Between 29 January and 2 February 2024, Professor Mário Soares, a researcher with the OIMC Strategic Committee, took part in the Criteria and Prioritisation for the Creation of Federal Conservation Units workshop, a historic moment for nature conservation in Brazil. Organised in Brasilia by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MMA), the meeting was the first initiative for participatory assessment of proposals to create Federal Conservation Units by federal and state managers, scientists, leaders of traditional peoples and communities and environmentalists, representing all of Brazil’s biomes, as well as the coastal and marine zones.

At the event, ICMBio presented 219 processes for creating Conservation Units for discussion, evaluation and prioritisation. It was a moment of co-operation and feeling that the search for an effective, socially just and participatory system is back on track. A teacher at the Faculty of Oceanography at Rio de Janeiro State University (FAOC-UERJ), Prof Soares took part in the workshop representing the Mangrove Studies Nucleus (NEMA), a research group he coordinates and one of the Observatory’s main partners.