Renato Miazaki de Toledo, Brazil
Renato Miazaki de Toledo, Iniciativa Verde, Brazil
Organization Web site www.iniciativaverde.org.br Main email
Sao Paulo Resarch Foundation Researcher Profile "Landscape ecologist. PhD in Ecology (LEPaC-USP), Master in Ecology (LaRGEA-ESALQ) and Bachelor of Ecology from the State University of São Paulo (IB RC-UNESP). He has experience in conservation and restoration of tropical forests and ecosystem services, fields in which he has worked in research and extension in cooperation with governmental and non-governmental entities. He was a visiting researcher at ForNaLab (U.Ghent -Belgium) and at the National Park Service (Georgia? USA). He has extensive experience in the use of geoprocessing in Ecology, including improvement by the Society for Conservation GIS (UC Davis-USA)."
(Photo: Renato at Muir Woods State park during the 2012 Scgis Scholar training. Photo courtesy of 2012 Scgis Scholar Nico Lois)
2012 Scholar Profile:
My name is Renato Miazaki de Toledo, I’m 34 years old Brazilian Ecologist, employee in a local NGO that works on Conservation Biology and climate change. Iniciativa Verde is a technical group committed to the use of conservation science on public management of rural landscapes, and natural resources policy.
HISTORY: At my neighborhood or in my family, I’m considered a very “romantic” person, an Ecologist. But among Biologists and Ecologists friends, I’m considered as a very pragmatic professional, a technology fan. So as the SCGIS-Brazil members that I met, my professional history is guided by applied science and environmentalism. At the year 2001 I got the bachelor degree in Ecology, and I was starting to work with digital cartography in a watershed conservation project. Then I started to read about GIS and Landscape Ecology, the possibilities were really exciting and I decided to get a Master degree in Agroecosystems as GIS user, the master’s project was about fragmentation assessment with plant genetics spatial analysis (this project was granted by WWF-Brazil), but the technical support at the graduated school wasn't really good. So I applied for an internship at a GIS division of the National Park Service, the internship was granted by the non profit SCA, and I finally had a real GIS experience. The last seven years I worked for conservation NGOs, environmental private offices and governmental projects related to land use planning. The technical-friend networking helps a lot, but I know that deeper knowledge and fresh skills would give a massive improvement on future projects. (I Attached four images with maps that I made)
How are you currently learning GIS? I took some Brazilian GIS classes in past, but it was a very disappointing experience. But there are some professionals like me, on different levels on singular areas of expertise that share material and experiences; so we learn a lot asking along the job and exploring new challenges. I have very poor experience on skills that I need to develop, such as: remote sensing analysis, time series, modeling future scenarios, large scale GIS, and WebGIS. I have studied some theory on those topics, and some applications on Conservation Biology papers. But I know that there are important details between basic instructions and final products, and this is an enormous limitation when you need to develop a new solution for a problem.
Last year I also went to ESRI-UC in order to present a project supported by ESRI conservation program, and I had two strong experiences, the first one was to met SCGIS members and admire an explicit philosophy of sharing from great professionals; and the other one was the annoying feeling that me and my technical group is getting late, so behind. I mentioned this to a C.I. researcher at the conference, and she said: “better late than never”. And there are so many Brazilian conservation challenges that need GIS support that I have to agree with her, and back to focus on learning and working, in this order when it is possible.
Please describe how you work in your local conservation and GIS community: Recently I have engaged the discussion group of LEPAC (a great Landscape Ecology Lab) and I’m following some SCGIS-Brazil members, asking and planning activities. This year Iniciativa Verde settled a technical partnership with São Paulo State Environmental Agency so now we are part of the official state network of geographical data. We can share all kind of GIS data, and some technical support. 
Please describe what is the most unique and the most challenging about the conservation/GIS work that you do:
We work at Mata Atlantica Biome, the most threatened Biome of South America, a biodiversity hotspot where less than 20% of the pre-Colombian area kept original characteristics. We are focused in the non-urban deforested part. A multicultural rural landscape with indigenous presence, African communities, a diversity of Europeans and Asians that came in the last century, some Persians, people from other Brazilian regions; and every community has a unique ethnic composition. The cultural diversity is an important topic to understand how those landscapes were modified, and what may be done to protect threatened environmental services that should be protected in order to protect the economy of those communities, and also to make possible the preservation of biodiversity. It is an important topic and it is also a very interesting cultural task, to work in a place with many millions of people with diverse folklore. (Photo: Renato at Asilomar State park for the SCGIS 2012 Annual Conference)
2012 Scholar Conference Presentation:
“Climate Change and the local communities from Lagamar Brazil – Applying IPCC predictions, and providing a geovisualization framework.”
This project has two overlapping fronts: First there is a sum of official cartographic data, SRTM data, land cover mapping, species distribution papers, and “community mapping,” made with traditional communities for mapping cultural spots (religious places, economical activities, folklore sites, landmarks, historical sites, community business, and so on). And there is the work on spatial analysis, based on IPCC Climate models, to predict regional future scenarios (Climate Change over crops and forests; and Sea Level Rise). The selected region for this project is called “LAGAMAR” that is a large and isolated region with very well preserved estuary with mangroves and lowland forest. About 30,000 people live there, like Native American communities, African communities (old escaped slave shelters) and mixed communities with European contribution (traditional fisherman). This work provides data to be shared at ArcGIS.com in order to be developed and analyzed by local stakeholders.
x2012Scholar x2012Talk xScholar xTalk xEcology xBrazil xLatinAmerica xLatinx xLandscape xDeforestation xClimateChange xCommunity xPPP xDiversity
