Dismantling Brazil's science threatens global biodiversity heritage

•Robust information on biodiversity patterns and trends is important for public policies for nature conservation and sustainable development.•Current Brazilian policy of cuts in science puts research programs and long term monitoring of biodiversity at risk.•Reduced spending will have long-term negative impacts on capacity building in science and technology.•Cuts will reduce Brazil's capability to predict, mitigate negative impacts of, and adapt to global environmental changes.•Cuts will result in less effective and efficient conservation strategies, threatening ecosystem services and human well-being, and in failure to reach the National Targets for Biodiversity 2011–2020.