A new species of glass frog has been described and named Vitreorana micaelae following its discovery in Luziânia, in the state of Goiás. The study was conducted by researchers at the Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás, the Federal University of Goiás, and the University of Brasília (UnB).

The small, greenish, nearly transparent frog caught the attention of a group of researchers led by biologist Wilian Vaz-Silva in the gallery forests bordering small tributaries of the Corumbá River in the Cerrado biome. Although it resembled other known species, the researchers decided to investigate further.

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“After these animals were found and their calls recorded, we began evaluating and comparing them with other groups of glass frogs, because glass frogs are generally more restricted to the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon,” says biologist Reuber Brandão, one of the study’s authors and a member of the Boticário Group Foundation’s Network of Experts in Nature Conservation.

Species

Based on an integrated approach involving different fields of knowledge - morphology, bioacoustics, molecular genetics, and fieldwork - the researchers concluded that this was the 11th species in the glass frog genus. Only four species are found in Brazil, and Vitreorana micaelae is the second species known to occur exclusively in the Cerrado.

According to Brandão, in addition to molecular characteristics that distinguish the species from those already known to science, unique traits were identified in the individuals analyzed. “From a bioacoustic perspective, it is an animal with far fewer vocal notes. It has subtle but consistent differences in the shape of the iris, dorsal pigmentation, and morphology, especially in the region near the cloaca [the terminal opening for excretion and reproduction],” he explains.

The researchers report that the limited knowledge about the species - even among the local Community - is due to the habits of Vitreorana micaelae.

“This creature sings from the tops of trees along steep ravines on the riverbank, and only when it’s raining heavily. So, even for us, who are out in the field searching for these animals, it takes time to find populations in the region,” he points out.

This difficulty in accessing the species, combined with its small size - just over 2 centimeters - and the scattered occurrence of individuals, has prevented it from being associated with a common name already used by local communities.

“People have more common names for amphibians with more noticeable calls, such as the blacksmith tree frog and the barking dwarf frog. These are species that, when you go looking for them, aren’t what people typically think of as frogs - they’re tree frogs or tiny frogs,” says Brandão.

Previous report

During the study, the researchers were also able to better understand the species’ reproductive biology, which is quite similar to that of other species in the same Vitreorana group.

“The pair lays its eggs on the leaves of tall trees. The eggs stick to the leaves, and the male takes care of them. After hatching, the tadpoles fall into the stream below, where they burrow into the sediment,” he notes.

This similarity may have led other researchers who reported sightings of individuals in this region of the Cerrado in 2013 to identify them as a previously described species. “They identified them as Vitreorana eurygnatha and did not realize that it was a new species,” the researcher says.

Classification

The study describing the species was published in the September issue of the scientific journal ZooKeys and recommends that Vitreorana micaelae be classified as Data Deficient (DD) under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) system, due to the need to determine its population size and the threats it faces.

“Following that study, we’ve already identified another location in the Cerrado where the species is present. So far, there are three known locations, but this is new information. It’s currently being studied and hasn’t been published yet,” Brandão adds.

The name chosen for the species reflects the collaboration among the scientists who worked on the study. It honors fellow biologist Micaela de Jolepian L. Vaz, the wife of Wilian Vaz-Silva.

Threat

This joint effort is a race against time, as climate change - which alters the water cycle - and human activities in the Cerrado, including deforestation and the damming of rivers for small hydroelectric plants, directly affect the habitats of amphibians such as the tiny Vitreorana micaelae.

These threats could lead to the extinction of species that have not yet been discovered by science. “Less rain, fewer streams, fewer toads and frogs, and fewer discoveries,” Reuber Brandão concludes.

A report released Tuesday morning (Sep. 22) by the Civil Defense stated that, since last Friday (18), 151 incidents related to strong winds and heavy rains have been recorded in 146 municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

In total, more than 527,000 people across the state have been affected by the weather events of the past few days, with 413 of them left homeless and 2,732 displaced.

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The strong winds and rains also caused damage to 38 educational institutions and 17 health care facilities.

The state Civil Defense agency confirmed the second death resulting from Monday’s (21) severe storm. The victim is a teenager who had been reported missing in the municipality of Caxias do Sul.

The same municipality has reported three other people missing and recorded 159.4 millimeters of rainfall.

The first confirmed death in the state was that of a motorcyclist struck by falling high-voltage power lines during the storm in the city of Pelotas.

According to the local authorities, the weather event - characterized mainly by strong winds that reached 89 km/h - caused roofs to be torn off, trees and utility poles to fall, and power outages in various parts of the city.

A new species of feline, named Leopardus tilcayo, has been identified in the mountain forests of Bolivia, in a region known as Nor Yungas.

The discovery was made by researchers led by Eduardo Eizirik, a professor at the School of Health and Life Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS).

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The scientific description of a new feline species is the first in over a century. The study, published in the scientific journal Current Biology, was based on the genomic analysis of an animal known by the nickname “Tigrino.”

The male was found as a cub in 2016 by a resident of the Nor Yungas region in Bolivia. The specimen was later taken to the La Senda Verde animal sanctuary, where he has remained ever since.

Genomic results were published on September 17 and show that the animal did not belong to the species previously imagined (Leopardus tigrinus), but was part of an evolutionarily distinct lineage that had not yet been recognized by science.

“This study highlights just how much there is still to discover about the planet’s biodiversity. Even among charismatic and well-known animals such as felines, species can remain unknown for centuries. Discovering and understanding these species is vital so that we also know how to protect them,” Eizirik noted.

According to the university, the article Phylogenomics and Museomics Reveal Five Distinct Species of Tiger Cats in South America also provided new insights into the diversity of wildcats known as “tiger cats.”

The research found that the group, which until recently was considered a single species, is in fact composed of five distinct species.

This conclusion was reached thanks to the sequencing and analysis of complete genomes from 38 individuals from different regions of South America. Among the samples analyzed were eight historical specimens housed in museums in Europe and the US.

The wild cats analyzed, Eizirik said, can be classified as cryptic species – animals that look very similar but exhibit genetic differences and independent evolutionary trajectories.

“This visual similarity led to different species being confused and classified as a single species for a long time,” he says.

The research brought together scientists from PUCRS and partner institutions in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Belgium, Colombia, the US, and the UK.

Over the past 41 years, the Atlantic forest has lost nearly 10 million hectares, while the area devoted to agriculture has gained 11 million hectares, as per data in a MapBiomas survey released Monday (Sep. 21), when Arbor Day is celebrated in Brazil.

The survey also shows that one in every four hectares of native vegetation currently found in the Atlantic forest consists of areas that have regrown after being deforested since 1985.

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The data are part of MapBiomas’ annual maps of land cover and land use in Brazil. MapBiomas is a collaborative network of universities, NGOs, and technology companies focused on monitoring changes in land cover and land use in Brazil, with information ranging from 1985 to 2025.

In total, Brazil’s Atlantic forest has lost 9.7 million hectares of mature vegetation since 1985 (areas mapped as native vegetation since 1985). On the other hand, during the same period, the biome gained more than 8 million hectares of secondary vegetation (areas that have regrown after being deforested).

Despite this growth, the data show that deforestation has increasingly targeted regenerated areas with secondary vegetation. For example, from 2021 to 2025, 1.2 million hectares were cleared in the Atlantic forest – 700,000 hectares of secondary vegetation and 500,000 hectares of mature vegetation. Thus, 60 percent of the deforestation that occurred over the past five years affected areas of secondary vegetation.

At the same time, the figures show that, with regard to the clearing of native vegetation, a downward trend has been observed in the Atlantic forest over the historical time series. Since the 2000s, the area of native vegetation cleared has remained below 2 million hectares in each five-year period. According to the study, the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo were the only ones that did not experience any loss of native vegetation over the past 41 years.

Natália Crusco, MapBiomas’ technical coordinator for the Atlantic forest, points out that despite the positive progress made in restoring vegetation cover to areas that had lost their native vegetation, it is essential to prevent deforestation in the biome, which spans 15 states and is designated as a national heritage site under the Brazilian Constitution.

“Regeneration plays a fundamental role in the recovery of the Atlantic forest – whether through restoration or the natural recovery of degraded areas,” said Crusco.

At the same time, she argues, further loss of native vegetation – both mature and secondary – must be prevented, especially in a biome that is so fragmented and has historically been under pressure from human occupation.

Covering an area of some 1.3 million km², the Atlantic forest is the Brazilian biome with the lowest proportion of native vegetation. In 2025, this vegetation covered 32 percent of its territory.

Conversion of grasslands

According to the report, much of the agricultural expansion in the biome occurred at the expense of grasslands, which lost approximately 11 million hectares in the period. Their conversion to agricultural land accounted for 19 percent of the changes in land cover and land use recorded from the beginning (1985) to the end of the time series in 2025.

“Soybean cultivation expanded by 8.7 million hectares over 41 years and covered 11.11 million hectares in 2025 – an area 4.6 times larger than the area recorded in 1985.  Sugarcane expanded by 5 million hectares and reached 6.15 million hectares,  5.3 times the 1985 area,” the document reads.

In 2025, the Atlantic forest accounted for 25 percent of soybean, 50 percent of sugarcane, 68 percent of coffee (833,000 hectares), and 34 percent of citrus (141,000 hectares) of Brazil’s mapped areas.

Another highlight is the expansion of forestry, which increased by 3.8 million hectares, reaching 4.9 million hectares in 2025. That year, half of Brazil’s mapped forestry area was located in the Atlantic forest. Paraná and Santa Catarina accounted for 46 percent of the biome’s forestry area.

Urbanized areas

Urbanized areas grew 2.5 times in the Atlantic forest from 1985 to 2025. The expansion stood at 1.3 million hectares, bringing the total area to 2.3 million hectares. More than half – 52 percent – of all urbanized areas in Brazil were located in this biome by 2025.

The states of São Paulo, Paraná, and Minas Gerais recorded the largest absolute gains in urbanized areas from 1985 to 2025.

A silent machine works constantly to ensure that millions of people in South America have access to water, rivers, and crops. This mechanism is called the Amazon, and it works as follows – moisture from the ocean produces rain over the forest; the water is absorbed from the soil by the trees and released back into the atmosphere as vapor; the wind then spreads this vapor across the entire continent, causing rain in various regions.

Researcher Julia Valentim Tavares explains that this is South America’s primary water infrastructure and the largest “rain machine” on the planet. A mature tree in the Amazon can release 200 to 300 liters of water into the atmosphere every day.

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“Imagine 400 billion of them working together every day. If we could visualize that moisture, we’d see giant rivers flying through the sky. That’s what we scientists call ‘flying rivers.’”

Marielos Peñaclaros, co-chair of the Scientific Panel for the Amazon – an organization that brings together more than 350 scientists dedicated to studying the biome – emphasizes that the forest is the backbone of water, nutrient, and carbon cycles at the local, regional, and global levels.

“In other words, the Amazon sustains life – not only in the Amazon region but on the planet as a whole.”

The two specialists participated in the latest edition of TEDxAmazônia, held in late August in Ecuador. TEDxAmazônia stems from a commitment to listening deeply to this region. It is the only TEDx event dedicated to a single biome. The conversations that emerge at these gatherings “cross borders, connect knowledge, and bridge the local and the global,” a text on the TEDx website reads.

Warning

In addition to emphasizing the importance of this water system, the scientists issued a warning – the devastation of the Amazon is already affecting the “rain machine,” and its breakdown would be catastrophic for the entire planet.

Activities such as mining and drug trafficking, combined with deforestation and wildfires, have directly impacted Amazonian connectivity – a key factor for the conservation of the biome, Marielos noted.

“The Amazon is a living mosaic of interconnected terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, home to a great diversity of cultures. These communities have a deep and interdependent relationship with the ecosystems through their ways of life, management practices, and knowledge.”

The effects on the climate are already measurable, she said, with evidence that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon results in less rainfall in regions of Brazil and Bolivia. In deforested areas, temperatures have risen, and dry seasons are becoming more intense and longer.

Julia Valentim Tavares is also measuring these effects from within the trees along the southern edge of the Amazon – a region known as “arc of deforestation” – where rainfall has already decreased and temperatures have risen over the past decade. She is investigating how long these trees can withstand droughts before their internal “ropes” are damaged.

“If the soil has water, this rope remains intact. During a dry season, the soil loses its water, and this rope becomes taut. The atmosphere pulls it upward, the soil pulls it downward, until the rope finally snaps. If this happens repeatedly in various parts of the tree, the tree literally begins to die of thirst.”

Global warming

In recent years, the region has also suffered from the effects of global warming. In 2024, the Amazon faced the worst drought in its history as a result of El Niño – a natural phenomenon involving the warming of Pacific Ocean waters that alters atmospheric circulation and has been growing in intensity.

Marielos points out that 88 percent of the Amazon basin felt the effects of this drought, which also disrupted the “rain machine.” Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, located in the Andes region, suffered from water shortages. In Quito, Ecuador – which is also outside the Amazon – water shortages led to power outages.

“The question we should all be asking is, where does the water for countless Latin American cities come from? Where does the water we use in agriculture, industry, and food production come from?” asked the co-chair of the scientific panel for the Amazon.

The drought also rendered the Amazon more vulnerable to wildfires, which reached record levels that year. Julia Valentim Tavares notes that smoke from the fires spread across the country, reaching as far as the Brazilian Southeast.

“This casts light on two key issues – first, the Amazon has never been far away. What happens in the forest does not stay in the forest. And second – millions of people depend on the Amazon, yet they still do not feel connected to it.”

The forecast that a super El Niño will occur this year has alarmed the scientists. “When these droughts occur, the forest either faces mortality due to water stress, or stops growing – plus wildfires. As a result, the Amazon ceases to function as a carbon sink and becomes a source of emissions, contributing to global warming,” she warned.

“We’re expecting it to be as strong as or stronger than in 2024, but the main difference is that last time, things happened that no one was expecting. How could a river dry up in the Amazon? Now everyone is talking about it,” Marielos noted.

In her view, a definitive solution will only be achieved through a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, which depends heavily on replacing fossil fuels with less polluting energy sources.

“We also have to invest in connectivity – restoring degraded areas, rehabilitating those that were deforested for production, and reestablishing this ecological connectivity, because the Amazon is already approaching the point of no return, and because the total loss of this connectivity would be catastrophic for the entire world.”

*The reporter attended TEDxAmazônia at the invitation of the event organizers.

The Amazon basin is home to more than 2,700 species of freshwater fish – about 15 percent of all known species in the world. Approximately two-thirds of them are found exclusively in the region. The data can be found in the fourth edition of the report Peixes Esquecidos da Amazônia (“Forgotten Fishes of the Amazon”), led by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), which brings together information from over 50 experts representing 30 organizations.

According to the authors, the Amazon is one of the world’s last major river basins where it is still possible to prevent large-scale biodiversity loss and maintain extensive, connected river systems. To achieve this, however, action must be intensified before more complex and costly restoration efforts become necessary, explains TNC scientist and lead author of the report Fernanda Silva.

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“Around the world, conservation efforts are increasingly focused on restoring ecosystems after damage has occurred. The Amazon offers a different opportunity – to protect a freshwater system of global importance while it is still fully functioning,” Silva declared.

The report combines scientific evidence with traditional ecological knowledge. This approach shows that fish are directly linked to the maintenance of ecosystems, food security, cultures, livelihoods, and the economies of the people living in the region.

Fish help maintain the forest

According to the survey, fish are indicators of a healthy Amazon and contribute to the forest’s functioning.

Tambaquis, pacus, and matrinxãs, for example, enter flooded forest areas to feed on fruits and can disperse seeds over long distances. Other species transport nutrients and energy between aquatic and terrestrial environments. A decline in these populations can trigger a chain reaction affecting vegetation and animals that depend on fish, such as river dolphins, giant otters, and birds.

River connectivity is another key element. The gilt-head bream (known in Portuguese as dourada), one of the species analyzed, undertakes the longest exclusively freshwater migration ever recorded. A single individual can travel over 11,000 km during its lifetime, connecting the headwaters near the Andes to the Amazon estuary.

When these connections are severed, the impacts can be significant. On the Madeira river, for example, dams have blocked the dourada’s historic migration routes and contributed to the decline in fish stocks and the virtual disappearance of a historic fishing industry in the Cachoeira do Teotônio region.

Biodiversity under pressure

Despite this biodiversity, the study highlights significant gaps in our knowledge of Amazonian species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List includes 144 threatened species in the region, while another 334 are classified as data-deficient. The lack of monitoring and collaboration among countries in the basin may mean that the risks are greater than currently understood.

These threats act in combination. Hydroelectric dams, deforestation, pollution, and overfishing can disrupt river connectivity, fragment habitats, alter natural flow regimes, and degrade water quality.

Climate change tends to exacerbate this scenario. Projections in the report indicate that annual river discharge could decrease by more than 40 percent in some key regions, such as the headwaters of the Madeira river. Prolonged droughts can hinder fish reproduction and migration, reduce the oxygen available in the water, and concentrate contaminants. In the Andes, rising temperatures also threaten endemic species adapted to cold waters.

Gold mining adds another source of pressure. According to data compiled in the study, artisanal gold mining accounts for 83 percent of mercury emissions caused by human activities in South America. The contaminant collects in the food chain, and fish consumption is identified as the primary route of human exposure to mercury in the Amazon.

Fish and food security

River conservation also has a direct impact on Amazonian populations. In some remote riverside communities, fish consumption exceeds 600 grams per person per day. Fish is among the most accessible sources of animal protein for low-income families and provides important nutrients for development and health.

Fishing also drives the regional economy, although a significant portion of the activity does not appear in official statistics because it is artisanal, small-scale, or subsistence-based. At least 200 species are caught commercially, while the ornamental fish trade exports tens of millions of specimens per year and supports thousands of families. The report also highlights women’s participation in the various stages of the supply chain and in community associations.

Indigenous knowledge

The study highlights the knowledge of indigenous peoples and traditional communities regarding rivers. According to Fany Kuiru Castro, general coordinator of the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA), local governance practices help protect rivers and maintain their connectivity in the face of growing pressures.

“For indigenous communities, fish are not simply a resource. They are part of our identity, our food systems, our stories, and our relationship with living rivers,” said Castro.

She emphasized that any strategy to conserve the Amazon must recognize indigenous territorial rights, as well as “respect ancestral knowledge and strengthen indigenous leadership in protecting the waters that connect the entire basin.”

The report identified at least 155 community-based fisheries management initiatives in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia. Together, they cover nearly 13 million hectares and involve more than 1,200 communities and 21,000 fishing workers. According to the study, these initiatives are associated with increased fish abundance and species richness, as well as economic and social benefits.

Among the measures highlighted are the protection of free-flowing rivers, the restoration of natural flow regimes, the restoration of habitats and species, the improvement of water quality, and the prevention of the spread of non-native species.

Since rivers, fish, sediments, and nutrients cross national borders, the authors advocate for coordinated actions across the entire watershed, with the formal participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in river management. As Paula Caballero, TNC’s regional managing director for Latin America, notes, conservation brings benefits to various sectors.

“The report makes it clear that protecting the Amazon’s freshwater systems is not only an environmental imperative but also an economic and social necessity,” she pointed out.

Small in size but vast in its capacity to sustain life, the Pantanal is the biome most influenced by neighboring ecosystems and borders the Cerrado, the Amazon, and the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, as well as the Chaco and Bosque Chiquitano in Bolivia and Paraguay.

This characteristic makes the Pantanal a vast reservoir of water and life, with water flowing long distances to reach the world’s largest floodplain. The diversity created by the convergence of these waters gives the region its natural beauty, but also makes it more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

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“It is a plain that depends on what happens in other biomes and is affected by the changes taking place across the region, especially as climate change also impacts the surrounding areas,” says Cyntia Santos, a conservation analyst at WWF-Brazil.

According to data from the latest land use and land cover map released by MapBiomas, the Pantanal’s flooded savanna had lost more than 1 million hectares by 2025 compared with the beginning of the historical record in 1985.

The area lost represents 84 percent of the wetland savanna that once existed in the biome, with the majority - 833,000 hectares - having been converted to other types of vegetation, such as savanna or grassland. In practice, this means that the Pantanal is drying out.

“Parts of rivers have already disappeared, silted up… Some channels we call ‘vazantes’ - areas that fill and drain with the river - no longer exist, and the rivers are now very shallow,” says forest engineer and botanist Claudinei Terena.

Born in the Limão Verde indigenous territory, in the municipality of Aquidauana, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Terena recalls a time when abundant water enriched the soil and made the region ideal for growing everything they needed.

“These are things I learned as a child: ‘Let’s build a house here. This wood, this species, is good for that.’ Let’s look for some medicinal plants. This tree here is used for that - the bark, the fruit, the leaves, and the roots. Each serves a specific purpose,” he explains.

Drawing on traditional knowledge, Terena worked on a project to restore 3.3 hectares of headwater areas within the indigenous territory. The goal was to ensure that the water flowing into the Pantanal would also help keep that part of the Cerrado productive.

“One of the examples we highlight here within the community is our farming system. We’ve always practiced agroforestry without even realizing it. We’ve always planted different crops together,” he explains.

Network

A little farther from the Pantanal, seed collector Adauto Cândido Pereira lives in the Santa Tereza quilombo community in Figueirão, Mato Grosso do Sul. As a member of the Flores do Cerrado Network, he also sees restoring springs as a way to revitalize rivers.

Through the responsible collection and sale of seeds, efforts to restore riverbanks extend far beyond the community’s own territory. “We collect seeds to support other projects across the state. There are 31 of us collectors - 16 women and 15 men - and we follow basic collection rules, such as leaving 30 percent of the seeds on the tree. You don’t just go in and take everything. We take care of the tree and the environment,” explains Pereira.

Restoration

According to Cyntia Santos, the two projects are part of WWF-Brazil’s efforts to restore river headwaters in the Cerrado and curb land-use changes that cause springs to silt up and impede the flow of tributaries that drain into the Pantanal.

“It’s a consequence of economic activities that are often carried out haphazardly, without the necessary expertise. There’s a lack of technical support and incentives,” says Cyntia Santos.

According to WWF-Brazil Executive Director Maurício Voivodic, the organization has worked in Brazil for 30 years, 22 of which have involved more intensive efforts in the Pantanal.

“We work in these areas, in collaboration with partners, always seeking to create local impact while also generating learning, collecting data, and building knowledge that will enable us to influence public policy,” Voivodic explains.

Energy

To restore river flows to the Pantanal, projects are also being developed to raise awareness about other uses of water resources, such as the installation of small hydroelectric plants.

According to Cyntia Santos, in addition to fragmenting rivers, this type of investment affects aquatic biodiversity and the regional economy, which relies heavily on tourism.

“Electricity must come from other sources, such as solar energy, which is one of the most suitable options for the region, since small hydroelectric plants in this area do not generate economic benefits for either the government or local communities,” she says.

Within the Pantanal, efforts to combat forest fires and promote connectivity between areas of native vegetation - through corridors linking existing conservation areas - help strengthen populations of species such as the jaguar, an indicator of the health and integrity of local biodiversity.

According to Santos, the traditional knowledge of the people who inhabit the biome is a fundamental part of efforts to address these challenges. “This allows us to leverage information, work together, optimize strategies, and move forward as a team,” she concludes.

Brazil has developed a response and preparedness plan for public health emergencies linked to El Niño for 2026–2027 dubbed AdaptaSUS.

The plan comes as part of a wider federal initiative to address climate change, put together by 25 ministries with contributions from society and the business sector. Guidelines stress that the impacts of climate change on human health are becoming increasingly evident.

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“The main risk to health and healthcare services stemming from climate change is a potential increase in the incidence of disease and deaths, and in the demand for health services,” the text says.

The document was presented by the Ministry of Health on Wednesday (Aug. 26) at an assembly of the National Council of Health Secretaries in Brasília.

The ministry points out that climate change requires integrated responses that are sensitive to inequalities and guided by climate justice and equity, since communities facing socio-environmental vulnerabilities are disproportionately affected.

The plan

The initiative aims to establish strategies at the federal level within Brazil’s national healthcare network, the SUS, in order to reduce the impacts of climate change on people’s health and on health services, and to define guidelines for states and cities.

Preparation efforts are based on the creation on situation rooms for federal and internal governance; the provision of emergency pharmaceutical assistance resources and kits; the deployment of the SUS National Force, with regional bases capable of dispatching teams within 48 hours; and the implementation of technical protocols according to the needs of each of the six Brazilian biomes.

In the medium term, the initiative sets forth 27 goals and 93 actions to be implemented by 2035.

Among the actions related to water security in areas prone to drought and dry spells, the National Health Foundation procured 18,800 cisterns in 397 municipalities across seven states, with BRL 226.6 million allocated to sanitation improvement.

Tools

The strategy calls for the integration of the Ministry of Health’s official systems used for the early detection, reporting, monitoring, and investigation of outbreaks and other public health issues in Brazil.

Some of the tools used for climate monitoring focus on heat stress and populations exposed to air pollutants, and involve the National Center for Natural Disaster Monitoring and Alerts.

AdaptaSUS also relies on Health and Climate Information Centers – a pilot project implemented in eight cities across Brazil’s five regions.

In the Amazon, preparedness measures also include organizing the healthcare network and the infrastructure available to serve populations in hard-to-reach areas, including healthcare teams and riverine primary healthcare units.

The plan stipulates that the Ministry of Health also establish a panel of experts on climate and health, tasked with providing technical advice on decisions related to preparedness and response to the impacts of climate events.

Risks and effects

The health risks posed by climate change include deaths, injuries, an increase in diseases, disruptions to healthcare services, destruction of infrastructure, and even public health emergencies.

Among the main direct health effects are:

• diseases associated with temperature extremes;
• diseases caused by inadequate access to water, sanitation, and hygiene; vector-borne diseases and zoonoses;
• respiratory diseases;
• diseases associated with air pollution;
• injuries and deaths caused by extreme weather events;
• malnutrition and noncommunicable diseases, as well as mental and psycho-social health issues.

In addition to changes in disease patterns, climate change can also impact the healthcare system by increasing demand for healthcare services, triggering public health emergencies, and compromising or disrupting service delivery at healthcare facilities.

El Niño

In Brazil, the El Niño climate phenomenon is classified as “strong” through 2027 and could reach the “very strong” level as early as September this year. The critical window is expected to occur sometime between October of this year and March 2027.

The effects of the phenomenon vary by region:

• drought, dry spells, and wildfires in the North and Central-West;
• worsening drought and heat in the Northeast;
• more erratic weather, with heat waves and thunderstorms in the Southeast; and
• heavy rains, with a risk of flooding, in the South.

More than one-third (38%) of human settlements in the Amazon were highly exposed to the effects of the 2024 El Niño, according to a study released Friday (Sep. 4) by MapBiomas – a network formed by universities, NGOs, and technology companies. Among the 5,673 inhabited areas in the region, 2,172 suffered severely from the phenomenon.

El Niño is characterized by the warming of the surface waters of the Tropical Pacific Ocean and causes changes in atmospheric circulation, leading to irregular rainfall patterns. In the Amazon, it causes drought and rising temperatures.

Notícias relacionadas:

• Zero deforestation recorded on 60% of indigenous lands in the Amazon.
• Most Brazilian biomes saw lower deforestation in 2024.

In light of the weather forecast predicting that the phenomenon will be particularly strong this year – “Super El Niño” – researchers cross-referenced data on rainfall and land surface water to show how the Amazon was affected during the last occurrence of this climate event.

From September through November 2024, the water surface area in the Amazon was 1.9 million hectares below the historical average for the years 1985 through 2025. Rainfall was also lower, at 27 percent below average.

The average maximum temperature during those three months also rose significantly, reaching 2.6 °C above the historical average for the same period.

“Less rainfall and higher temperatures increase evaporative demand in the atmosphere, contributing to soil moisture loss and water stress in vegetation,” said Bruno Ferreira, a researcher at the Amazon Institute of People and the Environment (Imazon) and a member of the MapBiomas Amazon team.

Population

The study also examined the effects of the phenomenon on different types of human settlements – such as urban and rural areas, indigenous territories, quilombola communities, settlements, and other categories.

The population in these areas are said to have been severely affected by El Niño, as 93 percent of the locations surveyed – 5,273 in total – are within 5 km of areas that experienced a reduction in water surface area, the study notes.

“The drought also manifests itself in lower river levels, with consequences for transportation, access to water, fishing, and other activities that depend on river systems,” Bruno Ferreira noted.

Land cover and land use data complement the biome exposure factors, since over the 41-year historical time series of the study on this topic, 3.9 million hectares of native vegetation were lost, which is equivalent to a 14 percent reduction in the previously existing green cover.

In the study, the experts cross-referenced data on land cover and land use, water, and the atmosphere. They also used data from the statistics bureau IBGE on inhabited areas and information from the El Niño Panel of Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet).