Building bridges between environmental and political agendas is essential nowadays in face of the increasing human pressure on natural environments, including wetlands. Wetlands provide critical ecosystem services for humanity and can generate a considerable direct or indirect income to the local communities. To meet many of the sustainable development goals, we need to move our trajectory from the current environmental destructive development to a wiser wetland use. The current article contain a proposed agenda for the Pantanal aiming the improvement of public policy for conservation in the Pantanal, one of the largest, most diverse, and continuous inland wetland in the world. We suggest and discuss a list of 11 essential interfaces between science, policy, and development in region linked to the proposed agenda. We believe that a functional science network can booster the collaborative capability to generate creative ideas and solutions to address the big challenges faced by the Pantanal wetland.

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The environmental unsustainability of African oil palm crops is a growing worldwide concern, and the macauba palm in tropical Southern America surges as the most viable substitute for the production of first‐generation biodiesel as a renewable fuel. Large‐scale cultivation of the macauba palm, however, is bound to suffer a major setback due to the fast emergence of a florivorous pest threat, Cyclocephala forsteri, a scarab beetle species that can severely reduce fruit yield. Like other congenerics, female and male C. forsteri are night‐foraging and driven in large numbers to macauba palm inflorescences by specific volatile organic compounds. In the present study, we assessed the kairomonal cues involved in this plant–florivore interaction and their potential application in selective pest management strategies. Headspace samples of the floral fragrance of macauba palms at our study site in Central Brazil were largely dominated by 4‐methylanisole (>97% relative amount), which along with the minor constituents 2‐isopropyl‐3‐methoxypyrazine and 2‐sec‐butyl‐3‐methoxypyrazine triggered electroantennographic responses from both female and male C. forsteri. Field behavioural assays evidenced that beetles of this species were exclusively attracted to scented traps baited with 4‐methylanisole. Increased total scent discharge attained with an ultrasonic piezoelectric diffuser has positively influenced attractiveness efficiency of the trapping setup. 4‐Methylanisole is hereby identified as yet another volatile kairomone involved in highly selective attraction of potential pest florivorous cyclocephaline scarabs associated with economically exploitable palms and should be viewed as a key element in short‐term integrated management plans for the cultivation of the macauba palm in South America.

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