Synergism Between Payments for Water-Related Ecosystem Services, Ecological Restoration, and Landscape Connectivity Within the Atlantic Forest Hotspot

Abstract

Restoration projects designed to promote one ecosystem service may have synergistic benefits to other services. Therefore, bundling them can be an effective way to maximize the return to the investments in programs of payments for ecosystem services (PES). Here, we investigated the additional gain of restoration actions-which were implemented as part of a PES program to protect a key watershed for water supply-on increasing functional landscape connectivity in the Atlantic Forest region of southeastern Brazil. Using a landscape ecology approach, we estimated the amount of forest cover before (2006) and after (2012) restoration activities by the PES program and changes in structural and functional landscape connectivity for birds with varying gap-crossing capabilities. Forest cover increased from 42.5 to 86.1 ha after the implementation of restoration projects by the PES program. In the simulated scenarios of landscape connectivity, the mean patch size of functionally connected forest increased by 1,034%, 392%, 248%, and 94% for species with gap-crossing capabilities of 0, 20, 40, and 60 m, respectively. Our results highlight the potential for incorporating biodiversity conservation objectives into PES projects primarily designed to enhance water-related ecosystem services.

How Changes in Legally Demanded Forest Restoration Impact Ecosystem Services: A Case Study in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

“…However, compared to the previous legislation (Forest Code, 1965), the implementation of the 2012 law would reduce the area to be restored and the potential for native forest cover growth, as previously documented (Garcia et al, 2013;Soares-Filho et al, 2014), and would reduce the potential increase in carbon stocks and increase soil loss and sedimentation at the landscape level. These results corroborate the increase in the provision of ecosystem services at the landscape level with forest restoration (Bongers et al, 2015;Mohammad & Adam, 2010;Viani, Braga, Ribeiro, Pereira, & Brancalion, 2018). Our results demonstrate that the 2012 changes in the Brazilian forest law will affect not only the forest cover but also their provision of key ecosystem services on private properties.…”

Lessons Learned from the Water Producer Project in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

“…However, even if all forest restoration areas are considered to be successfully restored (an optimistic approach), this would clearly not increase forest cover to 33%, which is the minimum amount of cover for biological integrity at the landscape level [32]. Thus, at this rate of reforestation, it would probably take centuries to reach the forest cover threshold for forest functioning in the studied landscapes [20], and even this would likely be insufficient to increase forest connectivity, contrary to the results of other PES projects in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest [27].…”

Adding forests to the water–energy–food nexus

“…Tables Table 1. How key principles of Forest and Landscape Restoration are put in practice in restoration interventions and how they can improve Water, Energy and Food securities. Over the first 10 years, the program coordinated restoration activities that increased native forest cover by 60% through contracts of payment for ecosystem services with landowners, and established long-term collaborations among government agencies, civil society, and landowners 84 .…”