The Red Book of the Flora of Brazil celebrates its 10th anniversary

A decade ago, on December 3, 2013, the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden (JBRJ) launched  the “Livro Vermelho da Flora do Brasil” (Red Book of the Flora of Brazil) through the National Center for Flora Conservation (CNCFlora). The publication was a milestone, bringing together, organizing and making available to society for the first time the knowledge produced by scientists up to that point on the conservation status of Brazilian plant species.

When talking about the Red Book, we must also remember the Official List of Endangered Species of Brazilian Flora published in December 2014, because both were the result of the same work, which developed from the creation, in December 2008, of the National Center for Flora Conservation - CNCFlora, within the Scientific Research Directorate of the JBRJ. The Center was created with the mission of preventing the extinction of species of Brazilian flora, a task assigned to the JBRJ by the Ministry of the Environment (MMA).

 "After receiving the mandate from the Ministry, our first job was to assess the conservation status of the species in order to support the Official List of Endangered Brazilian Flora Species. This was done and sent, with all the documentation, to the MMA," says CNCFlora's general coordinator, Gustavo Martinelli.

The List is a document with legal effects for the protection of these species, published by the MMA through an ordinance and updated periodically. The Book, on the other hand, is an academic product, featuring photos, maps, articles and more information on each species, and was published even before the official list.

 The work involved the collaboration of around 200 specialists, both Brazilian and foreign. A system had to be developed to allow them to work online to evaluate 4,617 species of Brazilian flora that were already on different threat lists. From this set, they concluded that 2,118 species were effectively threatened with extinction - a figure that resulted from a rigorous application of the criteria and categories of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

 Organized by researchers Gustavo Martinelli and Miguel Avila Moraes and edited by Andrea Jakobsson Estúdio, the Red Book was awarded the Jabuti Prize in 2014 in the "Natural Sciences" category, in recognition of its importance and quality. The book's success culminated in the IUCN's recognition of CNCFlora as an authority on red lists in Brazil, which means that the assessments made by the Centre are now also incorporated into the international organization's red list.

 In these ten years, great progress has been made in the field of botany and conservation in the country. Martinelli recalls that, when the evaluation work began, there wasn't even a consolidated list of all the native species in Brazil known to science until then, with their scientific names validated, which made the work quite difficult. "That's why the first funds we received from GEF Pro-Bio II were to contribute to the Brazilian Flora List project," says Martinelli.

 The List of the Flora of Brazil later evolved into the current Flora and Fungi of Brazil, with almost 49,000 species native to Brazilian territory cataloged. "Today, the CNCFlora and Flora e Funga systems are integrated. When the specialist updates the data on one of the platforms, the other is automatically updated as well," says Martinelli.

 In 2014, CNCFlora also published the "Livro Vermelho da Flora do Brasil - Plantas Raras do Cerrado" (Red Book of the Flora of Brazil - Rare Plants of the Cerrado) and, in 2018, the " Livro Vermelho da Flora Endêmica do Estado do Rio de Janeiro" (Red Book of the Endemic Flora of the State of Rio de Janeiro). The work of assessing the conservation status of endangered species of Brazilian flora continues, including field expeditions to collect species and obtain more information on which to base new assessments.