Page - 19 - in options, Volume winter 2019

Aline Soterroni, of the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE), has visited IIASA twice – both as part of its Young Scientists Summer Program and as a research scholar. She helped develop the Brazilian version of the IIASA Global Biosphere Management Model (GLOBIOM) – a well-known model that simulates the competition for land between agriculture, bioenergy, and forestry. Soterroni relished the creative atmosphere at IIASA and says the Brazilian GLOBIOM adaptation was, uniquely, led by the target country (by INPE and the Institute for Applied Economic Research). They have improved its baseline data and adapted it to reflect the boom in soy farming, as well as soy’s widespread no-tillage production system, which reduces carbon emissions from the soil. They also added forest restoration as a land use class, which is essential for modeling Brazil’s changing Forest Code — a law restricting deforestation by land-owners. “It was impossible to do it without IIASA, but it was also important that it was us, Brazilians, identifying the major research questions and the scenarios that are relevant to our region and engaging with local stakeholders,” she says. As well as helping, along with MESSAGE-Brazil, to determine Brazil’s intended carbon emission reductions, Soterroni’s group has used GLOBIOM-Brazil to show that surging demand for ethanol, and thus for more sugar cane plantations, could be reconciled with forest conservation by intensifying cattle ranching to release pasture for planting. The team has also analyzed what would happen if the moratorium on converting Amazon rainforest to soy plantations were extended to the Cerrado biome, a tropical savannah and little-known biodiversity hotspot that is rapidly being converted to soy and pasturelands. For Schaeffer, constant interaction with IIASA is critical. “Most of the improvements that we have done in our models are very much a function of having PhD students spend some time at IIASA learning new approaches and then being able to come back and incorporate or develop those things into our own model,” he says. For some of those students, the benefits have gone beyond the scientific: “The institute’s message really caught me,” says Camila Ludovique Callegari, who was a doctorate sandwich program fellow at IIASA. “To care about the world, to make more with less resources – it really inspired me in both my career and my personal life.” participants of the Young Scientists Summer Program since 2010 research partners publications have resulted from collaborations between IIASA and researchers at Brazilian institutions since 2010 16 38 143 Areas of research collaboration Further info: www.iiasa.ac.at/Brazil Supporting Brazil’s changing energy landscape Projecting demographic change in Brazil Co-benefits: Improving air quality and tackling climate change Advancing the modeling of complex systems Balancing the needs of agriculture and the environment in Brazil By Aisling Irwin The fellows are exposed to a highly internationalized and interdisciplinary environment that enriches personal, professional, and cultural perspectives Mauro Luiz Rabelo IIASA Council member for Brazil 19OptionsWinter 2019/20