Abstract:
The program “REFLORA - Brazilian Plants: Historic Rescue and Virtual Herbarium for Knowledge and Conservation of the Brazilian Flora” was established by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in 2010, involved numerous participants at the international, federal, state, and private company levels, and included approximately 24.5 million reais in investments over a period of 5 years. It had the objective of rescuing and making available images and information about herbarium specimens of Brazilian plants deposited in foreign collections. Under the auspices of this program, research projects were financed with consumable, durable, and grant resources that covered aspects of taxonomy, evolution and phytogeographic adaptation, molecular biology, conservation, use, and historical details of expeditions and their relationship to the colonization of Brazil. Additionally, using subsidies from the REFLORA Program, the REFLORA Virtual Herbarium was created allowing the program to fulfill its initial objectives of receiving 500 thousand images and repatriating data from the RBG-Kew and MNHN-Paris herbaria, as well as data and images from other national and foreign herbaria that were subsequently added. This article describes the historical context of creating and implementing the REFLORA Virtual Herbarium, which has become one of the most important tools for research and advancing knowledge about the biodiversity of plants and fungi, in addition to being fundamental to fulfill international goals and agreements assumed by Brazil, such as Flora of Brazil 2020.
Keywords Botanical Collections; Human Resource Training; Repatriation of Data; National Council for Scientific and Technological Development; International Cooperation
Resumo:
O Programa “Plantas do Brasil: Resgate Histórico e Herbário Virtual para o Conhecimento e Conservação da Flora Brasileira – REFLORA”, lançado pelo Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) em 2010, envolveu inúmeros parceiros, em nível internacional, federal, estadual e empresas privadas, totalizando aproximadamente 24,5 milhões de reais em investimentos no período de 5 anos. Teve como objetivo resgatar e disponibilizar imagens e informações de exemplares herborizados de plantas brasileiras depositadas em coleções no exterior. Sob os auspícios do Programa, projetos de pesquisas foram financiados com recursos de custeio, capital e bolsas, e abordaram aspectos de taxonomia, evolução a adaptação fitogeográfica, dinâmica populacional, biologia molecular, conservação, uso e aspectos históricos das expedições e a relação com a colonização do Brasil. Adicionalmente, com os subsídios do Programa REFLORA, o Herbário Virtual REFLORA foi criado, permitindo o cumprimento dos objetivos iniciais do Programa com o acolhimento de mais de 500 mil imagens e dados repatriados dos herbários do RBG-Kew e do MNHN de Paris, assim como, dados e imagens de outros herbários nacionais e internacionais, que foram sendo agregados posteriormente. Este artigo descreve o contexto histórico de criação e de implementação do Programa e do Herbário Virtual REFLORA, que se tornou uma das ferramentas mais importantes para as pesquisas e para o avanço do conhecimento sobre a biodiversidade de plantas e de fungos, sendo fundamental para o cumprimento de metas e acordos internacionais assumidos pelo Brasil como a Flora do Brasil 2020.
Palavras-chave: Coleções Botânicas; Formação de Recursos Humanos; Repatriamento de Dados; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico; Cooperação internacional
Historical Context
Since the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established in 1972, the signatory countries have implemented various policies and actions centered on a commitment to environmental responsibility). Among these, aimed at promoting global sustainability, are Agenda 21 and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (PNUMA, 1992) as fundamental actions of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, also known as ECO-92.
On April 19, 2002, the CBD signatory countries approved the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) at the 6th Conference of the Parties (COP 6) in The Hague. The main objective of the GSPC is to counter the loss of plant diversity by overseeing a series of subobjectives to understand, document, conserve, sustainably use, educate, and promote awareness of the plant diversity on the planet.
Given the need to understand and document the diversity of plants, the GSPC highlights the following:
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(i)
Document the plant diversity of the world, including the way it is used and distributed in nature, in protected areas, and ex situ collections;
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(ii)
Monitor the state and tendencies of the global plant diversity, including the conservation and threats to the plant diversity, and identify (considering “red lists”) the plant species, plant communities, habitats and associated ecosystems at risk;
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(iii)
Develop an integrated, distributed, interactive information system to manage and provide information about the plant diversity;
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(iv)
Promote research about genetic, systematic, taxonomic, ecological and biological diversity in relation to the conservation of plants, plant communities, habitats and associated ecosystems, as well as about social, cultural and economic factors that impact the biodiversity, so that plant diversity, both in nature and in the context of human activities, is well understood and used to support conservation actions.
The GSPC was renewed and updated on October 29, 2010, during the 10th COP in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, with the adoption of a new 1st goal of developing an online flora of the world by 2020 (https://www.cbd.int/decision/cop/?id=12283). The vision of the GSPC in the last decade has been “without plants, there is no life.”
In January 2012, in St. Louis, U.S.A., representatives of the Missouri Botanical Garden, New York Botanical Garden, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, met to discuss how to meet Goal 1 of the GSPC by 2020. The meeting resulted in a proposed outline of the scope and content of the World Flora Online (WFO), as well as a discussion to form an international consortium of institutions and organizations to collaborate in providing this content. The WFO project was launched in India, during an event parallel to the 11th COP of the CBD, in October 2012 (Jackson & Miller 2015; Loizeau & Jackson 2017; Bosch et al. 2020). Since then, several institutions in the world have joined the initiative, including Brazil via the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden Research Institute (Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro) (Loizeau & Jackson 2017).
The WFO (https://www.worldfloraonline.org) provides free access to information about the known plant species in the world, and Brazil is one of the countries that provides the most data to this platform (BFG 2021).
Since the establishment of the CBD in 1992, Brazil, as a signatory, initiated principles and guidelines to implement a National Biodiversity Policy (Política Nacional da Biodiversidade; PNB) through Decree N° 4.339 on August 22, 2002. The PNB covers 7 components, and in 4 of these biological collections are fundamental to achieve the following objectives:
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Institute a national, coordinated, and shared system of records of species in Brazil and other areas under its jurisdiction that creates, supports, consolidates, and integrates national and regional scientific collections and reference centers;
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Increase, strengthen, and integrate the system of herbaria, zoological museums, ethnobotanical collections, wildlife breeding grounds, botanical gardens, arboretums, forest gardens, zoological collections, botanical collections, native plant nurseries, microorganism culture collections, plant germplasm banks, animal breeding centers, zoos, aquariums, and oceanariums;
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Identify and catalog the biological collections (herbarium, zoological, microorganism, and germplasm) in the country, followed by standardizing and integrating the information about these collections;
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Promote and strengthen the infrastructure and modernization of the Brazilian institutions involved with inventorying and characterizing the biodiversity, such as zoological, botanical, microorganism, and germplasm bank collections and animal breeding centers.
Although the United States is not a signatory of the CBD, in 1994 the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, Society of Systematic Biologists, and Willi Henning Society, in cooperation with the Association of Systematics Collections, formed a consortium and established the Systematic Agenda 2000 with the objective of searching nations to discover, describe, and classify the species of the world. This included three interrelated scientific missions: Mission 1, “to discover, describe, and inventory global species diversity”; Mission 2, “to analyze and synthesize the information derived from this global discovery effort into a predictive classification system that reflects the history of life”; and Mission 3, “to organize the information derived from this global program in an efficiently retrievable form that best meets the needs of science and society” (Systematic Agenda 2000, 1994; Eshbaugh 1995; Bogan & Spamer, 1995, Cracraft 2002).
The CBD and Systematics Agenda 2000 resulted in a global paradigm shift concerning the role of biological collections, highlighting the importance of publishing primary data about biodiversity (Forzza et al. 2017a). In addition to advances related to collections, knowledge about Brazilian plant biodiversity substantially improved during the last decade due to the development of important research projects and programs created in Brazil (BFG 2018). In this context, it is relevant to note that since 1975 the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico; CNPq) has contributed to the advancement of knowledge about Brazilian plant diversity through launching, investing in, and promoting actions, programs and research projects related to the field of botany, including training taxonomists. Some notable programs are the Flora Program (Programa Flora) started in 1975 (Nogueira 1987), the Plants of the Northeast Program (Programa Plantas do Nordeste; PNE) started in 1992, the Atlantic Forest Program (Programa Mata Atlântica) started in 2001, the National Taxonomy Training Program (Programa de Apoio a Projetos de Pesquisas para a Capacitação e Formação de Recursos Humanos em Taxonomia; PROTAX) started in 2005, and the following programs started in 2010: the National System of Research in Biodiversity (Sistema Nacional de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade; SISBIOTA) and the REFLORA - Brazilian Plants: Historic Rescue and Virtual Herbarium for Knowledge and Conservation of the Brazilian Flora (Programa Plantas do Brasil: Resgate Histórico e Herbário Virtual para o Conhecimento e Conservação da Flora Brasileira - REFLORA). The last is the focus of this article and hereafter called the REFLORA Program.
The REFLORA Program
The REFLORA Program was implemented with the main objective of recording and making available images and information about herbarium specimens of Brazilian plants deposited in the herbaria at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG-Kew), in England, and National Museum of Natural History (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle; MNHN-Paris), in Paris, France, in order to serve as a foundation to advance the knowledge, sustainable use, and conservation of the Brazilian flora.
This program subsidized the creation, elaboration, and implementation of the REFLORA Virtual Herbarium (Herbário Virtual REFLORA; RVH) to house, in addition to repatriated material, images, and data from various national archives. It has become a fundamental tool for mainly taxonomic and conservation studies, in addition to supporting the previously mentioned international goals (BFG 2021). Thanks to this advance, today Brazil has an integrated, dynamic research platform with validated data curated by around 1000 taxonomists that provides information about numerous species of the Brazilian flora deposited in the collections that are integrated in the RVH.
Based on this relevant aspect, the present article seeks to contextualize and highlight the contribution that the REFLORA Program makes to advancing science, technology, and innovation for the management and valorization of biological collections, conservation, and increasing knowledge about Brazilian biodiversity.
Historically, Brazilian taxonomists always had the need to consult foreign biological collections to increase what is known about biodiversity. This was mainly because most of the nomenclatural types, especially those collected in the 18th and 19th centuries, are deposited in large archives in Europe and North America. Therefore, specialists had a desire and need for easy access to these specimens long before the REFLORA Program was initiated.
The repatriation of information and knowledge associated with Brazilian biodiversity started in 1998 with the initiation of the Plants of the Northeast Program (PNE) managed by the non-governmental organization Plants of the Northeast Association (Associação Plantas do Nordeste; APNE) in collaboration with RBG-Kew, research institutions in northeastern Brazil, and support from CNPq. Through this program, works that repatriated data from the Kew Herbarium were started for the Flora of the Northeast, which involved selected botanical families (Zappi et al. 2003; Araújo, César & Simpson 2007; Hind & Miranda 2008). In the second phase of the project (2000–2004), digitization works were started that scanned specimens and resulted in an interactive database with images of types from the Northeast Region of Brazil (Zappi et al. 2003). The website that made this database available (http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/data/repatbr/homepage.html) is no longer online.
In 2006, the book Diretrizes e estratégias para a modernização de coleções biológicas brasileiras e a consolidação de sistemas integrados de informação sobre biodiversidade (Egler & Santos 2006) was published by the Biodiversity Research Program (Programa de Pesquisa em Biodiversidade) of the Ministry of Science and Technology (Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia). The book established four goals for structuring a free, open, shared system in Brazil for primary data about species and specimens archived in Brazilian and foreign biological collections. The four goals are the following:
1) strengthen institutional capacity; 2) increase taxonomic and biogeographic knowledge; 3) consolidate a shared system with data about species and specimens; and 4) implement a participatory management model.
For each goal, the plan of action defined a component and set of activities that were necessary to achieve the goal. Component 2 predicted, among the activities, the repatriation of information about Brazilian biodiversity deposited in collections at foreign museums and herbaria, as well as highlighted that this need was indisputable.
Despite the well-defined goals and actions, there was no initiative at the time to effectively implement the system.
After thirty-five years of the Flora Program, CNPq contributed again to advancing the knowledge about plant biodiversity by launching the REFLORA Program, which was one of the most ambitious and challenging actions within the scope of Brazilian plant taxonomy and involved numerous researchers and partnerships (Table 1) at the international, federal, state, and private business levels (Figure 1).
Due to this complexity and the authors involved, CNPq established a Technical Committee (TC) to monitor the program REFLORA - Brazilian Plants: Historic Rescue and Virtual Herbarium for Knowledge and Conservation of the Brazilian Flora, in accordance with the base document of the program. The TC, coordinated by CNPq, was composed of representatives from the following participating institutions:
Representatives of CNPq:
Paulo Sérgio Lacerda Beirão - Diretor de Ciências Agrárias, Biológicas e da Saúde - DABS/CNPq;
Manoel Barral Neto - Diretor de Cooperação Institucional - DCOI/CNPq;
Cláudia Queiroz Gorgati - Coordenadora Geral do Programa de Pesquisa em Ciências da Terra e do Meio Ambiente - CGCTM/CNPq;
Maria Lucilene Araújo Velo - Assessoria de Cooperação Internacional - ASCIN; and
Ana Lúcia Delgado Assad - Assessoria de Cooperação Nacional - ASNAC.
Representatives of Partner Institutions and Companies
Eimear Nic Lughadha - Royal Botanic Garden de Kew - England;
Marc Pignal – Muséum National d’Hisoire Naturelle de Paris - MNHN -France;
Marli Pires Morim - Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro;
Débora Cristina Castellani - Natura;
Emídio Cantídio de Oliveira Filho - CAPES;
Luiz Eugênio Mello - Instituto Tecnológico Vale; and
Mario Neto Borges - CONFAP.
Representatives of the Scientific Community indicated by CNPq:
Ana Maria Giulietti Harley - Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana - UEFS; and José Oswaldo de Siqueira - Universidade Federal de Lavras - UFLA.
The duties of the TC were the following: define strategies and guidelines of the program; approve and adapt the base document; analyze and recommend for approval the qualified projects based on merit, when solicited; guide and monitor the approved actions and projects; suggest modifications, extensions, continuity, or interruptions of projects; define the need for independent, technical-scientific advice and indicate scientific consultants, when necessary; and provide opinions about cases of omissions, when solicited by CNPq.
The main objective of the REFLORA Program was to rescue and make available information and images of herbarium specimens of Brazilian plants deposited in foreign collections to serve as a foundation to advance the knowledge, sustainable use, and conservation of the Brazilian flora (CNPq 2010). However, it appears that this program went beyond the objectives and initial goals, increasing the collaboration network between Brazilian and foreign herbaria and the digitalization of these archives, as well as contributing greatly to the creation of Flora of Brazil 2020.
According to a technical note from August 5, 2010, sent to the executive director of CNPq (DEX), the REFLORA Program was structured into two lines of action.
1.First line of action
The first line of action involved the access to information and digitization of specimens collected in Brazil until the 20th century, during expeditions by foreigners, deposited at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG-Kew), in England, and National Museum of Natural History (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle; MNHN-Paris), in Paris, France. These two institutions have the largest collections of Brazilian plants in Europe (Forzza et al. 2015). This step was possible by establishing partnerships through the following:
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a)
a letter of understanding between CNPq and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the United Kingdom, signed on October 6, 2009; and
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b)
a cooperation agreement between CNPq, in Brazil, and the National Museum of Natural History, in France, signed on October 9, 2009.
Both partnerships were valid for a total of five years starting on the signature date.
These partnerships included selecting the samples to be processed, digitized, authenticated, and transferred to a database on an IT platform comprising the physical base of the virtual herbarium installed at the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden (Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro; JBRJ) and made available to the national and international public.
To implement this, the Brazilian and foreign teams created and agreed on specific work plans. These plans specified the set of activities, rules, norms, responsibilities, schedules, goals, indicators, and costs to execute each activity at RBG-Kew, MNHN-Paris, and JBRJ.
The line of action was authorized during the 18th meeting of the DEX, on August 10, 2010, with a forecasted investment in the order of R$ 11,000,000.00 from federal, state, and private company funds for JBRJ and foreign partners.
For this, CNPq established and formalized partnerships with the Rio de Janeiro Research Support Foundation (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Rio de Janeiro; FAPERJ), the Minas Gerais State Research Support Foundation (FAPEMIG), the company Natura Cosméticos S.A., the company VALE S.A., the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden (JBRJ), and the Flora Foundation to Support Botany (Fundação Flora de Apoio a Botânica), ensuring the contribution of financial resources necessary to make this first line of action viable.
The first financial guarantee was established on August 3, 2010, when the terms of reference for the program “REFLORA - Brazilian Plants: Historic Rescue and Virtual Herbarium for Knowledge and Conservation of the Brazilian Flora” were assigned by the Sector Funds Coordination Advisory (Assessoria de Coordenação dos Fundos Setoriais; ASCOF) and Sector Funds Coordination Committee (Comitê de Coordenação dos Fundos Setoriais) (Legal Approval Document: Minutes of the Meeting of the Sector Funds Coordination Committee on March, 3rd, 2010), guaranteeing the contribution of resources in the order of R$ 8,000,000.00 (eight million reais) for the program to be dispersed in 2010, 2011, and 2012. This resource allowed two proposals to be funded after being invited by CNPq.
The proposal entitled “Expansion, integration, and digital dissemination of repatriated data about the Brazilian flora - REFLORA” ("Ampliação, integração e disseminação digital de dados repatriados da flora brasileira - REFLORA") was part of the National Science and Technology – Flora and Fungus Virtual Herbarium (Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia - Herbário Virtual da Flora e dos Fungos; INCT/HVFF) network, whose participation in REFLORA was supported by the board of CNPq because of its mission, previous relevant experience in digital repatriation, and program that repatriated textual data of Brazilian collections from foreign herbaria. The proposal received a total value of R$ 1,968,409.40 from CNPq, including R$ 1,677,909.40 in consumables, R$ 184,000.00 in durables, and R$ 106,500.00 in ATP-A, BEP, and EV-2 grants. The last resource allowed 13 grantees to be funded over the life of the project (Jan. 21, 2011, to Jan. 20, 2014).
The proposal to construct and implement the physical base of the virtual herbarium and repatriation was carried out within the scope of the project and contracted in the form of an order entitled “REFLORA - Brazilian Plants: Historic Rescue and Virtual Herbarium for Knowledge and Conservation of the Brazilian Flora” (“Plantas do Brasil: Resgate Histórico e Herbário Virtual para o Conhecimento e Conservação da Flora Brasileira – REFLORA”). It received a total value of R$ 3,929,676.80 from CNPq, including R$ 1,330,865.10 in consumables, R$ 1,182,211.70 in durables, and R$ 1,416,600.00 in DTI and ATP grants. The last resource allowed 75 grantees to be funded over the life of the project (Dec. 29, 2010, to Feb. 28, 2015).
The second formalization of financial support occurred on December 9, 2010, with the signing of the Cooperation Protocol and Sponsorship Agreement (Protocolo de Cooperação e do Contrato de Patrocínio) between CNPq, Natura Cosméticos S.A., Flora Foundation to Support Botany (Fundação Flora de Apoio a Botânica), and Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden Research Institute for a total of R$ 3,000,000.00. This resource allowed for the consolidation of partnerships of three institutions of technical excellence in development, interoperability of information systems, and the area of computing infrastructure (storage, processing, and connectivity), which allowed JBRJ to develop, maintain, and host the REFLORA Virtual Herbarium, according to the following components:
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“Adequacy of the Computing Infrastructure” in cooperation with the National Scientific Computing Laboratory (Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica; LNCC); and
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“Development and Maintenance of Systems” with the Systems and Computer Engineering Program (Engenharia de Sistemas e Computação/COPPE; PESC/COPPE) and the University of São Paulo Polytechnic School (Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo; POLI-USP) realized through service provision contracts.
It is important to note that the resource also made it possible to develop repatriation activities at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, England (Forzza et al. 2017b).
On November 5, 2014, the Cooperation Protocol and Sponsorship Agreement was established between CNPq, the Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support in the State of Rio de Janeiro (Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro), and the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden Research Institute for a total value of R$ 1,999,746.62.
The resource was made available in December 2015 and allowed JBRJ to adapt its infrastructure to meet the increased demand for storage space and processing of the images and associated data (Forzza et al. 2017b).
On November 30, 2011, the REFLORA Program Implementation Agreement was signed between CNPq and MNHN-Paris. To start the activities, the Instrument for Donating Financial Resources was formalized on November 12, 2012, between CNPq (donee) and the company VALE S.A. (donor), for a total value of R$ 1,741,095.40. This resource was passed on to MNHN-Paris via the REFLORA Program Financing Cooperation Agreement established between CNPq and MNHN-Paris on March 28, 2013.
Due to the need for an extension and additional financing to complete activities at RBG-Kew, the Work Plan was established on February 22, 2015, to promote scientific and technological activities between CNPq and the British Council of the United Kingdom, which contributed £676.094 or approximately R$ 2,696,003.00.
These actions and investments led to the creation of the REFLORA Virtual Herbarium (Herbário Virtual REFLORA; HVR) by the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden Research Institute, which launched on September 30, 2013. At the time, it hosted and made available more than 420 thousand images and information from RB and repatriated from RBG-Kew and MNHN-Paris (Forzza et al. 2015; BFG 2018).
2.Second line of action
The second line of action included launching the MCT/CNPq/FNDCT/MEC/CAPES/FAPs Call N° 56/2010 – REFLORA (CNPq 2010), authorized during the 18th meeting of the DEX, on August 10, 2010, which aimed to promote individual and network research projects, involving teams of Brazilians and foreign institutions, and to train human resources. The call stated that the proposals should address aspects of taxonomy, evolution and phytogeographic adaptation, population dynamics, molecular biology, conservation, use, and historical aspects of expeditions and their relationship to the colonization of Brazil. Resources in the order of R$ 17,010,000.00 were provided in consumables, durables, and grants to finance proposals of up to R$ 200,000.00 for individual research projects and up to R$ 600,000.00 for research network projects that lasted 36 months. The resources came from CNPq (R$ 3,000,000.00), CAPES (R$ 3,000,000.00), FNDCT (R$ 5,000,000.00), and 12 State Research Support Foundations (Fundações de Amparo à Pesquisa Estaduais; FAPs) (R$ 6,010,000.00), which were made available in up to three annual installments starting on the signature date of the cooperation agreements. The CAPES grants and resources from the FAP participants were awarded to the proposals approved in the call and given directly to the project coordinators by the grantors.
The call was released on September 08, 2010, and registration ended on October 26, 2010; 32 proposals were received, which had a total value of R$ 7,874,714.92.
After consulting with the researchers of the proposals from the call, and reviewing their profiles, CNPq authorized four people to make up the Judging Committee: Dr. Armando Carlos Cervi (UFPR), Prof. Dr. Eliana Regina Forni-Martins (UNICAMP), Prof. Dr. Paulo Takeo Sano (USP), and Prof. Dr. Tânia Wendt (UFRJ).
This committee analyzed and evaluated the 32 proposals based on merit, relevance, adequacy, and budget, considering the terms established in the 56/2010 – REFLORA Call (CNPq, 2010). Of these, 25 proposals were recommended on merit for approval, which totaled R$ 5,704,638.63.
The director of CNPq, in a meeting on December 3, 2010, at CNPq, in Brasília, DF, recommended the final approval of 24 proposals of those recommended by the Judging Committee, which had a total value of R$ 5,633,800.15 in consumable and durable resources, as well as resources for Scientific Initiation (Iniciação Científica; IC) and Technical Support (Apoio Técnico; AT) grants at the for students with high school (2A) and graduate (1A) degrees. CNPq announced the final approval of the proposals on December 15, 2010, on the CNPq site and the Diário Oficial da União (DOU), Section 3, N° 239, pag. 16. The projects were started between December 2010 and June 2011.
The foundations that support research in the states of Amazonas (FAPEAM), Paraná (FUNDAÇÃO ARAUCARIA), Santa Catarina (FAPESC), and São Paulo (FAPESP), as well as the Distrito Federal (FAPDF), contributed a total value of R$ 1,224,830.60 to the projects. Although the FAPEG, FAPEPI, FAPEMA, and FAPES foundations were included in the call, there were no proposals from these states. As mentioned, the FAPEMIG and FAPERJ foundations contributed resources, respectively, to the work in the first line of action at Kew (R$ 1,761,671.00) and JBRJ (R$ 1,999,746.62), so CNPq had to finance the projects approved from Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. Table 2 lists the resources the state foundations provided to the REFLORA Program.
State research support foundations that joined the 56/2010 Call and the REFLORA Program, as well as the respective financial resources.
Additionally, CAPES gave R$ 1,653,453.90 to pay for master’s (GM), doctorate abroad (Doutorado Sanduíche no Exterior; SWE), and post-doctorate abroad (Pós-doutorado no Exterior; PDE) grants to the projects selected from the call.
Therefore, the call received a total contribution of R$ 7,019,118.63. This represented 41.5% of the total expected value, in investments of consumable, durable, and grant resources, for the proposals from the states of Amazonas, Bahia, Ceará, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina, and São Paulo, as well as the Distrito Federal (Figure 2).
Total proposals submitted and total proposals accepted for the 56/2010 – REFLORA Call per federative unit (source: CNPq, 2010).
Global investment
The REFLORA Program, with its two lines of action, included investments in the order of R$ 24,460,744.22 over five years. This included R$ 9,103,578.00 from CNPq/FNDCT, R$ 4,986,248.22 from the FAPs, R$ 3,000,000.00 from Natura, R$ 2,933,820.00 from Capes, R$ 2,696,003.00 from the Newton Fund/British Council, and R$ 1,741,095.00 from Vale S.A. (Figure 3).
4.Monitoring and evaluation
The call (item II.4) allowed for holding annual meetings to monitor and evaluate the research projects, which were organized by the REFLORA Technical Committee in collaboration with the Secretary of Policies and Programs of Research and Development (Secretaria de Políticas e Programas de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento; SEPED) of the Ministry of Science and Technology (Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia; MCT). In total, there were three monitor and evaluation meetings (M&E).
The 1st meeting occurred on May 10 and 11, 2012, at the CNPq headquarters, in Brasília, DF, with representatives of the REFLORA Program Technical Committee and the coordinators of the projects approved in the REFLORA – 56/2010 Call and the selected invited projects, which included 27 participants in total.
The meeting aimed to evaluate the program, especially to monitor and outline development strategies, as well as to provide the Technical Committee with more information about the research projects. This meeting generated two documents: a report of the meeting of the Technical Committee and scientific project coordinators and a letter written by the project coordinators. These documents evidenced the progress achieved up to that moment, the politics and strategies involved, difficulties, and possible solutions to fulfill the REFLORA Program actions.
Among the difficulties, the coordinators highlighted the delay in releasing resources by some partners, which compromised executing the projects, infrastructure works to implement the RVH, and providing grants. As a result, the coordinators requested an extension for the deadline of the call projects for at least one year. This request was accepted by the CNPq, and all the projects had to end on February 28, 2015.
The 2nd M&E meeting occurred from May 15 to 17, 2013, at the CNPq headquarters, in Brasília, DF. It included around 50 participants, including project researchers, members of the Monitor and Evaluation Technical Committee (METC), and representatives of REFLORA partner institutions.
The METC was created specifically to monitor and evaluate the REFLORA projects and was formed by the following researchers: Dr. José Oswaldo Siqueira, from the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA), Dr. Ana Maria Giulietti Harley, from the State University of Feira de Santana (UEFS), and Dr. Ariane Luna Peixoto, from the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden (JBRJ).
According to the METC report, an analysis of partial project results in reports and presentations made during the meeting verified the projects were progressing well. There were already relevant results, including a significant number of repatriated images of specimens with data verified by specialists of different taxonomic groups. Publications, people who completed their master’s and doctorate degrees as part of an international project of such magnitude, and the establishment of international partnerships also stood out. The committee noted the importance of the REFLORA Program and the great advance in the organization, execution, and overall results obtained.
The METC also highlighted the following contributions of the program:
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improved infrastructure of the institutions involved;
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formation of human resources specialized in taxonomy and curation;
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organization, information, and availability of online collections;
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inclusion of Brazilian botany in the era of electronic taxonomy;
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valorization of collections that are taxonomically validated;
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direct contribution to other large projects, such as the List of Species of the Flora of Brazil online (Lista de Espécies da Flora do Brasil online);
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contributions to integrating the Brazilian collections in the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation: World Flora Online 2020 which is part of the Convention on Biological Diversity, of which Brazil is a signatory.
Like the previous meeting, a letter was written (see the supplementary material) by the project coordinators that noted solutions so the REFLORA Program projects could make progress; these mainly referred to making outstanding resources available.
The 3rd M&E meeting occurred on October 18 and 19, 2014, in Salvador, Bahia, before the 65th National Botanical Congress and 11th Latin America Botanical Congress. The METC included Dr. Willian Way Thomas, from the New York Botanical Garden, and Dr. Ana Maria Giulietti Harley and Dr. Ariane Luna Peixoto, who participated in the previous meeting. This METC meeting highlighted the successful progress of the REFLORA Program, as evidenced by relevant results, the significant repatriation of specimen images, and the training of master’s and doctoral students. It also highlighted the international collaboration, and high-quality publications in international journals, and exceeded expectations in terms of describing new species and making nomenclatural corrections. The METC recognized the REFLORA Program as a catalyst that benefited from training scientists, used by the INCT/HVFF, and creating the List of Species of the Flora of Brazil. The report from this meeting emphasizes the advancement in digitizing herbarium collections, the formation of taxonomists, and the internationalization of Brazilian botany, notably the success of the program and the flourishing and dynamic aspects of botanical science in the country.
In addition to the third M&E meeting, at the 11th Latin America Botanical Congress there was the REFLORA - Brazilian Plants: Historic Rescue and Virtual Herbarium for Knowledge and Conservation of the Brazilian Flora symposium that was on the afternoon of October 20, 2014. It had presentations by board members of CNPq, JBRJ, RBG-Kew, MNHN-Paris, INCT/HVFF, and METC. This was an important suggestion made in the letter written by the project coordinators during the second M&E meeting. It was one of the more important moments of managing REFLORA, since the evaluation was shared with the botanical communities in Brazil and other countries in Latin America, and included approximately 50 participants (project researchers, METC members, and representatives of REFLORA partner institutions).
5.Human resources
In this work, the training and performance of human resources are addressed in a general context that only considers aspects relevant from a management point of view. Due to its complexity and richness, an in-depth study of this subject would provide data for another article.
There was a financial contribution in the order of R$ 5,324,760.00 that allowed the REFLORA Program projects to have a quota of 239 grants distributed in the following way:
CNPq grants
Grant per quota in the country
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High School Technical Support (Apoio Técnico Nível Médio; AT-NM) (17 grants/384 months)
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Graduate Technical Support (Apoio Técnico Nível Superior; AT-NS) (28 grants/612 months)
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Scientific Initiation (Iniciação Científica; IC) (38 grants/ 1026 months)
Technological Development and Innovative Extension Grants
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Visiting Specialist (Especialista Visitante; EV) (1 grant/1 month)
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Technical Support for Outreach in the Country (Apoio Técnico em Extensão no País; ATP) (28 grants/1008 months)
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Technological and Industrial Development (Desenvolvimento Tecnológico e Industrial – DTI) (12 grants/432 months)
Capes Grants
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Master’s (Mestrado – GM) (72 grants/504 months)
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Sandwich Doctorate (Doutorado Sanduíche no Exterior – SWE) (22 grants/70 months)
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Post-doctorate Abroad (Pós-Doutorado no Exterior – PDE) (21 grants/132 months)
Technological Development and Innovative Extension Grants (Bolsas de Fomento Tecnológico e Extensão Inovadora) can be managed by balancing resources rearranged by the coordinators based on the modalities available and the needs of the project. Thus, for the modalities/levels of these grants, there were differences between the quotas and what was awarded. The AT and IC grants are based on quotas that can only be modified with prior authorization from CNPq, so there were few changes to these grants. By balancing resources or a quota, these grants could be used by different grantees, which explains the difference in the number of grants available and the number of grantees mentioned below.
These grants allowed 328 grantees to participate, notably women who represented 67% of this total (222). The grants were awarded from January 01, 2011, to May 01, 2016, and January 2013 had the largest number of active grantees (149), and 23 grantees concluded their jobs in December 2013 (Figure 4).
Implemented, completed, and current grants for the REFLORA Program projects from 01/01/2011 to 31/05/2016.
The following grants were implemented: 2 EV-2, 2 EV-3, 52 ATP-A, 6 ATP-B, 3 DTI-A, 5 DTI-B, 18 DTI-C, 45 AT-NM, 48 AT-NS, 82 IC, 19 PDE, 37 – GM, and 9 – SWE (Figure 5). This totaled R$ 4,438,105.89 paid to grantees or around 83.35% of the total awarded.
Number of grantees and the total financial value per type and level of the grant for the REFLORA Program projects (sources: CNPq, 2010, Capes 2023 and Portal da Transparência). Name of the grant type/level: EV-2 = Visiting Specialist (Especialista Visitante); EV-3 = Visiting Specialist (Especialista Visitante); ATP-A = Technical Support for Outreach in the Country (Apoio Técnico em Extensão no País); ATP-B = Technical Support for Outreach in the Country (Apoio Técnico em Extensão no País); DTI-A = Technological and Industrial Development (Desenvolvimento Tecnológico e Industrial); DTI-B = Technological and Industrial Development (Desenvolvimento Tecnológico e Industrial); DTI-C = Technological and Industrial Development (Desenvolvimento Tecnológico e Industrial); PDE = Post-Doctorate Abroad (Pós-Doutorado no Exterior); GM = Master’s (Mestrado); AT-1A = Technical Support (Apoio Técnico); AT-2A = Technical Support (Apoio Técnico); IC = Scientific Initiation (Iniciação Científica).
The researchers reported difficulties in implementing the grants offered by Capes due to regulatory reasons of the agency, especially the incompatibility of when the researchers could go to Kew and Paris and when using the grant had to begin, a fact that can be observed between the number of grants awarded and number of grants effectively implemented.
Another important piece of information is the profile of the grantees and their advancement in education. According to information from Lattes resumes until May 2024, of the 113 grantees that had a high school education, 29 stayed at the same degree level, 35 finished their undergraduate degree, 8 completed a specialization, 30 finished their master’s degree, and 11 finished their doctorate. Of the 131 grantees with an undergraduate degree, 11 completed a specialization, 47 finished a master’s degree, and 26 finished a doctorate. Of the 49 with a master’s degree, 23 finished their doctorate (Figure 6). This highlights the significant increase in the number of professionals that followed an academic career, with a jump of 112.2% and 206.9% in the number of master’s degrees and doctorates, respectively, among the grantees who graduated, as seen in Figure 7. This figure also shows that women represent the majority when looking separately at the different education levels.
Comparison of the education level of the grantees and former grantees and the percentage of change per level (source: Plataforma Lattes/CNPq, May 2024).
Evolution of the academic training of the grantees for females (F) and males (M) for the 4 education levels when implementing the grant (source: the Carlos Chagas platform and Lattes platform (CNPq) – May 2024).
Table 3 shows the most representative study areas of the grantees and former grantees, including their concentration in botany and other biological sciences. There were also a significant number of professionals in areas other than biological sciences, indicating multidisciplinary interests, such as health, agrarian, social and human, and mathematics and earth sciences.
Distribution of former grantees by education level and area of specialization (U = Undergraduate, S = Undergraduate specialization, M = Master’s, D = Doctorate).
According to Greff et al. (2020), post-graduate research grants not only promote scientific knowledge and development but also place researchers in projects that are crucial to the sociocultural development of society. Bloch et al. (2014) affirm that receiving a grant can influence both the scientific production and professional trajectory of individuals, impacting the academic performance of researchers.
It is undeniable, therefore, that these training and research grants played a fundamental role in advancing research for the effective implementation of the RVH and beneficiaries. Thus, from a social point of view, it is possible to affirm that providing these grants had a positive impact on the training of many participants, especially those at the beginning of their careers, by providing opportunities to increase knowledge, develop skills, and mature, which paved the way for specific qualifications, regardless of the professional area they pursued.
Fulfilling the goals
According to Paton (2023), the Kew Herbarium (K) made 264,608 images available to the RVH. Of these, 53,431 do not have information about the country of origin and 8,949 are records of collections that were not made in Brazil. Therefore, 202,228 are collections made in Brazil, which belong to 259 families, 3,004 genera, and 25,980 species identified to the species level; among these, 13,162 are nomenclatural types. The types included 202 families, 1,542 genera, and 8,121 species. The amount of repatriated material per federative unit is in Figure 8 and Table 4. The federative units with the most images of specimens are Minas Gerais (18,245), Amazonas (17,654), Bahia (17,014), Rio de Janeiro (13,051), and Mato Grosso (9,448).
Number of repatriated specimen images from the Kew (K) and Paris (P) herbaria per federative unit.
However, there are 63,154 images of specimens that do not have information about the federative unit. Additionally, there are 38,284 images of georeferenced specimens (Figure 9a). Of the images of specimens that contain information with the correct collection year, eight are from the XVII century, 29,453 are from the XVIII century, 131,682 are from the XIX century, and 9,700 are from the XX century. Therefore, 31,385 of the samples lack satisfactory data about the collection date (Table 4).
Geographical distribution of the georeferenced material from the Kew (K[a]) and Paris (P[b]) herbaria.
According to data in Invernon (2023), 248,155 images of specimens were repatriated from the P herbarium and made available on the RVH. Of these, 30,596 lack information about the country of origin, and 69,555 refer to collections made in other countries. Therefore, 148,004 are of material from Brazil. These belong to 310 families, 2,866 genera, and 22,968 species identified at the species level, and 14,626 of them are nomenclatural types. These types include 188 families, 1,358 genera, and 7,477 species. The amount of repatriated material per federative unit is in Figure 8, and the states of Minas Gerais (18,245), Rio de Janeiro (18,384), Bahia (6,122), São Paulo (5,709), and Amazonas (4.817) had the highest number of specimen images, respectively. However, 71,066 images lack information about the federative unit. Of the total, 15,284 images are georeferenced (Figure 9b).
Based on metadata with the correct collection year, 227 specimens are from the XVII century, 66,812 are from the XVIII century, 34,400 are from the XIX century, and 1,554 are from the XX century. Thus, 45,011 of the samples lack satisfactory data about the collection date (Figure 10 and Table 4).
Number of exsiccatae from the Kew (K) and Paris (P) herbaria per collection century (source: REFLORA Virtual Herbarium).
The REFLORA base document had estimates of taking around 180 thousand images of specimens deposited in RBG-KEW and 460 thousand images of specimens at MNHN-Paris. However, the letter of understanding between CNPq and RBG-Kew had an estimate of 250,000, while the REFLORA Program Implementation Agreement between MNHN-Paris and CNPq had an estimate of transferring 300,000 images. Based on the data available for the specimens collected in Brazil, the Kew Herbarium provided 255,659 repatriated images, which was close to the estimate in the letter of understanding, while the Paris Herbarium provided 178,600 images, which was far below the estimate.
Due to the amount of information and the structure involved, errors and not taking images were inevitable and could be the explanation for the absence of information in certain data fields. Importing errors also caused some images not to be imported (358 images from K and 335 images from P). Another challenge was recording data, which was conducted by grantees who were mostly biologists, from hand-written labels a few centuries old that were in English or French and had the names of localities. For this reason, it was also necessary to conduct historical research to correct the extracted information and for PhD botanists to review the corrections.
Data from the material that was mainly from the MNHN Herbarium needed to be revised, treated, and standardized to make the information consistent on the RVH and https://ipt.jbrj.gov.br. Like any platform that involves information technology, it is expected that there will need to be corrections, improvements, and updates made to the RVH system to adapt it to future tools and the needs of member collections, specialists, and policies related to increasing the knowledge, management, and conservation of biodiversity.
Thirteen years after its creation, even when accounting for the differences in what was incorporated into the RVH and the failures related to transferring data, it is clear that the REFLORA Program met all its goals of repatriating the samples from the K and P herbaria. Parallelly, it is undeniable that the success of the REFLORA Program is due to the human resources involved at all levels, which were essential for the RVH to become a reality.
The RVH as a Perennial Public Policy for Botanical Collections
Since the publication of Flora Brasiliensis between 1840 and 1906, the largest neotropical floristic work (Daly & Prance 1989) with descriptions of 22,767 species of terrestrial plants, and the publication of the Catálogo de Plantas e Fungos do Brasil (“Catalog of Plants and Fungi of Brazil”) in 2010 (Forzza et al. 2010), the REFLORA Program has certainly been a highly relevant initiative in the history of Brazilian botany.
Due to the investments related to the REFLORA Program, it was possible to meet the international goals established by the GSPC-CBD through the project Flora of Brazil 2020, which has descriptions, identification keys, and images of all the species of plants, algae, and fungi known for the country. The data and images available on the RVH were essential to the taxonomy and nomenclature used for Flora of Brazil 2020 (Forzza et al. 2017a). Additionally, CNPq provided subsidies that allowed Brazil to comply with the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, among other international commitments assumed within the scope of the GSPC and CBD. It is also closely aligned with the 4th, 14th, and 15th Sustainable Development Goals (Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável; ODS-Brasil 2023) of the United Nations.
With the help of the REFLORA Program, today Brazil has an integrated, dynamic, public research platform with information validated by experts. Currently, the RVH is the largest data set of images of plants in Latin America and one of the largest in the world (BFG 2018). The initial partners, K, P, and RB, have currently published 3,005,706 images of specimens collected in Brazil. The RVH also includes information about other collections, mainly from national archives, from 85 partner herbaria (Figure 11) and new partners will be added soon.
Herbarium network that comprises the REFLORA Virtual Herbarium (the abbreviations for the collections follow Thiers, 2023): a) Brazil; b) USA; c) Europe (source: REFLORA Virtual Herbarium).
For most of the institutions that joined the initiative, this partnership allowed them to overcome the financial barrier of the IT structure needed to publish their archives online. Additionally, one of the objectives of the RVH is to put all its data on the Global Biodiversity Facility (GBIF) platform, following established data models and communication protocols, which allows the information to be used and shared with a greater number of researchers and decision-makers.
This is also very relevant to the country since the creation of the RVH involved a lot of public and private resources and integrating the data avoided investing more money to adapt infrastructure and update systems that execute the same function. Further, using the same language made it easier to read, store, and share information that is fundamental so Brazil can use this data to invest in research to advance knowledge, promote public policies to manage natural resources, and promote the conservation of biodiversity in the country.
Another very notable benefit offered by the RVH and Flora of Brazil 2020 was contributing to the creation and structure of the Taxonomic Catalog of Brazilian Fauna (Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil – CTFB; http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/). The platform it uses is equivalent to that of Flora of Brazil 2020, and it is the first effort of zoologists to catalog the zoological groups that inhabit Brazil. A lot more investments are needed for this platform, mainly human resources to add valid information about the Brazilian fauna to the catalog.
Upon the completion of this work, there were 4,604,515 images of specimens on the RVH, of which 157,622 are from nomenclatural types and 1,988,260 are from georeferenced records (REFLORA - Herbário Virtual 2024); although, these numbers change daily. For example, Giulietti et al. (2005) estimated that Brazil has about 56,000 species, and probably more will be described in the forthcoming years.
According to Gasper et al. (2020), in 2018 the Brazilian Network of Herbaria (Rede Brasileira de Herbários) listed 216 active herbaria in the country that together have 6.7 million records. Currently, data for 3,058,144 specimens of the RVH are available on the Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) platform of GBIF (https://ipt.jbrj.gov.br/reflora), which is over 45% of the records estimated by Gasper et al. (2020).
International Recognition of the RVH
The REFLORA Program and the RVH have gained the attention of many researchers around the world by providing important information to countless studies, as highlighted in many scientific articles, in addition to strengthening international cooperation. Le Brass et al. (2017) note that, with the support and infrastructure of the REFLORA Program, the transcripts of the data of the images repatriated by the RVH staff were incorporated into the databases at MNHN-Paris, the rate of recording data increased significantly since 2012, and the program also helped other projects, such as the Auguste de Saint-Hilaire Virtual Herbarium.
Pierce et al. (2020) highlight that the RVH aggregated European, North American, and Brazilian herbaria to create the largest virtual tropical herbarium in the world and the first virtual herbarium to have a primary focus on conservation. Based on this aspect, the RVH has become a vital resource to conservation science and is justifiably known as a successful program; although, there is still room for significant improvement concerning conservation (Canteiro et al. 2019) and other areas of botanical research.
The REFLORA Program helped not only Brazil but also the United Kingdom to fulfill its international commitments for the CDB and to reach the GSPC goals (Legran & Stone, 2018).
Grimes and McNulty (2016) note that the REFLORA Program is a good example of how research collaborations can directly contribute to fulfilling international commitments and new research generated through international cooperation.
Meineke et al. (2018) cite the REFLORA Program as an unprecedented example of digital collecting because it offers collaboration opportunities between disciplines and institutions, including those in the tropics that, historically, had limited access to specimens maintained in North American and European museums.
Knowledge about Brazilian plant biodiversity has improved substantially over the last decade due to the development of important research projects, as well as various important research programs created within the scope of CNPq, mainly the REFLORA Program (BFG 2018).
Current Challenges and Future Perspectives of the RVH
The information contained in biological archives, such as herbaria, comprises a knowledge base that is fundamental to research related to biodiversity, conservation, and restoration. A collaborative research infrastructure is necessary that provides wide and free access to the information in these collections, which can be done by digitizing specimens and the respective associated data (Borsch et al. 2020), as well as by establishing governance strategies and actions for validated species (Garnett et al. 2020). Currently, with the public availability of digital information and images of specimens in biological collections, combined with fast access to biodiversity data provided by information technology devices, machine knowledge, and the adequate use of artificial intelligence, significant advances have been made, especially in the last two decades. However, there is still a lot more to do, and there are barriers to overcome because the resources invested in science and the preservation of collections, as well as their respective institutions, are scarce and have been declining in recent years. During our research, we observed a significant part of the reality experienced by Brazilian herbaria, which often survive thanks to the extra efforts of employees and collaborators. Also, we cannot forget all the investments made over the years since the Flora Program (Programa Flora) was started, in the 70s, so that we could reach the level of knowledge we have today.
The total invested in the REFLORA Program did not exceed the allotted amount, since only 41.5% of the total expected resource in the second line of action (17 million) was invested. Part of this could have been due to the low demand (only 32 competing proposals). This was probably mostly because of the short period given to submit the proposals, limited disclosure, simultaneous calls (e.g., from SISBIOTA and PROTAX), and misunderstanding terms of the call due to a lack of clarity and for being broad. This led the coordinators to suggest that the REFLORA Program incentive be expanded to other herbaria but with a focus on repatriating historical images. These points are important for improving future CNPq calls. In general, announcing and opening public calls are concentrated in the second semester and there is limited time to submit, analyze, and approve proposals, which needs to occur at the beginning of December due to the deadline to commit the resources that is established by the federal government. Overcoming the limitation of resources and an effective plan distributed throughout the year would be beneficial, both for CNPq, which would do better work in all the phases of actions and calls, and researchers who need enough time to understand the terms of the calls and write better proposals.
Currently, even with the scarcity of resources, the REFLORA Program continues to make advances in research through specific investments made after 2016 by the Brazilian Forest Inventory (Inventário Florestal Brasileiro; SFB-MMA), SiBBr (MCTI) and, more recently, CNPq with the approval of the project “Advances in the REFLORA Program: Finishing the Repatriation of the W Herbarium and Reestablishing the Partnerships with Brazilian Herbaria” (“Avanços do Programa REFLORA: Finalização do Repatriamento do Herbário W e Restabelecimento de Parcerias com Herbários Brasileiros”). The resources available to the RVH provided benefits so that numerous Brazilian collections could be databased and added to the project, and the structure and knowledge acquired were shared with the zoological community. Many new professionals were also trained (technicians, specialists, master’s, doctorates) who are highly qualified to conduct studies in the areas of taxonomy and conservation science, among others, as well as to act directly in the curation, management, and computerization of collections. The continuous investment of resources is fundamental to maintaining, increasing, and improving the RVH in the future.
Regardless, the REFLORA Program was a great learning experience about management and public policy concerning repatriation costs and the model available at the time. Starting in 2014, investments involving human resources from Brazil to repatriate collections from other countries became cheaper through grants outside Brazil and cooperation between institutions.
It is commonly said that Brazil has the greatest biodiversity in the world, a hypothesis that is based on estimates by many authors, such as Mittermeier et al. (1997), Heywood & Davis (1997), Lewinsohn & Prado (2002, 2005), and Shepherd (2005). These results were only possible because of the direct and indirect contributions of information in biological collections within and outside of Brazil. However, most citizens are not aware of the path taken by scientists to arrive at this conclusion. Efforts and studies started centuries ago by naturalists, which were often voluntary and personally funded, contributed significantly to our current knowledge.
The REFLORA Program promotes national and international cooperation, cultural diversity, and diplomacy in science. Making data available will contribute to new analyses and answer questions that have motivated researchers of plant biodiversity for centuries, thus perpetuating the valorization of biological collections and increasing our knowledge about biodiversity. The REFLORA Program left a remarkable legacy, by taking and repatriating hundreds of thousands of images of specimens and exceeded initial estimates when new national and international collections were added (Figure 11). The collaborative effort between Brazilian and foreign institutions resulted in a significant advance in Brazilian botanical science. In this time of extreme climatic events, whose mitigation involves reforestation, restoration of degraded areas, and the conservation of biodiversity, there is a pressing need to continuously invest in related research that directly depends on information in archives of botanical collections. Like “without plants, there is no life,” without properly managed and available collections there would be no quality research about biodiversity.
Although the REFLORA Program has faced challenges and a scarcity of resources in recent years, it demonstrates that investing in biological collections ensures the advancement and future of scientific knowledge, as well as contributes to the conservation of the valuable biological heritage of Brazil. It is fundamental to recognize the invaluableness of these collections and the RVH through continuous investments and effective public policies so that the next generations can continue research to uncover the secrets of nature and propose solutions for a more sustainable future for all life on the planet.
Acknowledgments
F.C.P. thanks CNPq for granting the training license to partially complete the activities of this research, Flavio Neves Bittencourt de Sá at the Coordenação de Avaliação de Programas e Políticas em CT (COAPP) and the staff at the Coordenação de Apoio ao Fomento – COAFO (Heber Caixeta da Silva, Rauney Melgar Martini, Murilo Marques da Silva. and Josué Gomes de Sa Freire) for helping extract the data and generating the spreadsheets about REFLORA. R.C.F thanks FAPERJ (E-26/200.967/2022) and CNPq (Proc. n. 303059/2020-6, 401421/2023-6) for the financing granted. P.M.L. thanks FAPERJ (E-26/203.867/2021) for the grant. J.P. also thanks CNPq for the financing granted (Proc. n. 307931/2021-8). All the authors thank Dr. José R. Pirani (USP), Rosângela Simão-Bianchini (IPA), and Dr. Vidal F. Mansano (JBRJ) for the comments that improved the manuscript. We also thank Nathan Smith who translated the text into English and helped us to improve the manuscript.
Data Availability
Based on the General Data Protection Law (LGPD - 13.709/2018), data from the Reflora Program can be requested through the Integrated Platform for Ombudsman and Access to Information at the following link https://falabr.cgu.gov.br/.
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Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
02 Dec 2024 -
Date of issue
2024
History
-
Received
27 Aug 2024 -
Accepted
17 Oct 2024