Strategies and Tools for a Sustainable Rural Rio de Janeiro

This book is a compilation of recent developments in land, ecosystem, and water management in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. The state is located in the biodiversity hotspot of the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica), a biome characterized by high biological diversity and endemism. At the same time the state of Rio de Janeiro emerged to one of the economic hubs in Latin America. This development process has been accompanied by population growth, industrialization, urbanization, as well as consumption and degradation of land and water resources. In the past years many efforts have been made to stop or at least slow down these degradation processes and restore degraded environments with the overall goal to bring together sustainable management of natural resources, nature conservation, and economic development. 

An overview is provided of the different strategies and tools that have been developed in the fields of agriculture, ecosystem management and biodiversity, integrated water management, land restoration, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, as well as environmental governance and economic instruments. This book covers a wide spectrum from applied research to science‐policy interfaces, planning concepts, and technical tools and has a model character for other rural areas in Latin America. Target groups are scientists, practitioners, policy makers and graduate students in the field of environmental management. The different chapters are written by researchers and practitioners of the German‐Brazilian project INTECRAL (Integrated Eco Technologies and Services for a Sustainable Rural Rio de Janeiro), the rural development program Rio Rural under the state secretary for agriculture and animal husbandry, as well as invited scientists from Brazilian universities and research institutes. It bridges existing gaps between science, policies, and practice in rural development.

Udo Nehren is a senior researcher and lecturer in Physical Geography and Ecosystem Management at the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics, TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences, Germany. He received a PhD degree in Geography from Leipzig University, Germany and a habilitation in Geography from University of Passau, Germany. His research emphasizes landscape evolution, ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction and adaptation, and ecosystem management with regional foci in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Udo Nehren is author and editor of books and articles related to these topics and one of the developers of the Massive Open Online Course “Disasters and Ecosystems: Resilience in a Changing Climate”. 

Sabine Schlüter is a professor and senior researcher in Environment and Resource Economics at the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics at TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences, Germany. She holds a PhD in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Bonn, Germany. Her research areas include valuation of environmental goods/services, farm system analysis, regional sector modeling, irrigation management/governance and food production chain analysis. 

Claudia Raedig gained her PhD degree in Biology from Leipzig University, Germany. She works as a senior researcher and lecturer in the field of Biodiversity and Connectivity Conservation at the Institute for Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics at TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Her research focuses on connectivity conservation management, particularly on the development of strategies for enhancing connectivity for biodiversity conservation in tropical and coastal ecosystems in Southeast Asia and Latin America. 

Helga Hissa is a senior soil researcher at EMBRAPA – the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation working at the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Food Supply and Fisheries of the State of Rio de Janeiro where she acts as technical coordinator of the Sustainable Rural Development Program - Rio Rural. She also leads projects in the area of Sustainable Agriculture and Ecosystems Services with support of the Global Environment Facility, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the United Agency for Food and Agriculture. She is an agronomist engineer and earned a MSc degree in Soil Sciences from the Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her work focuses on conservation agriculture, ecosystem services, and environment-agriculture integrated policies aiming at sustainability of conservation agriculture by smallholders.