The catastrophic fire of the Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro in September of 2018 caused public commotion. Most of the collections deposited in the museum were completely destroyed, graduate students and professors lost their research, and decades of collecting efforts and funding were buried under the ashes (Kury et al. 2018). However, it rapidly turned into old news. After the first pledge of 55 million reais (US$ 13.75 million at the time) for rebuilding the museum, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies decreased in 22% this already insufficient amount (Ferreira 2019). The destruction of the Brazilian oldest Museum was the omen of a gloomy period for Brazilian science, notably for the research on biodiversity, which still seems to be far from over. Year 2016 marked the end of the four-year cycle of increasing investments in Research and Development in Brazil (Marques 2019). Institutions' extinction, such as the Funda??o Zoobotanica do Rio Grande do Sul (Correio do Povo 2018), and budget cuts in Research Foundations have happened ever since. Other Brazilian research institutes and foundations are also troubling, if not exasperating. Brazilian biodiversity science has entered an unparalleled period of crisis since the inauguration of the new Presidency by Jair M. Bolsonaro on January 1~(st), 2019. The rise of science denialism in the new federal government worsened this situation.
展开▼
