Dynamics of forest loss in the southeast of the Peruvian Amazon: a case study in Madre de Dios

Abstract

: La Amazonia occidental, puntualmente la región de Madre de Dios, es conocida como la capital de la biodiversidad del Perú y es reconocida mundialmente como uno de los lugares con mayor biodiversidad de la Tierra. Sin embargo, se ha visto amenazada por un grave problema de pérdida de bosques. Las principales amenazas ambientales se deben a una mala gestión del territorio que ocasionan la concentración de tierras, expansión agrícola, ganadería, minería de oro y la explotación económica descontrolada. El presente estudio analiza la dinámica de pérdida de bosques y los cambios de uso de suelo entre 1999-2018. Para la cuantificación de la pérdida de bosque se utilizaron técnicas de sensoramiento remoto, imágenes Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) y 8 Operational Land Imagery (OLI). Las imágenes fueron procesadas utilizando una clasificación supervisada denominada Neural Net. La metodología incluye procedimientos de validación utilizando puntos de verificación de campo e imágenes de teledetección de media y alta resolución de diferentes sensores (SPOT-5, PlanetScope, WorldView y Drone). Los resultados mostraron una pérdida de bosque durante 1999-2018 de 1698.63 km2 , con una tasa anual de -0.21% y una pérdida promedio de 59.28 km2 /año. Para los cambios de bosques a otros usos de la tierra, encontramos la conversión 841.41 km2 durante 2014-2018. Nuestros resultados indican que la agricultura es la mayor responsable del avance de la deforestación (72.90%), mientras que la minería de oro tiene una mayor incidencia en los sectores focalizados.

Resilience of Aboveground Biomass of Secondary Forests Following the Abandonment of Gold Mining Activity in the Southeastern Peruvian Amazon

“…AGB strongly influences ecosystem processes [79] and tropical forests store significant quantities of AGB accumulated in woody plants [86]-64% of global forest AGB [87]. However, the expansion of deforestation and forest degradation in Madre de Dios persists [19,88], resulting in the emission of carbon into the atmosphere [16]. The mean AGB determined in 20-25 years of recovery, 198 ± 115 Mg ha −1 in areas of suction pumping mining and 45 ± 78 Mg ha −1 in areas recovering from heavy machinery mining in this study is less than the mean AGB reported for tropical Amazon forest from Madre de Dios (230-450 Mg ha −1 ) [39,86,89].…”

“…Land use changes in tropical forests, however, are occurring at a faster rate than in other regions of the planet, and this imbalance between deforestation and forest restoration has serious effects on the global carbon cycle [18]. Agriculture and goldmining are the primary drivers of deforestation in the southern Peruvian Amazon [19], although mining activity causes the most severe impacts [20,21]. The resilience of these ecosystems after abandonment by mining activities remains to be studied in detail [21].…”

“…In the Southeastern Peruvian Amazon (Madre de Dios), studies on biomass estimates in natural regeneration after abandonment by mining activities are scarce. Most studies have focused on assessing the species diversity, floristic attributes, species composition [20,40,41], reforestation/rehabilitation experiments of these degraded ecosystems [42][43][44][45][46], and monitoring forest loss due to goldmining [19,26]. These studies showed that the degree of resilience of tree communities after abandonment by mining activities depends on the level of landscape fragmentation [41], stand age [20], and distance from the forest edge [41].…”

Forest Loss Related to Brazil Nut Production in Non-Timber Forest Product Concessions in a Micro-Watershed in the Peruvian Amazon

“…More generally, the western Amazon is one of the most biologically and culturally diverse areas in the world, with a high diversity of flora, the largest number of mammal, bird, and amphibian species on the continent, and many indigenous cultures. Forest concessions and protected areas in Madre de Dios provide important economic benefits to the local population through nature-based tourism and NTFPs [2][3][4][5]. However, without proper planning, socioeconomic activities in tropical forests (such as logging and agriculture) endanger biological diversity [1]; this problem has worsened in Peruvian tropical forests in recent years, primarily as a result of gold mining [4,6] and agriculture [2].…”

“…Forest concessions and protected areas in Madre de Dios provide important economic benefits to the local population through nature-based tourism and NTFPs [2][3][4][5]. However, without proper planning, socioeconomic activities in tropical forests (such as logging and agriculture) endanger biological diversity [1]; this problem has worsened in Peruvian tropical forests in recent years, primarily as a result of gold mining [4,6] and agriculture [2].…”