Amazonian biodiversity is increasingly threatened due to the weakening of policies for combating deforestation, especially in Brazil. Loss of animal and plant species, many not yet known to science, is just one among many negative consequences of Amazon deforestation. Deforestation affects indigenous communities, riverside as well as urban populations, and even planetary health. Amazonia has a prominent role in regulating the Earth's climate, with forest loss contributing to rising regional and global temperatures and intensification of extreme weather events. These climatic conditions are important drivers of emerging infectious diseases, and activities associated with deforestation contribute to the spread of disease vectors. This review presents the main impacts of Amazon deforestation on infectious-disease dynamics and public health from a One Health perspective. Because Brazil holds the largest area of Amazon rainforest, emphasis is given to the Brazilian scenario. Finally, potential solutions to mitigate deforestation and emerging infectious diseases are presented from the perspectives of researchers in different fields.

In the last decade, the debate on the governance of water, energy, and food (WEF) has intensified, spurring the emergence of the term “nexus governance.” In general, the reduction of trade-offs and construction of synergies between WEF have been placed on the scientific, political, and economic agenda. However, although increasingly used, it is difficult to find a clear meaning and definition of what the term represents. Based on a systematic literature review (SLR), using text-mining and machine learning algorithms, this article investigates what are the conceptual basis of the nexus governance debate, and attempts to clarify the main themes, networks, and gaps within this literature. The analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative methods, combining social network analysis (SNA) and discourse analysis (DA). The results highlighted that twenty-four governance-related concepts support this literature, breaking down into eight groups: water and basin governance; environmental and systems governance; risk and resource security governance; economic governance; global governance; urban governance; integrative and cooperative governance; and “epistemic” and transdisciplinary governance.

This paper reflects upon the everyday agency of marginalized youth in the Brazilian urban periphery in responding to the climate crisis. In the context of the global covid-19 crisis, which has exacerbated patterns of social exclusion between urban centers and peripheries, we reflect on the extent to which current theorizations of youth activism are appropriate for understanding youth agency in the periphery of Sao Paulo. We seek to ‘blur the -ism’ in climate activism by introducing more multi-faceted understandings of agency based on young people’s everyday (inter-)actions with their environment as well as their contradicting emotions regarding their vulnerabilities and potential.

In this article we explore ethical and effective standards of Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) as a practice that differentiates itself from conventional research. We emphasize the fundamental and active role of community in participatory processes by legitimizing multiple forms of knowledge through a variety of methods that together provide discovery and dissemination of the findings. The goal of CBPR is to directly or indirectly achieve social transformation and social/ environmental justice. Researchers and community participants equally share control over the research, results and outputs. We present three case studies, highlighting some of the ethical concerns and difficulties encountered in the research process and speak to the implementation of key principles that sustain CBPR. The research follows a “slow” praxis, with relationship building and learning about local contexts, offering diverse ways of involving community, using innovative tools and approaches. Finally, we present considerations on how CBPR research can be done effectively and ethically, drawing attention to some research gaps.

The trajectory of participation in health research by community social actors worldwide has been built on a history of community participation from the Ottawa Charter Health Promotion call for community mobilization, to the emancipatory educational philosophy of Paulo Freire, to social movements and organizing for health and social justice. This paper builds on this history to expand our global knowledge about community participation in research through a dialogue between experiences and contexts in two prominent countries in this approach; the United States and Brazil. We first focus on differences in political and scientific contexts, financing, and academic perspectives and then present how, despite these differences, similarities exist in values and collaborative methodologies aimed at engaging community partners in democratizing science and knowledge construction. We present three case studies, one from the U.S. and two from Brazil, which illustrate similar multi-level processes using participatory research tools and Freirian dialogue to contribute to social mobilization, community empowerment, and the transformation of inequitable societal conditions. Despite different processes of evolution, we observed a convergence of participatory health research strategies and values that can transform science in our commitment to reduce health and social inequities and improve community wellbeing.