ENBT/JBRJ Ph.D. student wins award from The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund 2026

Ph.D. student Antônio Lucas Barreira Rodrigues, from the Graduate Program in Botany at the National School of Tropical Botany (ENBT/JBRJ), was one of the winners of funding from The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund in 2026.

The award supports species conservation projects worldwide and is granted based on the impact and relevance of the proposals for biodiversity protection. Lucas Barreira’s project aims to assess the risks of geological instability for the species Prepusa connata (Gentianaceae), a Critically Endangered (CE) plant endemic to the high-altitude fields of the Atlantic Forest in Rio de Janeiro.

With the fund’s support, field expeditions will be conducted focused on the species’ only known populations. The work will use remotely piloted aircraft (drones) to conduct aerial surveys of inaccessible cliffs and map geologically stable microhabitats, aiming to ensure that future conservation actions are resilient to habitat collapse caused by extreme weather events.

The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund is one of the leading international institutions promoting conservation, dedicated to providing direct support to projects aimed at preventing the extinction of the planet’s most threatened species.