East Central Europe

Hissa H.R., Alves Filho N.T., Costa M., Strauch G., Bassi L., Linhares de Assis R.

The eradication of hunger and poverty are part of the challenges established in this century by various countries as members of the pact to meet the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This pact is expected to strengthen agricultural production systems that can reverse environmental degradation with the adoption of agroecological technologies and greater social participation of actors historically excluded from public policies, such as family farmers, women, and rural youth. This chapter deals with the Sustainable Rural Development Program of Rio de Janeiro state – RIO RURAL – initially implemented as a pilot project and later transformed into a public policyPublic policy of sustainable rural development with the support of the GEF and World Bank. The methodology adopted was built on community-based rural development in micro-watersheds, with the support of rural organizations and decision-making actors at local, municipal, and regional levels, to strengthen the beneficiaries’ sense of governance and social management of the project. The financial resources are allocated to individual and collective projects with practices to encourage the agroecological transition of production systems, environmental adequacy of properties, water management, and conservation of rural roads. The autonomy of the project’s actions has been built through co-investments and a varied establishment of partnerships.

Bustillos Ardaya A., Evers M., Ribbe L.

A crucial element for risk governance and disaster risk reduction in recognized international frameworks involves inclusiveness of stakeholders. Due to the dimensions of risk governance processes in Brazil, the complexity of the institutional arrangements in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and the dynamicity of the local context, a combination of different local and regional participatory methods is necessary to evaluate the participation and community-based disaster risk management that promotes it. This study describes five main participation processes applied in water-related risk areas of Nova Friburgo, Sao Fidelis, and Rio de Janeiro municipalities and implements it through combined participation methods. Exemplified focus groups and participatory workshops are described, both combining five methods: the required planning and organization, adaptation for rural and peri-urban areas, tools for an effective participatory mapping and a network analysis, digitalization of participatory maps, etc. The influences, advantages, disadvantages, and inputs of the different methodologies are analyzed and compared. Combining methods requires time, resources, and constant work; nevertheless, it helps all stakeholders understand complex systems and actively participate in decision-making. For various levels of participation, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods allows more interaction between stakeholders and different perspectives for deeper evaluation of participation and related aspects.

Rodríguez Osuna V., May P.H., Monteiro J.M., Wollenweber R., Hissa H., Costa M.

The Brazilian agricultural sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, but climate-smart practices combined with degraded land restoration can result in a more resilient landscape contributing to integrated climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. The Sustainable Rural Development Program of Rio de Janeiro (RIO RURAL) has been supporting the transition of degraded rural areas to sustainable productive systems by providing technical assistance and incentives to small-scale family farmers. RIO RURAL promotes reforestation and sustainable agriculture practices, which can boost productivity as well as carbon stocks in the agricultural landscape. Using estimates of carbon mitigation potential for such practices, we identified methodologies eligible for certification in the voluntary markets. We estimated transaction, implementation, and certification costs and calculated potential revenues associated with RIO RURAL’s activities. This did not only allow us to discuss the constraints and identify opportunities and co-benefits from RIO RURAL’s contribution to climate mitigation, adaptation, and environmental integrity but also to food security as it targets family farms. We propose a bundling approach to carbon, where multiple benefits are measured and certified including water, food systems, as well as social and cultural benefits. This would allow accessing resources from both mitigation and adaptation programs in addition to markets that value ecosystem integrity as well as water and food security.

Birnbaum D., Lamberty G.

In addition to water quality, hydromorphological characteristics are crucial for the integrity of river ecosystems: Factors such as flow diversity, substrate variety, or riparian vegetation create diverse habitats for aquatic organisms with their specific demands. These habitats are impaired by channelization, longitudinal river fragmentation, and degradation of the riparian vegetation. In the state of Rio de Janeiro, rivers are exposed to increasing anthropogenic pressures mainly caused by urban growth, intensive agricultural land use, and alterations induced by climate change. While knowledge about the resulting deterioration of the water quality is well established, the knowledge base about consequences for the hydromorphological quality is thinner. Consequently, the hydromorphological potentials and deficits have to be identified and assessed to preserve or revitalize river ecosystems. For this purpose, the applicability of the German on-site method (LAWA-OS) was tested for hydromorphological assessment of streams. This method assesses the hydromorphological state of stream sections against predefined reference conditions. Based on the assessment results, the method identifies stream sections with different ecological development possibilities such as preservation, revitalization, or restriction. This article describes an on-site application test and formulates the applicability of the LAWA-OS method in Brazil by the example of the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Nehren U., Kirchner A., Lange W., Follador M., Anhuf D.

Floods, landslides, and mudslides are frequent phenomena in Rio de Janeiro state (RJ). In the past decades, several catastrophic events have occurred and caused severe damages to people and infrastructure. In contrast, the persistent droughts that affected Southeast Brazil between 2014 and 2017 are phenomena that were not known earlier – at least in such frequency and intensity. Climate scenarios predict that extreme events will further increase in the future leading to increased heavy rainfall events on the one hand and longer dry spells on the other. In this chapter, we provide an overview on the different types of natural hazards, their occurrence (frequency) and intensity, and historical disasters caused by these hazards in RJ. Furthermore, we reconstruct in how far climate variability and human impact (in particular deforestation) affected the occurrence of hydrometeorological hazards in the Holocene. Based on the analysis of historical trends and modeling outcomes under different climate scenarios, we discuss potential future hazards.

Guzmán Wolfhard L.V., Raedig C.

Fragmentation has become one of the most pressing threats to Brazil’s Atlantic Forest causing habitat loss and the erosion of species diversity, thus compromising ecosystem functioning and the provision of crucial ecosystem services. Beyond the legal obligations of forest owners to protect their forest properties, the creation of private protected areas (Reservas Particulares do Patrimônio Natural, RPPNs) is an important strategy to counteract fragmentation. Such RPPNs allow maintaining or reestablishing connectivity, by acting as stepping stones or as local corridors. However, only few efforts have been carried out to systematically link RPPNs at local implementation level. Therefore, this study aims to explore possible connectivity paths between established and probable future RPPNs in two municipalities. Connectivity routes among RPPNs were identified by using two methods: the “least cost path” method that allowed finding the “cheapest” paths by assigning different weights to land use features and a second method which ranks the different land use features from suitable to non-suitable area for linking RPPNs. Incorporating the willingness of landowners to establish RPPNs into the latter method permitted the identification of suitable linkages between RPPNs and priority areas for future RPPN establishment.

Penedo-Julien S., Künne A., Bardy Prado R., Ribbe L.

Impacts of human activities, mainly land use and land cover (LULC) changes, on hydrology and water quality are manifold and need to be ascertained. In order to understand and assess such impacts, water quality monitoring programs are crucial for collecting the required data. Transforming data into information is an important step, and water quality indices (WQIs) can be a useful and concise method for aggregating several parameters and measurements into a single number to facilitate problem identification and decision-making. For this study, a monitoring program was designed and implemented to measure water quality in a rural river basin in Rio de Janeiro (Guapi-Macacu). Three sub-watersheds, together with other relevant sampling points, were selected to assess the influence of the most relevant LULC classes on water quality. The monitored parameters were used to calculate the Canadian water quality index (CCME-WQI). This index was able to capture the impacts of water quality impairments such as untreated sewage and agricultural activities. The index calculation and resultant map, used to depict the spatial distribution, aim at becoming tools for practitioners and decision-makers in the basin.

Sattler D., Raedig C., Hebner A., Wesenberg J.

Southeast Brazil is the economic backbone of the country where about 70% of the national GDP is generated. The continuously growing pressure from rural and industrial land use is causing progressive land degradation, especially within the unique Atlantic Forest dominion of this region. Restoration and rehabilitation of degraded areas or of impact caused by building activities are still scarce and carried out using mainly technical engineering methods. Natural engineering or soil bioengineering measures using living plant material are very rare, and if applied, they mostly use non-native plants already proven to work in other tropical regions. As the demand for bioengineered rehabilitation and ecological restoration is expected to increase, suitable plant material is urgently needed. The use of non-native plants for engineering carries several ecological risks, in particular the invasive spread of these plants. This chapter provides a brief overview of the actual state of the art regarding the use of native and non-native plant species in rehabilitation and restoration measures applied in the Atlantic Forest dominion. Furthermore, first results are presented from a case study on bioengineered rehabilitation of a degraded pasture where plants native to Southeast Brazil were successfully used.

Seliger R., Sattler D., Soares da Silva A., da Costa G.C., Heinrich J.

The municipality of Itaocara is characterized by a pasture-dominated landscape (mainly dairy farming) at moderately to strongly inclined slopes. The major drivers for pasture degradation are poor and erosion-susceptible soils, a changing regional climate towards less frequent but stronger precipitation events, unsustainable pasture management practices as well as low awareness for degradation phenomena among farmers. Today, almost all sloped pastures in the NW of Rio de Janeiro state show various degradation levels, most noticeable in distinctive erosion forms such as rills, cattle tracks and gullies. If no rehabilitation measures and no sustainable pasture management will be applied to these fragile, historically strongly modified ecosystems, pastures will soon degrade to a degree and extent, where land use will not be profitable anymore and rural population might lose their main source of income. The paper presents the implementation, monitoring and management of a low-cost rehabilitation measure applied on a medium degraded sloped pasture in rural Itaocara. Slope-parcelling hedgerow terraces of various native tree species combined with erosion diminishing bioengineered measures and soil amelioration practices aim both at strengthening pasture resilience against degradation and enabling an extensive rotational pasture management at the same time. The measure will be discussed in the context of other advantageous vegetative and structural pasture rehabilitation approaches under given regional environmental and socio-economic conditions.

Castro P., Pedroso R., Lautenbach S., Baez Villanueva O.M., Vicens R.

While land use change in Brazil is characterized by strong cropland expansion, the federal state of Rio de Janeiro, located in Southeast Brazil, shows an opposite trend: a significant amount of cropland has been abandoned. The temporal and spatial distribution of farmland abandonment in Rio de Janeiro state was analyzed at the municipal level from 1991 to 2013. Developments differ strongly between the different regions. The Norte Fluminense Region, which holds the highest share of cropping area in the state, showed the highest cropland abandonment. This decrease was mainly due to a reduction of the areas used for the cultivation of banana, maize, and sugarcane. In the Baixadas and Metropolitan regions, the reduction of areas for orange plantations played an important role, while the reduction of areas for coffee production was important for mountainous areas. Another transition seems to be the substitution of sugarcane cultivation with pineapple cultivation. Areas for coconut crop production increased mainly in the Quissamã municipality. Areas for manioc crop production remained stable throughout the analysis. The patterns identified in this paper will provide an important background for the policymakers in implementing spatially explicit plans for the agricultural sector.

Künne A., Kralisch S., Santos J.M., Flügel W.

Understanding hydrological process dynamics is a crucial requirement for river basin management and environmental planning. Possible future climate changes raise questions about their impact on human livelihoods, which strongly depend on water availability and quality, soil fertility, and other ecosystem services. This chapter presents a physically based, spatially distributed ecohydrological model that was applied within three meso- to macroscale watersheds in the hinterland of Rio de Janeiro. While an increasing population and a fast-growing industrial sector create a high demand for water supply, the study region faces serious problems of forest fragmentation, overexploitation, and soil degradation, which create increasing pressures on water resources. This situation is further intensified by the climate conditions with distinct wet and dry periods that can cause floods and landslides in the rainy season and water shortages during dry periods, especially affecting the agricultural and domestic supply sectors. Recent water shortages raise questions how future climate changes will impact the hydrological dynamics and if river basin management needs to take appropriate counteractions. The results show that the developed models allow simulating hydrological processes at a high spatiotemporal resolution. Given the fact that their process representation is physically based, these models can help answer questions about hydrological dynamics under changing environmental conditions.

Frank B., Formiga-Johnsson R.M., Japiassú Viana V., Ikemoto S.M.

This chapter describes and analyzes the recent evolution of disaster risk management in the state of Rio de Janeiro as evidenced through empirical observation, a bibliographic review, and a desk review. Firstly, it describes the two most serious types of hazards – floods and landslides – and shows which territories are more susceptible to risks. Then it introduces the political and institutional context at the state and municipal levels (primarily the civil defense agencies) and details their evolution in reaction to several disasters that have occurred over time. In 2011, the mega disaster in the Serrana region marked an evolution in policies in the state of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. It triggered a paradigm shift from solely disaster management practices, focused on response and recovery, to broader risk management initiatives focused on risk assessment, prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Several institutions started to concentrate on risk management, especially in risk assessment and preparedness, for the two types of major hazards. The State Civil Defense, the Environmental State Institute, and the State Department of Mineral Resources were particularly relevant institutions in this context.

Schlüter S., Nehren U., Sattler D., Raedig C.

INTECRAL (Integrated Eco Technologies and Services for a Sustainable Rural Rio de Janeiro) is a German-Brazilian research project (2013–2017) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in cooperation with the Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat of Agriculture and Livestock Program RIO RURAL (SEAPPA-PRR). It contributes to a sustainable development of the rural areas of Rio de Janeiro state by (a) enhancing the competitiveness of the agricultural sector, (b) providing environmentally friendly and climate-adapted solutions for land and water management, and (c) adopting appropriate green technologies. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the project and outline the main outcomes as well as the way forward.

Cardona J., Lepilova A., Gieseler D., Kreter K.

Latin-American countries lack efficient solutions for wastewater and sewage sludge treatment. In particular, small urbanized rural settlements (SURUS) in many of these countries face significant challenges with respect to the selection and operation of sustainable sewage treatment facilities. Decentralized sanitation and reuse (DESAR) solutions can significantly contribute toward the improvement of wastewater sanitation coverage in SURUS in Latin-American regions. The major advantages of DESAR for SURUS are a reduction in final treatment costs because these systems allow for water reclamation and sewage sludge reuse for agriculture. To reflect the applicability of DESAR on a regional scale, we present here an integrative assessment, including a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and geographic information systems (GIS) surveying, as a “decision support methodology” for conducting environmental-economic analyses. As a case study, this methodology was applied to six SURUS located at the Rio Dois Rios basin of Rio de Janeiro state. The CBA shows that DESAR could recover between 15% and 34% of total operational and maintenance costs for SURUS populations between 222 and 1,585 inhabitants. The findings suggest that DESAR systems can respond to the need to reduce costs and improve nutrient recovery capabilities of sanitation interventions in rural communities.

Raedig C., Hissa H., Schlüter S., Sattler D., Nehren U.

The urban-rural landscape between the three cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Belo Horizonte is the most densely populated part of the entire Brazil and its economic backbone. For the state of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), many rural areas are characterized by declining and aging population, while the urban areas still increase in population (George and McGranahan 2010; Gragnolati et al. 2011). Greater economic opportunities and other pull factors of urban areas draw rural migration toward the cities where they cause higher demands for food, water, and energy resources, which are met by rural landscapes’ decreasing agricultural production. This development puts additional pressure on the natural resources, which already suffered from historical overexploitation (Chap. 2).