Summer Series 2023: Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development

Funding source: Deborah Lafer-Scher

My name is Noah Kogut Levin, and over the summer of 2023 I did two different internships sponsored by the CCPA in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While my first internship, which I made a video about, was with renowned biologist Mário Moscatelli, working hands-on in preserving the local mangrove ecosystems, my second internship was with an environmental NGO, known as the Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development (FBDS). This NGO works on many different issues, such as improving and amending the 2012 Brazilian forest code, and implementing it in areas of the Amazon, or on helping agricultural corporations establish sustainable agricultural practices. However, my internship was focused specifically on their project involving the infamous dam break in Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

On the 5th of November in 2015, a dam broke in Mariana, Minas Gerais, spilling 40 billion liters of toxic mud containing mineral waste. The mud had a height of 1.5 meters, and covered an area 550 kilometers that included regions of the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, until eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean. The event killed 19 people, but impacted thousands more, destroying entire villages, displacing hundreds of people, and contaminating the water sources of many different local counties. The Rio Doce is a very large river that runs from the Atlantic Ocean through Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais, providing the main water source for many of the counties of those states. However, this dam break completely devastated the river, wiping out tonnes of fish species, contaminating its waters, which made the river no longer a viable water source as well as seriously threatening the local fishing industry, which was one of the main sources of income for the area. Furthermore, many entire permanent preservation areas (PPAs) were wiped out by the dam break. Overall, this event is considered the worst socio-ecological event in Brazilian history.

My internship was a part of a collaborative effort between the FBDS, the NGO I was interning for, and the Renova Foundation, an NGO dedicated solely to restoring the areas impacted by the catastrophic Mariana dam break, through environmental restoration, socio-economic restoration, and indemnities. The main objective of this collaborative project is to restore the biodiversity that was lost in the area. Thus, the FBDS was tasked with identifying all the species of fauna and flora inhabiting the region of Rio Doce, as well as determining the conservation status of each species, based on the globally recognized IUCN Red List methods. The FBDS was also tasked with figuring out which parts of the devastated region are hotspots for the most threatened species, as well as which areas were important biodiversity corridors. Biodiversity corridors are areas that allow species to travel from one part of a forest or ecosystem to another with cover and protection from predators, while also providing food and shelter for those animals. They are essential for maintaining biodiversity. Therefore, through this work done by the FBDS, the Renova Foundation will then know which areas of the affected region they should prioritize during their restoration process.

My role in this project was related to the Red Book that the FBDS was working on: an official report with all 400 species and their endangerment status, as well as where they are mainly found. Essentially, the red book is the FBDS end-product that the Renova Foundation will use to learn about every species in the area. More specifically, my job was to find images of each species to place in the red book. I was given the list of species, and had to search for each one in several government or reliable biodiversity websites, preferably looking for photos in nature with a creative commons license. If, as was often the case, there were literally no photos of that species with that license, I would have to find one with a commercial license, and find the name of the author as well as their contact information, for the NGO to reach out to them afterwards. I learned a lot through this process about many different species of flora and fauna. This ranged from learning about species I had never heard of, such as the red-browed and the rainbow boa, to learning their geographic range and their endangerment status, as well as their taxonomy and their threats. In addition to this, I improved my research skills significantly, as I spent a lot of time looking for the authors of the images I found online, since many nature photographers do not leave any contact information on their profile on popular nature websites. During this process, I worked 6 hours a day for three weeks, completing 400 photos in total, which were uploaded to a google folder that was shared with my supervisor.

It was very interesting to experience the more theoretical, technological side of the environmentalism field, after working at my first internship, which had a hands-on, in-the-field approach. Through this combination, I got a more complete understanding of the many difficulties within this field. My first internship, through its hands-on nature, allowed me to see firsthand the devastation of ecosystems and their biodiversity, as well as the difficulties one faces when working inside those ecosystems. On the other hand, this second internship showed me the process of restoring biodiversity from the more bureaucratic, legislative side. Furthermore, my first internship was of a smaller, local scale, while my second internship covered a much greater area, at a much larger scale. Thus, despite providing very different and unique experiences, these two internships were complementary in the sense that they elucidate the process of preserving and restoring biodiversity. As a result, I now have a more informed understanding of this field, which will allow me to focus more on what specific career within the field I would like to pursue, such as a policymaker or a biologist.