Highway Infrastructure, Protected Areas, and Orchid Bee Distribution and Conservation in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Scientists regularly lament that development and habitat destruction in once isolated and distant areas are promoting species extinction before species can even be known by science. In the Brazilian Amazon, the government's Plan for Growth Acceleration in part involves major improvements and expansion of highways. Such infrastructure has long been linked to the main causes of deforestation in this region. It is essential for scientists to assess where to target biodiversity collections in relation to the location of road development and existing protected areas. The objective of this study was to amass all of the records of occurrence of orchid bees in digital form, in order to obtain a spatial picture of our knowledge thus far and to make recommendations about priority areas for future collections and the role of protected areas in species conservation. The collection data used for this study come from various collection efforts, and were also gathered from the literature. The collection data were then imported into a Geographic Information System, making it possible to integrate other spatial data layers such as highways, conservation units, indigenous lands and forest cover. Results show a major need for collections along the BR 163 and BR 230 highways, heavily deforested areas with few conservation units. We suggest the creation of conservation units and recommend that abandoned areas be allowed to remain fallow as a way to help save additional biodiversity in the area of influence of these two main highways.

Historical records of orchid bees (Apidae: Euglossini) in Belém Endemism Center: species list of 92 years sampling

“…A recent study addressing digital and non-digital records of orchid bees in Brazilian Amazon, showed that in >50% of collection places it is known the presence of just one orchid bee species, indicating that the majority of the locations sampled represent casual collections (Oliveira et al, 2017). The species Euglossa imperialis and Exaerete frontalis categorized in this work as rare species, are actually very common, being collected in most inventories carried out in Amazonia (e.g.…”

“…The Amazon basin contains about 127 species of euglossine bees (Nemésio and Silveira, 2007), and in this study, was possible to record more than 40% of this species analyzing historical data in the BEC. Nevertheless, we emphasize the importance of distributing more sampling sites, especially in the state of Maranhão, given the rapid disappearance of natural vegetation and few conservation units in the state (Oliveira et al, 2017), but also in southwestern portion of the state of Pará. Additionally, is necessary to adopt standardized studies with orchid bees in future sampling in the region.…”

An overview of forest loss and restoration in the Brazilian Amazon

“…Large projects were implemented in the country by that time (Hall 1989;Mahar 1979), e.g. the construction of large highways such as the Transamazônica (Oliveira et al 2017). This development period was influenced by the creation of the SPVEA (Superintendence for the Amazon Economic Valuation Plan-Superintendência do Plano de Valorização Econômica da Amazônia) and the PDA (Development Plan of the Amazon-Plano de Desenvolvimento da Amazônia), which stemmed out from the 1 st PND (National Development Plan-Plano Nacional de Desenvolvimento).…”