Brazilian landscapes have undergone centuries of unwise use of biodiversity, water and other natural resources, causing severe environmental degradation and widespread social impacts across the country. Environmental degradation of most Brazilian landscapes has been aggravated by the ongoing expansion of agro-industry, livestock and mining with serious repercussions on the functioning of ecosystems. First, anthropogenic biodiversity loss due to the extinction of species and their ecological interactions threaten key ecosystem services, such as pollination, seed dispersal and nutrient cycling. Second soil degradation, including compaction, laterization, nutrient depletion and loss of organic matter imposes severe socioeconomic impacts on agriculture and inc and and reduction the availability and quality of water resources accentuated, for example, by the proliferation of hydroelectric dams, agricultural reservoirs, and the effects of deforestation on water security. Third, from a social standpoint, the anthropogenic degradation of landscapes and natural resources has a significant impact on indigenous peoples and small farmers whose ways of life are intimately linked to biologically diversified and functional ecosystems. This is particularly noticeable in the Nordeste region, which includes the most deprived semi-arid region of Brazil and highly threatened remains of the Atlantic Forest (the Pernambuco Endemism Center), where the development of the agricultural and energy sectors combined with climate change pose serious threats to biodiversity, water resources, and the wellbeing of populations. The impacts of climate changes and human activities on biodiversity, soils and water resources are numerous, complex, and distributed differently according to temporal and spatial scales. It remains very challenging to understand, assess and predict the interplay between eco-evolutionary and socioeconomic processes that shape the socio-ecological coviability of these territories, i.e., the multiple ways by which the functional and persistent interaction between humans and non-humans is viable (Barrière et al., 2019a). Understanding socio-ecological coviability from an interdisciplinary perspective and considering specific regulations and constraints is however crucial for the efficient governance of the territories with coviability strategies that effectively reconcile nature, societies, and economies.

Agroécologie, Artificial Intelligence