System complexity and policy integration challenges: The Brazilian Energy- Water-Food Nexus

The Energy-Water-Food Nexus is one of the most complex sustainability challenges faced by the world. This is particularly true in Brazil, where insufficiently understood interactions within the Nexus are contributing to large-scale deforestation and land-use change, water and energy scarcity, and increased vulnerability to climate change. The reason is a combination of global environmental change and global economic change, putting unprecedented pressures on the Brazilian environment and ecosystems. In this paper, we identify and discuss the main Nexus challenges faced by Brazil across sectors (e.g. energy, agriculture, water) and scales (e.g. federal, state, municipal). We use four case studies to explore all nodes of the Nexus. For each, we analyse data from economic and biophysical modelling sources in combination with an overview of the legislative and policy landscape, in order to identify governance shortcomings in the context of growing challenges. We analyse the complex interdependence of developments at the global and local (Brazilian) levels, highlighting the impact of global environmental and economic change on Brazil and, conversely, that of developments in Brazil for other countries and the world. We conclude that there is a need to adjust the scientific approach to these challenges as an enabling condition for stronger science-policy bridges for sustainability policy-making. © 2019 The Author(s

Considerações sobre a legislação correlata à zona-tampão de unidades de conservação no Brasil Interpretation of the legislation about buffer zones of protected areas in Brazil

Zonas tampão são áreas ao redor de unidades de conservação, sujeitas a normas específicas, que visam mitigar impactos sobre os ecossistemas protegidos. Analisamos os instrumentos jurídicos que tratam dessas zonas no Brasil e consideramos que podem ser classificadas como limitações ao exercício do direito de propriedade, cabendo aos gestores das unidades de conservação, juntamente com os órgãos licenciadores, indicar quais atividades devem ser submetidas ao licenciamento ambiental para que possam ser instaladas ao redor de unidades de conservação.<br>Buffer zones are areas around natural reserves under special laws, aiming at minimizing threats to the protected ecosystems. After analyzing the Brazilian legislation concerning the subject, we interpret buffer zones as a sort of limitation to the property rights. It is in the hands of the managers of protected areas, together with the licensing institutions, to indicate which activities are potentially of great impact and must have an environmental license to be permitted in the buffer zone of protected areas