ABOUT
Every year, thousands of new species are described by scientists, most of them from tropical regions. Although the diversity of nature seems boundless, it is incredibly fragile, and the future of humanity – literally – depends on it. The “Hyperdiversity” platform was built to showcase both the abundance and fragility of nature based on the experiences of the Sustainable Amazon Network (Rede Amazonia Sustentavel; RAS) in the Brazilian Amazon, working in partnership with Ambiental Media. Our intention with this project was to highlight Brazil’s vital role for the maintenance of the world’s biodiversity, and contribute to efforts that help us understand the hyperdiversity of tropical biomes on the planet.
The main database for the maps, graphs and infographics in the platform is the paper “The future of hyperdiverse tropical ecosystems”, published in July 2018 in Nature, authored by Jos Barlow (et al), from Lancaster University (UK).
We thank the following for providing data: Birdlife International, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Ocean Biogeographic Information System, C. Veron for zooxanthellate corals, the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Program (LBA) and National Environment Research Council grant NE/P004512/1 for forest birds, John Fell Fund for savannah birds, Pew Marine Fellows Program of The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (PELD 441659/2016-0).
Sustainable Amazon Network (RAS)
RAS was created in 2009 with the objective of generating and applying scientific evidence to help strengthen sustainability outcomes in the Amazon region. RAS is coordinated by researchers at Embrapa (Eastern Amazon unit) and the Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture, at the University of São Paulo (Brazil); Lancaster University, University of Oxford and Manchester Metropolitan University (UK); Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI, in Sweden). RAS is composed of over 100 researchers and students working in different research fields focusing on land use, forest conservation and sustainable development in the region. Visit: https://www.rasnetwork.org/en/
Ambiental Media
We transform scientific content into innovative, attractive and accessible journalism. We work to disseminate science to the general public and strengthen independent scientific journalism in Brazil. Visit: https://ambiental.media/en/
SUSTAINABLE AMAZON NETWORK STEERING COMMITTEE
Joice Ferreira
Joice is a researcher at Eastern Amazon Embrapa, a biologist, co-founder of the Sustainable Amazon Network (RAS), and professor in the post-graduate programme at the Federal University of Pará. She has been doing research in the Amazon for 20 years, encompassing the search for solutions to reconcile environmental conservation, agriculture, and forest use.
Jos Barlow
Jos is a Professor of Conservation at Lancaster University, UK, and co-founder of the Sustainable Amazon Network (RAS), he is a faculty member in the post-graduate programme at the Federal University of Pará and leads several research projects in the region of Santarém (Pará). He has been working in the Brazilian Amazon since 1998.
Toby Gardner
Toby is a Senior Researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), where he is director of the Transparency for Sustainable Economies (Trase) initiative. He has over 15 years of experience in sustainable land use in the tropics. He works extensively in the Brazilian Amazon, and is one of the co-founders of the Sustainable Amazon Network (RAS).
Alexander Lees
Alex is a Senior Lecturer in conservation biology at Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom and research associate of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, USA. He has been working in Amazonia since 2004, and is particularly interested in the ecology, evolution and conservation of tropical birds.
Erika Berenguer
Erika is a senior researcher at the University of Oxford and at Lancaster University (United Kingdom). he is an expert in tropical rainforests; her studies focus on understanding how human-caused disturbances lead to the degradation of tropical rainforests, specifically their effects on carbon stocks and plant diversity in the Brazilian Amazon.
Cecília Leal
Cecilia is a biologist and researcher at the University of São Paulo (USP), on the Luiz de Queiroz School of Agriculture (ESALq) campus, she began her work in the Amazon during her doctoral studies at the Federal University of Lavras (MG) and at Lancaster University (United Kingdom), in 2009. Between 2016 and 2018, she was a fellow at the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, in Belém (Pará), in Brazil. Throughout a decade of research in the Amazon, she has been investigating the impacts of human activity on the biodiversity of the igarapés, the Amazonian streams.
Filipe França
Filipe is a researcher at Lancaster University (UK), he has been investigating insects in the Brazilian Amazon since 2008, when he first visited forests and savannas in the region. During his doctoral studies at the Federal University of Lavras (MG) and at Lancaster University, he investigated how human activities influence the diversity of dung beetles and the ecological processes they carry out. Between 2018 and 2020, he was a fellow at Embrapa (Eastern Amazon unit) and the Federal University of Pará, in Belém, Brazil.
MEDIA AND DATA TEAM
Thiago Medaglia – Coordinator and Editor
A journalist and writer, he is the founder of Ambiental Media. He has been editor for National Geographic Brazil magazine, a fellow of the Knight Science Journalism at MIT 2020, and a speaker at the latest two World Conferences of Science Journalists (WCSJ, 2017 and 2019).
Ronaldo Ribeiro – Editor
A senior editor for National Geographic Brazil magazine for two decades, he founded and edited Os Caminhos da Terra magazine, a pioneer in ecotourism and environmental conservation coverage in Brazil. Throughout his career, Ronaldo has written stories from 30 countries and all 27 of the Brazilian states.
Gareth Lennox – Scientific Database
Gareth is a Senior Research Associate at Lancaster Environment Centre. He completed his PhD in theoretical ecology at the University of Sheffield in 2015, and he has an undergraduate degree in mathematics and master’s degree in ecology from the University of St. Andrews. He is especially interested in questions that bridge the theoretical-empirical divide to uncover innovative methods to conserve nature.
Letícia Maria Klein Lobe – Reporter
A journalist focusing on the environment, Letícia is one of Ambiental Media’s main contributors. Author of the blog Sustenta Ações (sustentaacoes.com), her stories have been published on National Geographic Brazil (online), Mongabay, Conexão Planeta and Projeto Colabora.
Alan Azevedo – Reporter
With a BA in Journalism from PUC University, in São Paulo, Brazil (2013), he has experience working in the third sector, in organizations such as Greenpeace and the Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA), covering the socio-environmental agenda. He is currently working on humanitarian response coverage as a journalist for the UN’s Agency for Refugees (UNHCR).
Flavio Forner – Programmer
A photojournalist and web developer, he worked on projects for National Geographic magazine and the newspapers The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Deutsche Welle, O Estado de S. Paulo and Folha de S. Paulo; The BBC and TV Cultura. He was awarded by the Society for News Design, in 2010.
João Marcos Rosa – Photographer
With a BA in Journalism, photographer João Marcos Rosa is an expert in capturing wildlife and conservation related subjects, which has sent him around the world in search of great and fascinating stories. He collaborates with National Geographic Brazil, BBC Wildlife, GEO and Terra Mater magazines. Author of the books “Harpia” and “Fauna de Carajás”, he lives in Nova Lima (Minas Gerais), Brazil, and is a partner at Nitro Imagens.
Caroline Donatti – Media promotion and engagement
With experience in the fields of planning and executing media campaigns on tropical rainforests, climate change, agriculture and renewable energy targeted at a widespread audience, she has also designed and implemented many campaign projects with an international focus. She worked at Greenpeace and WRi Brasil and currently works as a freelancer.
Café.art.br – Infographics
Information Design Studio. Café combines design and technology to conceptualize, design, develop and deliver interactive data visualizations, dashboards, infographics and websites to partners and projects that are aligned with the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We work side by side with Ambiental Media in understanding the content and the message being conveyed. Once we know the data, we apply the power of design to communicate the message in the best possible way, eliminating noise and bringing focus to what is most important.