Brazil (Part VIII, English version) - Convention on Biological Diversity

First national report for the <strong>Convention</strong> on Biological Diversity - BRAZILologia Vegetal), the Forest Service (Serviço Florestal), the<strong>Brazil</strong>ian Institute for Forestry Development (Instituto Brasileirode Desenvolvimento Florestal - IBDF) and IBAMA. Itis now linked directly to the Ministry of Environment (MMA).Covering about 137 ha, 67 ha of which are cultivated (theArboretum), the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden ResearchInstitute maintains a collection of considerable scientific,historical and artistic interest. Scientific research thereconcentrates on the propagation, preservation andconservation of tropical flora, besides their programmes inenvironmental education and the development andconservation of its live and preserved scientific collections.The mission of the Research Institute is to... “promote,carry out and divulge technical and scientific research onthe flora of <strong>Brazil</strong> to know and conserve biological diversity,and maintain the reference collections under itsresponsibility.”The Botanical Garden carries out research on communityecology and phytosociology in various parts of the country,and on the biology and seed technology of native speciesand commercially important fruit trees, as well as ornamentaland medicinal plants. It also develops specific projects forenvironmental conservation and management, and promotesthe exchange of species and of information, nationally andinternationally.It has scientific collections totalling some 330,000specimens of dried plants in the herbarium, besides the livecollections in the Arboretum and greenhouses, along with aphotographic library of some 9,000 dried plants; 6,100 driedfruits; 8,000 samples of wood, and a collection of 20,000microscope slides. The Library is one of the most importantin Latin America, with 66,000 volumes and 3,000 rare works.Following the recommendations of the <strong>Convention</strong> onBiological Diversity, the Rio de Janeiro Botanical GardenResearch Institute is setting up a Policy for Collection andAccess to Genetic Resources (Política de Coleção e Acessoa Recursos Genéticos) to regulate the representation,acquisition and transfer of plant specimens in its scientificcollection. Together with botanical gardens in othercountries, it participates in the ´Botanic Garden Policy onAccess and Benefit-Sharing Pilot Project´, the main purposeof which is to facilitate exchanges between countries forbioprospection, including the equitable sharing of thebenefits, and considering their importance in the science,conservation and education.The Atlantic Forest Programme (Programa Mata Atlântica),begun in 1988 in collaboration with the Government,private enterprise and national and international NGOs,involves research in forest fragments, particularly protectedareas. The programme has three components: Floristic andEnvironmental Inventories (Projeto LevantamentosFlorísticos e Ambientais), Revegetation (ProjetoRevegetação), and Information and Services (Projeto Centrode Informações e Serviços). Amongst its main objectivesare: quantitative and qualitative studies of the forested areasof Rio de Janeiro; improvement of methodologies forbiodiversity inventories, the elaboration of models forrevegetation with native species, and conservation of thebiological communities. The project phase include:phenological studies of selected species and seed collectionfor research on germination and propagation; anatomicalstudies, especially of wood with respect to its potential astimber, monitoring Atlantic Forest fragments; and producingvegetation maps through surveys and inventories tomonitoring forest cover. Other important activities includemaintaining and up-dating a computer data bank,publications, and training.The broad aim of the Coastal Zone Programme (ProgramaZona Costeira), begun in 1996, is to increase our knowledgeof THE continental and marine ecosystems, and promotetheir conservation and management. It has two components.The Restinga Project (Projeto Restinga) involves studies ofthe flora of the sandy coastal plains, the structure, dynamicsand regeneration of the plant communities, the preservationof the ethno-botanical traditions of local communities,computer data banks, and the use of geographic informationsystems. The Marine Ecosystems Project (ProjetoEcossistemas Marinhos) involves research on the diversityof <strong>Brazil</strong>’s marine flora, on the structure and dynamics of thepopulations and communities of marine plants important fortheir conservation, on natural banks of economicallyimportant species and systems important for their cultivationand management, and the selection and use of plant speciesto monitor the recovery of areas subject to adverseenvironmental impacts. The Programme is also involved intraining and qualification.The Taxonomic Diversity Programme (Programa DiversidadeTaxonômica), set up in 1996, combines all the researchon plant taxonomy traditionally carried out at the Institute.Its aim is the advancement of knowledge on the compositionand diversity of the <strong>Brazil</strong>ian flora by taxonomic andanatomical research in representative groups, and thedocumentation of the present composition of native florasthrough its representation in the national institutionalcollections. This programme also involves training andqualification, the publication of monographs and taxonomicand geographic revisions of relevant groups, and theorganisation, maintenance and expansion of nationalcollections including herbaria, carpothecas (fruits),xylothecas (wood samples), and arboreta, and thecomputerisation of data banks. It includes three components:1. The Taxonomic Advances and Botanic CollectionsProject (Projeto Avanços Taxonômicos e Coleções121