the world’s vertebrate animal species are found there. And many of these plants and animals are endemic, meaning they don’t exist anywhere else on Earth.[source]
It is considered the second-largest rainforest in Brazil (behind the Amazon) with largely similar problems that you would expect. Mining, cattle ranching, and hydroelectric projects are claiming quite a big chunk of land which then creates problems for local biodiversity and displaces local communities. And how big that problem is you might ask? About 12% of the Atlantic Forest remains intact and we barely see it in the news. To get a sense of how big this is, 83% of the Amazon rainforest is still intact. Granted, in absolute numbers much more rainforest has been destroyed in the Amazon but the 12% number is much lower than what experts recommend maintaining. Experts say that once forest coverage drops below 30% flora and fauna are at risk of disappearing.
The Role of Indigenous People in the Restoration of the Atlantic Forest
The article that was published earlier this year aimed to see what is the effect of “tenure” on the forest cover change in 129 indigenous lands in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil from 1985 to 2019. Tenure in this context means areas where “communities' rights are legally defined as being unlimited in duration, where they have the legal right to exclude outsiders from using their resources, and they are entitled to due process and compensation in the face of potential extinguishment by the State of some or all of their rights”[source]
The study looked at satellite imagery of 129 Indigenous territories in the Atlantic Forest from 1985 to 2019, and found less deforestation and more reforestation in the areas where Indigenous communities had land tenure. And that makes sense, right? These communities often have a strong incentive to conserve and restore forests, so institutional support and legal recognition can help them protect forests more effectively.
The big hurdle for the Indigenous people is the formal recognition of their lands since it requires a political initiative that would help them protect their areas.
The Article from Yale Environment360 details the struggles of the Guarani Mbya people who are working to restore the forest in their lands. It is a great read from Jill Langlois and I am encouraging you to go read more details in her article here.
The state of brain tumor programs in Asia and Africa
A large team of researchers from India, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, Rwanda, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, the Philipines, Senegal, Sudan and Indonesia wanted to find out how well their countries are dealing with brain tumors. They conducted a survey with 27 questions and sent it in order to gain insight into the status and the future directions of brain tumor programs within Asia and Africa. They found out that there are six important things that countries need to focus on surgery, oncology, neuropathology, research, training, and finances. They ranked each country from Level I to VI based on how good they are at these things.
So what did they find? Well, most countries in Asia and Africa are at Level III brain tumor program, with a score of 2.24 for surgery. But there were some countries that didn't even have a neurosurgeon! And the doctors found that the areas that needed the most improvement were neuropathology and financial support. In other words, they need more brain doctors and more money to help people with brain tumors. Sadly I could only find the abstract of the article but it is an interesting topic to see how countries in these regions are dealing with a serious problem. Worldwide, an estimated 308,102 people were diagnosed with a primary brain or spinal cord tumor in 2020[source]
Any more news?
People in academia are constantly coming up with new and exciting things so if you need more to quench your curiosity here are some more headlines.
World's First Wood Transistor Chops Out at 1 Hz, by Tom’s Hardware
Brain Activity Decoder Can Reveal Stories in People’s Minds, by UT Texas
Don’t Forget: What is the peer review process?
That’s all for this week! I hope that the rest of the week will be calm and rewarding. Did you like this newsletter? If you did you can subscribe to it at the top of the page and why not share it around using this sexy little button here
If you have any questions, suggestions, or something you want to talk about why not write a comment right below here? That’s the easiest way for us to communicate!
Until next week… take care and be kind [=
Very interesting newsletter about concerning topic, and then you casually drop an article about how we're close to developing mind reading technology.