Importance of fish biodiversity in conservation planning of Brazilian National Parks

Thercia Gonçalves Ribeiro Monroe,Fabrício Silva Garcez,Ligia Tchaicka,Natanael Bezerra Monroe,Selma Patricia Diniz Cantanhêde

doi:10.33448/rsd-v10i10.18769

Thercia Gonçalves Ribeiro Monroe, Fabrício Silva Garcez + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v10i10.18769

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Abstract

Protected areas are essential for the maintenance of biodiversity. In Brazil, national parks encompass one of the most important portions of this area (26.864.003,74ha) that needs to be adequately managed to achieve conservation. Aiming to understand how the ichthyofauna data is included in management plans of Brazilian National Parks, we review 55 Brazilian national parks management plans to compare how data of freshwater fish fauna are included in these documents. The data evaluated from management plans were Hydrography, ichthyofauna list, participation of professionals trained in rapid ecological assessment and species richness, endangered and invasive species. This information was used to categorize the management plans through two sets of assessing: quality of rapid ecological assessment and coverage of species diversity. The categorization results were assumed as an indicator of the potential for biodiversity conservation of the management plans. We compare obtained results between biomes. We were able to understand that many of the Brazilian National Parks do not have management plans, and among the plans that are prepared, the lack of essential information compromises their potential for the conservation of biodiversity. We highlight the need to improve management plans for the Caatinga parks and expand the analysis of invasive species for all biomes.

Highlights

Protected areas (PAs) are those reserved for the preservation of biological diversity and the use of natural and cultural resources, managed by legal means (Scherl et al, 2006)
Collected data were organized in two sets of evaluation as follows: 1. Quality of rapid ecological assessment: the elaboration of each management plan (MP) were compared with the criteria required in the Rapid Ecological Assessment - the official guide of Brazilian Institute of Environment and Nonrenewable Natural Resources (IBAMA, 2002) and scored/in the range: (1) No quality– MP includes only Hydrography; (2) Low quality– MP includes Hydrography, Ichthyofauna data; (3) Medium quality - MP includes hydrography, Ichthyofauna data, species richness and (4) High quality - MP includes hydrography, Ichthyofauna data, species richness and was elaborated by trained professionals. 2
Considering that all National Parks included hydrographic networks, a gap was observed between the number of management plans and ichthyofauna data

Summary

Introduction

Protected areas (PAs) are those reserved for the preservation of biological diversity and the use of natural and cultural resources, managed by legal means (Scherl et al, 2006). Brazilian National System of Conservation Units (SNUC) (Ministry of the Environment, 2000) is the main environmental law that regulates the establishment of protected areas in Brazillian territory. National Parks (NP) are one category of PAs which are intended to contribute to the maintenance of genetic resources, providing a refuge for endemic and threatened species (Brunner et al, 2001, Le Saout et al, 2013, Coetzee et al, 2014; Ministry of the Environment, 2000a). To achieve the goal of conservation, Brazillian law determines that all the PAs need to create a management plan (MP) a guide that rules the uses and actions for the area and must be implemented by the environmental agency

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