Addressing Contextual and Location Biases in the Assessment of Protected Areas Effectiveness on Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazônia

Kéré, Éric Nazindigouba; Choumert, Johanna; Motel, Pascale Combes; Combes, Jean-Louis; Santoni, Olivier; Schwartz, Sonia

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.02.018

Cited by 29 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…This pairing’s relevance is related to the heterogeneity of pressure for vegetation. We assumed that accessibility ( 24 ), agricultural suitability ( 24 ), and the socioeconomic ( 25 ) context are the main factors related to the likelihood that a site will undergo a loss of natural vegetation. Then, we made a preselection of 12 covariates that represent these factors: distance to roads, distance to water bodies, distance to the coast, distance to urban spots, travel time to large cities, rainfall, agricultural potential, elevation, slope, municipal human development index (MHDI), population density, and rural density (see table S2 for detailed description and justification).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, we combined theory and an observational approach using machine learning to find the main determinants of vegetation loss in Brazilian biomes. We assumed that accessibility ( 24 ), agricultural suitability ( 24 ), and the socioeconomic context ( 25 ) are the main factors that influence the pressure for conversion (table S2). On the basis of 12 covariates that represent these factors, we trained random forest models to predict the remaining vegetation in the year 2000 in each biome.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of protected areas in maintaining natural vegetation in Brazil

Gonçalves-Souza

Vilela

Phalan³

et al. 2021

Sci. Adv.

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The destruction of natural vegetation in recent decades has been concentrated in the tropics, where ecosystem processes underpin global homeostasis and harbor most of the world's biodiversity. Protected areas (PAs) are the primary societal tool to avoid this destruction, yet their effectiveness is often questioned. Here, we quantified the impact of PAs and indigenous lands in avoiding 34 years of vegetation destruction in forested and nonforested biomes in Brazil. We showed that the odds of destruction in the PA network are four times lower than in unprotected areas, and generally, this positive effect extends to a buffer zone around PAs. Among the most effective groups of PAs are those that are older, larger, located in the Amazonian region, and indigenous lands. Despite recent setbacks for the Brazilian PA system, we highlight the benefits of PAs for biodiversity and climate if they were instead strengthened.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of protected areas in maintaining natural vegetation in Brazil

Gonçalves-Souza

Vilela

Phalan³

et al. 2021

Sci. Adv.

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“…Globally, the illegal use of natural resources is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity, and generally threatens the integrity of PAs and the viability of endangered species ( Conteh, Gavin & Solomon, 2015 ; Dinerstein et al, 2007 ; Gavin, Solomon & Blank, 2010 ; Laurance et al, 2012 ). Despite the fact that Amazonian PAs are one of the most important means of reducing deforestation rates in the biome ( Kere et al, 2017 ), PA creation alone is not sufficient to reduce threats to biological diversity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illegal use of natural resources in federal protected areas of the Brazilian Amazon

Kauano

Silva

Michalski

2017

PeerJ

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BackgroundThe Brazilian Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest regions and plays a key role in biodiversity conservation as well as climate adaptation and mitigation. The government has created a network of protected areas (PAs) to ensure long-term conservation of the region. However, despite the importance of and positive advances in the establishment of PAs, natural resource depletion in the Brazilian Amazon is pervasive.MethodsWe evaluated a total of 4,243 official law enforcement records generated between 2010 and 2015 to understand the geographical distribution of the illegal use of resources in federal PAs in the Brazilian Amazon. We classified illegal activities into ten categories and used generalized additive models (GAMs) to evaluate the relationship between illegal use of natural resources inside PAs with management type, age of PAs, population density, and accessibility.ResultsWe found 27 types of illegal use of natural resources that were grouped into 10 categories of illegal activities. Most infractions were related to suppression and degradation of vegetation (37.40%), followed by illegal fishing (27.30%) and hunting activities (18.20%). The explanatory power of the GAMs was low for all categories of illegal activity, with a maximum explained variation of 41.2% for illegal activities as a whole, and a minimum of 14.6% for hunting activities.DiscussionThese findings demonstrate that even though PAs are fundamental for nature conservation in the Brazilian Amazon, the pressures and threats posed by human activities include a broad range of illegal uses of natural resources. Population density up to 50 km from a PA is a key variable, influencing illegal activities. These threats endanger long-term conservation and many efforts are still needed to maintain PAs that are large enough and sufficiently intact to maintain ecosystem functions and protect biodiversity.

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“…Globally, the illegal use of natural resources is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity, and generally threatens the integrity of PAs and the viability of endangered species (Conteh et al 2015;Dinerstein et al 2007;Gavin et al 2010;Laurance et al 2012). Despite the fact that Amazonian PAs are one of the most important means of reducing deforestation rates in the biome (Kere et al 2017), PA creation alone is not sufficient to reduce threats to biological diversity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Review #2 of "Illegal use of natural resources in federal protected areas of the Brazilian Amazon (v0.1)"

2017

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Background. The Brazilian Amazon is the world's largest rainforest regions and plays a key role in biodiversity conservation as well as climate adaptation and mitigation. The government has created a network of protected areas (PAs) to ensure long-term conservation of the region. However, despite the importance of and positive advances in the establishment of PAs, natural resource depletion in the Brazilian Amazon is pervasive. Methods.We evaluated a total of 4,243 official law enforcement records generated between 2010 and 2015 to understand the geographical distribution of the illegal use of resources in federal PAs in the Brazilian Amazon. We classified illegal activities into ten categories and used generalized additive models (GAMs) to evaluate the relationship between illegal use of natural resources inside PAs with management type, age of PAs, population density, and accessibility. Results. We found 27 types of illegal use of natural resources that were grouped into 10 categories of illegal activities. Most infractions were related to suppression and degradation of vegetation (37.40%), followed by illegal fishing (27.30%) and hunting activities (18.20%). The explanatory power of the GAMs was low for all categories of illegal activity, with a maximum explained variation of 41.2% for illegal activities as a whole, and a minimum of 14.6% for hunting activities. Discussion. These findings demonstrate that even though PAs are fundamental for nature conservation in the Brazilian Amazon, the pressures and threats posed by human activities include a broad range of illegal uses of natural resources. Population density up to 50 km from a PA is a key variable, influencing illegal activities. These threats endanger long-term conservation and many efforts are still needed to maintain PAs that are large enough and sufficiently intact to maintain ecosystem functions and protect biodiversity. AnstractBackground. The Brazilian Amazon is the world's largest rainforest regions and plays a key role in biodiversity conservation as well as climate adaptation and mitigation. The government has created a network of protected areas (PAs) to ensure long-term conservation of the region. However, despite the importance of and positive advances in the establishment of PAs, natural resource depletion in the Brazilian Amazon is pervasive. Methods. We evaluated a total of 4,243 official law enforcement records generated between 2010 and 2015 to understand the geographical distribution of the illegal use of resources in federal PAs in the Brazilian Amazon. We classified illegal activities into ten categories and used generalized additive models (GAMs) to evaluate the relationship between illegal use of natural resources inside PAs with management type, age of PAs, population density, and accessibility. Results. We found 27 types of illegal use of natural resources that were grouped into 10 categories of illegal activities. Most infractions were related to suppression and degradation of vegetation (37.40%), followed by illegal fishing (27....

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Addressing Contextual and Location Biases in the Assessment of Protected Areas Effectiveness on Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazônia

Cited by 29 publications

References 49 publications

The role of protected areas in maintaining natural vegetation in Brazil

The role of protected areas in maintaining natural vegetation in Brazil

Illegal use of natural resources in federal protected areas of the Brazilian Amazon

Peer Review #2 of "Illegal use of natural resources in federal protected areas of the Brazilian Amazon (v0.1)"

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