A twenty year GIS-based assessment of environmental sustainability of land use changes in and around protected areas of a fast developing country: Spain

David Rodríguez-Rodríguez,Javier Martínez-Vega,Pilar Echavarría

doi:10.1016/j.jag.2018.08.006

Abstract

Spain has experienced massive recent socioeconomic changes that have had an influence on biodiversity and landscapes through land use-land cover (LULC) changes. Protected areas (PAs) seek to conserve biodiversity by establishing a legal and, sometimes, managerial regime that forbids or restricts LULC changes that are damaging to biodiversity. Here, we used CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data between 1987 and 2006 to assess differences in LULC changes and processes of change as metrics of effectiveness in four PA networks of clear legal and managerial characteristics in Spain: Nature reserves (NRs), Nature parks (NPs), Sites of Community Importance (SCIs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs). We also compared LULC changes and processes of change around each PA network applying a modified Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) research design with two increasingly distant control areas and two models of increased validity. The four PA networks were more environmentally sustainable than their surrounding areas although an effectiveness gradient was shown: NRs > SCIs > SPAs > NPs, suggesting little influence of PA management on LULC changes overall. Another gradient of environmental sustainability of control areas was evident: SCIs > SPAs > NPs > NRs. Proximal controls were more sustainable than distant ones. The main LULC increases inside PAs affected agro-forestry areas and transitional woodland-shrub, whereas artificial surfaces, permanently irrigated lands and burned areas prevailed in the proximal and distant controls. Three main LULC processes of change inside and around Spanish PAs outstood: forest succession, land development, and new irrigated areas, the two former chiefly affecting surrounding areas and posing serious threats to effective biodiversity conservation.

Highlights

Global socioeconomic improvements in the last decades (United Nations, 2015) have run in parallel to an unprecedented decline of biodiversity and ecosystem services (Butchart et al, 2010), despite substantial international efforts to maintain healthy ecosystems (UNESCO, 1971, 1972; CMS, 1979; EEC, 1979; CBD, 1992; EEC, 1992; OSPAR, 1992; United Nations, 1994)
Relevant net positive changes occurred in transitional woodland-shrub and agro-forestry areas in all Protected areas (PAs) networks
Noticeable net positive land use-land cover (LULC) changes in artificial surfaces and water bodies occurred in all PA networks except in Nature reserves (NRs)

Summary

Introduction

Global socioeconomic improvements in the last decades (United Nations, 2015) have run in parallel to an unprecedented decline of biodiversity and ecosystem services (Butchart et al, 2010), despite substantial international efforts to maintain healthy ecosystems (UNESCO, 1971, 1972; CMS, 1979; EEC, 1979; CBD, 1992; EEC, 1992; OSPAR, 1992; United Nations, 1994). Protected areas (PAs) have been widely advocated and used as the main global policy to stop the loss of biodiversity for a long time (CBD, 1992), evidence of their effectiveness at conserving species and natural habitats varies (Gaston et al, 2008; Craigie et al, 2010; Geldmann et al, 2013; Davis et al, 2014; Spracklen et al, 2015; Gray et al, 2016). Large rural emigration to cities, which continues today, results in the abandonment of some traditional farming activities that in some cases benefit biodiversity (van der Zanden et al, 2017), and in the subsequent ‘naturalisation’ and homogeneisation of the Spanish rural landscape (Jiménez, 2012).

Results

Discussion

Conclusion