ECOLOGICAL ASPECTS RELATED TO LIGNEOUS VEGETATION IN THE PERMANENT PRESERVATION AREAS OF MINEIROS, GOIÁS, IN LIGHT OF THE NEW NATIVE VEGETATION PROTECTION POLICY - LAW 12.651/2012

Mariana Nascimento Siqueira,Alessandro Ribeiro Morais,Selma Simões Castro,Karla Maria Da Silva Faria

doi:10.1590/0100-67622016000400001

Mariana Nascimento Siqueira, Alessandro Ribeiro Morais + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1590/0100-67622016000400001

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Permanent preservation areas (PPAs) adjacent to drainage channels may include forests, savannahs, or grassland Under a former environmental legislation ("Forest Code"), it was required to maintain a strip of native vegetation (at least 30 m wide) at the margin of any drainage channel, to support environmental functions. Under the current native vegetation protection policy, if a riparian margin was degraded prior to 2008, the landholder is required to regenerate a strip of only 5-20 m, in some cases. The present study evaluated and compared the ligneous vegetation structure in 10 preserved PPAs (following the requirements of the old law) and 10 degraded PPAs (conforming to the current environmental legislation), in Mineiros municipality, southwest Goiás. Sixty plots measuring 15 m × 30 m were delineated, and data for all ligneous individuals with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 5 cm were recorded. A total of 2,662 individuals were documented, distributed among 208 species. Of the total, 1,573 individuals belonging to 167 species were from the preserved PPAs, and 1,089 individuals across 142 species were from the degraded PPAs. According to these results, the preserved PPAs were richer in species composition than in the degraded PPAs (245.5 ± 34.36 and 213.3 ± 34.1, respectively), in addition to being more abundant in terms of individuals. The importance value index (IVI) was well distributed among the species. All the degraded PPAs presented signs of erosion. It was concluded that the reduced width of the PPAs (5-20 m) under the current native vegetation protection policy would result in a loss of the environmental functions sought by the legislation..

Highlights

There is a consensus in the scientific community about a biodiversity crisis unfolding due to the conflict between conservation and socioeconomic development involving intensive human use of land with farming potential (MYERS, 1996)
It was concluded that the reduced width of the Permanent preservation areas (PPAs) (5-20 m) under the current native vegetation protection policy would result in a loss of the environmental functions sought by the legislation
This study investigated whether the abundance, diversity, and species richness in ligneous vegetation differed between PPAs in which a 30 m margin of native vegetation was in place and PPAs where human interference was evident within the 30 m vegetation margin

Summary

Introduction

There is a consensus in the scientific community about a biodiversity crisis unfolding due to the conflict between conservation and socioeconomic development involving intensive human use of land with farming potential (MYERS, 1996). Located primarily in the central part of Brazil, the Cerrado originally covered an area of 25 million km (SILVA; BATES, 2002) It was first colonized by humans at the beginning of the 1930s, but during 1960–1970, it served as a targeted frontier for agricultural expansion, owing to credit concessions and technical modernization that expanded the range of productive areas (TEIXEIRA; HESPANHOL, 2006). Because of this progression of human occupation, the biodiversity conservation efforts in the Cerrado have been observed (DINIZ-FILHO et al, 2006; RANGEL et al, 2006). Law 12.651 of December 2012, which replaced the old Forest Code, might further facilitate the expansion of agricultural frontiers into this biome, to the detriment of biodiversity (MARTINELLI et al, 2010)

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