Biofuels and biodiversity: Challenges

and opportunities

Luciano M. VerdadeAssociate Professor

USP / CENA / Isotopic Ecology LabMember of the Steering Committee of the Biota Program FAPESP

Bioenergy & Sustainability: A SCOPE series volume

Launching the report of a global assessment of bioenergy sustainability

São Paulo City

April 14, 2015

1

Impacts on biodiversity

Biofuels expansions

↓

Agricultural impacts

2

Impacts on biodiversity

3

dLUC/iLUC

↓

Habitat loss

↓

Direct biodiversity loss(r, N, αβ-diversity)

Impacts on biodiversity

4

Intensification

↓

Context specific(Positive & Negative)

5

6

7

From pastures to sugarcane

- Original biome: Atlantic Forest

- ↓ Birds; ↑ Rodents;

- ↑ Agrochemicals → ↓↓ Birds;

- ↑ Rodents → ↑ Mesopredators;

- ↑ Rodents → ↑ Diseases (e.g., Hantavirus,

Leptospirosis, Spotted fever etc);

- ↑ Rodents → ↑ Agrochemicals.

8

From pastures to eucalyptus

- Original biome: Cerrado

- ↓ Birds; ↑ Rodents; ↑ Amphibians; ↑ Reptiles

- ↑ Rodents → ↑ Mesopredators;

- ↑ Rodents → ↑ Diseases (e.g., Hantavirus,

Leptospirosis, Spotted fever etc);

- ↑ Rodents → ↑ Agrochemicals;

- ↑ Agrochemicals → ↓↓ Birds;

9

10

Sugarcane management: Pre-harvest fire vs

wild rodents vs Hantavirus

Rodents abundance Hantavirus prevalence

11

Opportunities...

• Agricultural landscape matrices are habitats!

• Wildlife friendly management techniques

• Widlife management in agricultural landscapes

• Multifunctional agricultural landscapes

• Public policy & Certification: Monitoring

• Conceptual basis, innovation & governance

12

13

14Myrmecophaga tridactyla