Biodiversity research still falls short of creating links with ecosystem services and human well-being in a global hotspot

Understanding the links between biodiversity, ecosystem services (ES) and human well-being (HWB) is a prerequisite for furthering the agenda of several multilateral environmental agreements and global goals. We performed a systematic review to discuss the extent to which biodiversity research has addressed the interface between ES and HWB and we focused on Brazil as a case study of global relevance. We found that biodiversity research in Brazil remains focused predominantly on biological processes and that research on the links with ES and HWB is in its early phases, exhibiting scarce connections with provisioning and cultural services. This pattern reveals the nature of existing funding policies and scientific gaps in the country. Given the global relevance of Brazil's stock of biodiversity and ES, we argue that research on their links with HWB will be a crucial element of the national and global process of achieving Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.