The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has designated Embrapa Florestas as a Reference Center for Planted Forests. The announcement was made Friday (Oct. 2) during the 10th World Forest Week and the 28th Session of the FAO Committee on Forestry, held at its headquarters in Rome, Italy. This is the first FAO Reference Center for planted forests in the world.

The designation of a Reference Center aims to leverage recognized scientific, technical, and policy expertise in the forestry sector, the organization states.

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Embrapa Florestas is part of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company – Embrapa.

Designated institutions collaborate with the FAO by sharing knowledge in their specific areas of expertise, providing technical advice, data, research, training, technology transfer, and other forms of technical support to the organization and its member states.

With regard to Embrapa Florestas, the division is expected to contribute to the development of productive, resilient, and low-carbon planted forests that are integrated into agricultural systems and to respond to demands for international cooperation.

According to 2025 data from the FAO, planted forests cover approximately 304 million hectares worldwide. Of this total, 157 million hectares consist of intensive forest plantations, primarily intended for production.

China has the largest area of planted forests, followed by the US, Russia, Canada, India, Brazil, Japan, and Sweden.

Data from Brazil’s statistics bureau IBGE indicate that Brazil has approximately 10.4 million hectares of planted forests. Eucalyptus and pine are the most commonly cultivated species, along with araucaria, acacia, rubber tree, yerba mate, teak, paricá, African mahogany, Brazil nut, and Australian cedar.

According to a statement released by FAO Deputy Director-General and Director of the Forestry Division Zhimin Wu, the designation of the first FAO Reference Centers (RCs) in the forestry sector represents a key step forward in mobilizing scientific and technical expertise to address the complex challenges facing forests.

“By connecting specialized knowledge to the needs of countries, we can accelerate knowledge exchange and innovation, as well as help transform science into practical solutions,” he declared.

The Embrapa Florestas RC will operate on an on-demand basis and through joint fundraising in various areas. The RC’s areas of expertise in planted forests include silviculture and sustainable forest management, integrated systems, genetic improvement, forest health and biological pest control, carbon metrics and greenhouse gas mitigation, and the forest bioeconomy and green chemistry.

Embrapa President Silvia Massruhá said that the designation serves as a seal of excellence, enabling the country to collaborate with the FAO on technical training, knowledge exchange, and the development of joint projects.

“We have nearly 50 years of research and science dedicated to forestry development, which today has resulted in this recognition. Through it, Embrapa will be able to both assist other countries and strengthen collaborative efforts and networks within Brazil,” she said.

Rio de Janeiro is among the seven cities worldwide selected as pilot sites for the global Zero Waste Districts program, which focuses on waste management and methane reduction.

According to the Climate Observatory’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals Estimation System (SEEG), Rio de Janeiro ranks first among Brazilian cities in greenhouse gas emissions from the waste sector.

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Also participating in the initiative are the cities of George Town and Kuala Lumpur (in Malaysia); Santiago and Patagonia (in Chile); and Kisumu (in Kenya).

The program is an initiative of the Zero Waste Foundation with support from the international network Global Methane Hub (GMH). The goal is to develop governance, measurement, and financing models for waste management – particularly organic waste – in the districts of the other six pilot cities ahead of the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31), scheduled for November in Antalya, Turkey.

Proposals must be capable of diverting at least 70 percent of waste from landfills by 2030 and 90 percent by 2040. As a result, cities will emit less methane and reduce air pollution, with positive outcomes for the environment and public health.

“Zero Waste Districts offer cities a practical way to deliver these health benefits while creating jobs, recovering valuable resources, and developing solutions that can be scaled up,” says Marcelo Mena, executive director of GMH.

The models will be tested, evaluated, and shared for adoption by neighborhoods in other cities and locations around the world, with the goal of achieving global agreements to reduce methane.

The announcement of the pilot cities was made in New York on Thursday (Sep. 24) during Climate Week, an event that is part of the United Nations’ global climate agenda.

According to Adalberto Maluf, national secretary of the environment at the Ministry of the Environment, Rio de Janeiro’s participation in the program represents an important step toward implementing climate actions. “It was a central element of the COP30 presidency and remains so for the COP31 presidency,” he said.

Model

Maluf points out that Brazil is already familiar with the multiple solutions for reducing methane emissions, with a chain of measures ranging from waste generation to circular economy initiatives.

“Furthermore, preventing food waste is perhaps the most valuable measure, one that also strengthens food security,” the secretary notes.

One example is the implementation of monthly satellite monitoring of methane plumes, which began in 2023 at the Comlurb Waste Treatment Center (CTR-Rio) in Seropédica, in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area.

The initiative helped identify where to take action at the landfill to reduce emissions, and – in collaboration with GMH and Comlurb – it incorporated nearly 500 wells into the biogas collection network in 2025, increasing the use of methane for energy purposes by 7.35 percent compared to 2024.

“CTR-Rio is just one example of a strategy that can be replicated at landfills around the world and lead to healthier and more sustainable communities,” GMH’s regional director for Latin America, Henrique Bezerra, concluded saying.

A new species of glass frog has been described and named Vitreorana micaelae following its discovery in Luziânia, in the state of Goiás. The study was conducted by researchers at the Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás, the Federal University of Goiás, and the University of Brasília (UnB).

The small, greenish, nearly transparent frog caught the attention of a group of researchers led by biologist Wilian Vaz-Silva in the gallery forests bordering small tributaries of the Corumbá River in the Cerrado biome. Although it resembled other known species, the researchers decided to investigate further.

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“After these animals were found and their calls recorded, we began evaluating and comparing them with other groups of glass frogs, because glass frogs are generally more restricted to the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon,” says biologist Reuber Brandão, one of the study’s authors and a member of the Boticário Group Foundation’s Network of Experts in Nature Conservation.

Species

Based on an integrated approach involving different fields of knowledge - morphology, bioacoustics, molecular genetics, and fieldwork - the researchers concluded that this was the 11th species in the glass frog genus. Only four species are found in Brazil, and Vitreorana micaelae is the second species known to occur exclusively in the Cerrado.

According to Brandão, in addition to molecular characteristics that distinguish the species from those already known to science, unique traits were identified in the individuals analyzed. “From a bioacoustic perspective, it is an animal with far fewer vocal notes. It has subtle but consistent differences in the shape of the iris, dorsal pigmentation, and morphology, especially in the region near the cloaca [the terminal opening for excretion and reproduction],” he explains.

The researchers report that the limited knowledge about the species - even among the local Community - is due to the habits of Vitreorana micaelae.

“This creature sings from the tops of trees along steep ravines on the riverbank, and only when it’s raining heavily. So, even for us, who are out in the field searching for these animals, it takes time to find populations in the region,” he points out.

This difficulty in accessing the species, combined with its small size - just over 2 centimeters - and the scattered occurrence of individuals, has prevented it from being associated with a common name already used by local communities.

“People have more common names for amphibians with more noticeable calls, such as the blacksmith tree frog and the barking dwarf frog. These are species that, when you go looking for them, aren’t what people typically think of as frogs - they’re tree frogs or tiny frogs,” says Brandão.

Previous report

During the study, the researchers were also able to better understand the species’ reproductive biology, which is quite similar to that of other species in the same Vitreorana group.

“The pair lays its eggs on the leaves of tall trees. The eggs stick to the leaves, and the male takes care of them. After hatching, the tadpoles fall into the stream below, where they burrow into the sediment,” he notes.

This similarity may have led other researchers who reported sightings of individuals in this region of the Cerrado in 2013 to identify them as a previously described species. “They identified them as Vitreorana eurygnatha and did not realize that it was a new species,” the researcher says.

Classification

The study describing the species was published in the September issue of the scientific journal ZooKeys and recommends that Vitreorana micaelae be classified as Data Deficient (DD) under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) system, due to the need to determine its population size and the threats it faces.

“Following that study, we’ve already identified another location in the Cerrado where the species is present. So far, there are three known locations, but this is new information. It’s currently being studied and hasn’t been published yet,” Brandão adds.

The name chosen for the species reflects the collaboration among the scientists who worked on the study. It honors fellow biologist Micaela de Jolepian L. Vaz, the wife of Wilian Vaz-Silva.

Threat

This joint effort is a race against time, as climate change - which alters the water cycle - and human activities in the Cerrado, including deforestation and the damming of rivers for small hydroelectric plants, directly affect the habitats of amphibians such as the tiny Vitreorana micaelae.

These threats could lead to the extinction of species that have not yet been discovered by science. “Less rain, fewer streams, fewer toads and frogs, and fewer discoveries,” Reuber Brandão concludes.

A report released Tuesday morning (Sep. 22) by the Civil Defense stated that, since last Friday (18), 151 incidents related to strong winds and heavy rains have been recorded in 146 municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

In total, more than 527,000 people across the state have been affected by the weather events of the past few days, with 413 of them left homeless and 2,732 displaced.

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The strong winds and rains also caused damage to 38 educational institutions and 17 health care facilities.

The state Civil Defense agency confirmed the second death resulting from Monday’s (21) severe storm. The victim is a teenager who had been reported missing in the municipality of Caxias do Sul.

The same municipality has reported three other people missing and recorded 159.4 millimeters of rainfall.

The first confirmed death in the state was that of a motorcyclist struck by falling high-voltage power lines during the storm in the city of Pelotas.

According to the local authorities, the weather event - characterized mainly by strong winds that reached 89 km/h - caused roofs to be torn off, trees and utility poles to fall, and power outages in various parts of the city.

A new species of feline, named Leopardus tilcayo, has been identified in the mountain forests of Bolivia, in a region known as Nor Yungas.

The discovery was made by researchers led by Eduardo Eizirik, a professor at the School of Health and Life Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS).

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The scientific description of a new feline species is the first in over a century. The study, published in the scientific journal Current Biology, was based on the genomic analysis of an animal known by the nickname “Tigrino.”

The male was found as a cub in 2016 by a resident of the Nor Yungas region in Bolivia. The specimen was later taken to the La Senda Verde animal sanctuary, where he has remained ever since.

Genomic results were published on September 17 and show that the animal did not belong to the species previously imagined (Leopardus tigrinus), but was part of an evolutionarily distinct lineage that had not yet been recognized by science.

“This study highlights just how much there is still to discover about the planet’s biodiversity. Even among charismatic and well-known animals such as felines, species can remain unknown for centuries. Discovering and understanding these species is vital so that we also know how to protect them,” Eizirik noted.

According to the university, the article Phylogenomics and Museomics Reveal Five Distinct Species of Tiger Cats in South America also provided new insights into the diversity of wildcats known as “tiger cats.”

The research found that the group, which until recently was considered a single species, is in fact composed of five distinct species.

This conclusion was reached thanks to the sequencing and analysis of complete genomes from 38 individuals from different regions of South America. Among the samples analyzed were eight historical specimens housed in museums in Europe and the US.

The wild cats analyzed, Eizirik said, can be classified as cryptic species – animals that look very similar but exhibit genetic differences and independent evolutionary trajectories.

“This visual similarity led to different species being confused and classified as a single species for a long time,” he says.

The research brought together scientists from PUCRS and partner institutions in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Belgium, Colombia, the US, and the UK.

Over the past 41 years, the Atlantic forest has lost nearly 10 million hectares, while the area devoted to agriculture has gained 11 million hectares, as per data in a MapBiomas survey released Monday (Sep. 21), when Arbor Day is celebrated in Brazil.

The survey also shows that one in every four hectares of native vegetation currently found in the Atlantic forest consists of areas that have regrown after being deforested since 1985.

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The data are part of MapBiomas’ annual maps of land cover and land use in Brazil. MapBiomas is a collaborative network of universities, NGOs, and technology companies focused on monitoring changes in land cover and land use in Brazil, with information ranging from 1985 to 2025.

In total, Brazil’s Atlantic forest has lost 9.7 million hectares of mature vegetation since 1985 (areas mapped as native vegetation since 1985). On the other hand, during the same period, the biome gained more than 8 million hectares of secondary vegetation (areas that have regrown after being deforested).

Despite this growth, the data show that deforestation has increasingly targeted regenerated areas with secondary vegetation. For example, from 2021 to 2025, 1.2 million hectares were cleared in the Atlantic forest – 700,000 hectares of secondary vegetation and 500,000 hectares of mature vegetation. Thus, 60 percent of the deforestation that occurred over the past five years affected areas of secondary vegetation.

At the same time, the figures show that, with regard to the clearing of native vegetation, a downward trend has been observed in the Atlantic forest over the historical time series. Since the 2000s, the area of native vegetation cleared has remained below 2 million hectares in each five-year period. According to the study, the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo were the only ones that did not experience any loss of native vegetation over the past 41 years.

Natália Crusco, MapBiomas’ technical coordinator for the Atlantic forest, points out that despite the positive progress made in restoring vegetation cover to areas that had lost their native vegetation, it is essential to prevent deforestation in the biome, which spans 15 states and is designated as a national heritage site under the Brazilian Constitution.

“Regeneration plays a fundamental role in the recovery of the Atlantic forest – whether through restoration or the natural recovery of degraded areas,” said Crusco.

At the same time, she argues, further loss of native vegetation – both mature and secondary – must be prevented, especially in a biome that is so fragmented and has historically been under pressure from human occupation.

Covering an area of some 1.3 million km², the Atlantic forest is the Brazilian biome with the lowest proportion of native vegetation. In 2025, this vegetation covered 32 percent of its territory.

Conversion of grasslands

According to the report, much of the agricultural expansion in the biome occurred at the expense of grasslands, which lost approximately 11 million hectares in the period. Their conversion to agricultural land accounted for 19 percent of the changes in land cover and land use recorded from the beginning (1985) to the end of the time series in 2025.

“Soybean cultivation expanded by 8.7 million hectares over 41 years and covered 11.11 million hectares in 2025 – an area 4.6 times larger than the area recorded in 1985.  Sugarcane expanded by 5 million hectares and reached 6.15 million hectares,  5.3 times the 1985 area,” the document reads.

In 2025, the Atlantic forest accounted for 25 percent of soybean, 50 percent of sugarcane, 68 percent of coffee (833,000 hectares), and 34 percent of citrus (141,000 hectares) of Brazil’s mapped areas.

Another highlight is the expansion of forestry, which increased by 3.8 million hectares, reaching 4.9 million hectares in 2025. That year, half of Brazil’s mapped forestry area was located in the Atlantic forest. Paraná and Santa Catarina accounted for 46 percent of the biome’s forestry area.

Urbanized areas

Urbanized areas grew 2.5 times in the Atlantic forest from 1985 to 2025. The expansion stood at 1.3 million hectares, bringing the total area to 2.3 million hectares. More than half – 52 percent – of all urbanized areas in Brazil were located in this biome by 2025.

The states of São Paulo, Paraná, and Minas Gerais recorded the largest absolute gains in urbanized areas from 1985 to 2025.

A silent machine works constantly to ensure that millions of people in South America have access to water, rivers, and crops. This mechanism is called the Amazon, and it works as follows – moisture from the ocean produces rain over the forest; the water is absorbed from the soil by the trees and released back into the atmosphere as vapor; the wind then spreads this vapor across the entire continent, causing rain in various regions.

Researcher Julia Valentim Tavares explains that this is South America’s primary water infrastructure and the largest “rain machine” on the planet. A mature tree in the Amazon can release 200 to 300 liters of water into the atmosphere every day.

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“Imagine 400 billion of them working together every day. If we could visualize that moisture, we’d see giant rivers flying through the sky. That’s what we scientists call ‘flying rivers.’”

Marielos Peñaclaros, co-chair of the Scientific Panel for the Amazon – an organization that brings together more than 350 scientists dedicated to studying the biome – emphasizes that the forest is the backbone of water, nutrient, and carbon cycles at the local, regional, and global levels.

“In other words, the Amazon sustains life – not only in the Amazon region but on the planet as a whole.”

The two specialists participated in the latest edition of TEDxAmazônia, held in late August in Ecuador. TEDxAmazônia stems from a commitment to listening deeply to this region. It is the only TEDx event dedicated to a single biome. The conversations that emerge at these gatherings “cross borders, connect knowledge, and bridge the local and the global,” a text on the TEDx website reads.

Warning

In addition to emphasizing the importance of this water system, the scientists issued a warning – the devastation of the Amazon is already affecting the “rain machine,” and its breakdown would be catastrophic for the entire planet.

Activities such as mining and drug trafficking, combined with deforestation and wildfires, have directly impacted Amazonian connectivity – a key factor for the conservation of the biome, Marielos noted.

“The Amazon is a living mosaic of interconnected terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, home to a great diversity of cultures. These communities have a deep and interdependent relationship with the ecosystems through their ways of life, management practices, and knowledge.”

The effects on the climate are already measurable, she said, with evidence that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon results in less rainfall in regions of Brazil and Bolivia. In deforested areas, temperatures have risen, and dry seasons are becoming more intense and longer.

Julia Valentim Tavares is also measuring these effects from within the trees along the southern edge of the Amazon – a region known as “arc of deforestation” – where rainfall has already decreased and temperatures have risen over the past decade. She is investigating how long these trees can withstand droughts before their internal “ropes” are damaged.

“If the soil has water, this rope remains intact. During a dry season, the soil loses its water, and this rope becomes taut. The atmosphere pulls it upward, the soil pulls it downward, until the rope finally snaps. If this happens repeatedly in various parts of the tree, the tree literally begins to die of thirst.”

Global warming

In recent years, the region has also suffered from the effects of global warming. In 2024, the Amazon faced the worst drought in its history as a result of El Niño – a natural phenomenon involving the warming of Pacific Ocean waters that alters atmospheric circulation and has been growing in intensity.

Marielos points out that 88 percent of the Amazon basin felt the effects of this drought, which also disrupted the “rain machine.” Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, located in the Andes region, suffered from water shortages. In Quito, Ecuador – which is also outside the Amazon – water shortages led to power outages.

“The question we should all be asking is, where does the water for countless Latin American cities come from? Where does the water we use in agriculture, industry, and food production come from?” asked the co-chair of the scientific panel for the Amazon.

The drought also rendered the Amazon more vulnerable to wildfires, which reached record levels that year. Julia Valentim Tavares notes that smoke from the fires spread across the country, reaching as far as the Brazilian Southeast.

“This casts light on two key issues – first, the Amazon has never been far away. What happens in the forest does not stay in the forest. And second – millions of people depend on the Amazon, yet they still do not feel connected to it.”

The forecast that a super El Niño will occur this year has alarmed the scientists. “When these droughts occur, the forest either faces mortality due to water stress, or stops growing – plus wildfires. As a result, the Amazon ceases to function as a carbon sink and becomes a source of emissions, contributing to global warming,” she warned.

“We’re expecting it to be as strong as or stronger than in 2024, but the main difference is that last time, things happened that no one was expecting. How could a river dry up in the Amazon? Now everyone is talking about it,” Marielos noted.

In her view, a definitive solution will only be achieved through a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, which depends heavily on replacing fossil fuels with less polluting energy sources.

“We also have to invest in connectivity – restoring degraded areas, rehabilitating those that were deforested for production, and reestablishing this ecological connectivity, because the Amazon is already approaching the point of no return, and because the total loss of this connectivity would be catastrophic for the entire world.”

*The reporter attended TEDxAmazônia at the invitation of the event organizers.