Abstract
The conservation and restoration of native vegetation is vital for providing key hydrological services (i.e., maintaining high water quality, atmospheric humidity, and precipitation patterns). However, this research area lacks fine-scale studies at the watershed level to evaluate opportunities for forest restoration and deficit (the shortfall of forest required to be restored or compensated), as well as the implications for watershed management. We provide the first fine-scale estimation of forest and deficit distribution, integrating permanent preservation areas (APPs, in Portuguese) and legal reserves (RL, in Portuguese), according to Brazilian environmental law, for the 41,300 km2 Itacaiúnas watershed in the Brazilian state of Pará, which has lost 50% of its vegetation cover. Using 30 m- and 10 m-resolution imagery, a multi-temporal land use classification was performed by geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA). The results were combined with a set of Brazilian regulations on the conservation and restoration of APPs and RL to assess patterns of forest cover and legal compliance. We found that the total RL deficit (4383 km2) was higher than the total forest surplus (above legal obligation) (3241 km2). However, most of this deficit (56%) could be compensated by protecting a forest area in another property within the Amazon biome, while 44% must be legally restored. Only 4% of the total forest surplus can be legally deforested, and the remaining 96% is already protected by law but can be used to compensate for areas under the deficit. We also found that, despite 57% (3017 km2) of the total APP being forested, only 26% (1356 km2) of the APP must be restored and 17% (881 km2) can remain deforested (consolidated areas). The 2012 law revision reduced the obligation to restore RL and APPs. This change could affect hydrological and ecological services. Compensation mechanisms could be used to protect forest within the Itacaiúnas watershed, rather than in the biome, to reduce further deforestation pressure.
Highlights
Forest restoration actions are necessary to improve water quality and regulate water quantity [1,2].Deforestation reduces evapotranspiration and infiltration and, increases runoff [3,4,5] and reduces water flow into the atmosphere [6]
Implications for Implementing the Forest Code and Public Policies. This analysis has four important implications for implementing the CFB and public policies for RL restoration and compensation [27]: (i) the surplus available in the watershed is sufficient to resolve the deficit that can be compensated for within the watershed itself, without using other more distant areas within the biome, as the CFB suggests; (ii) considering that the compensation-only surplus is already protected by law and cannot be deforested, the true environmental additionality would be using the compensation mechanisms to protect the surplus that can still be deforested; (iii) we showed that more than half of the BHRI is deforested, which implies that there is no need for new forest conversion to increase production, as demonstrated by Strassburg et al, 2014 [32]
Our results are relevant to assist in implementing the Native Vegetation Protection Law and to guide policies to expanding the scale of forest restoration and deforestation compensation in the Amazon
Summary
Forest restoration actions are necessary to improve water quality and regulate water quantity [1,2].Deforestation reduces evapotranspiration and infiltration and, increases runoff [3,4,5] and reduces water flow into the atmosphere [6]. Forest maintenance reduces fire risk [7], in addition to fulfilling an important role in atmospheric humidity flow and precipitation patterns. For this reason, landscape characteristics, such as the distance to water bodies, elevation, and slope, which affect water. Forests 2019, 10, 439 and soil conservation, are usually used as indicators of the provision of hydrological services [8]. The results are not always consistent across regions and depend on the history of land use [9]. Native vegetation covers approximately 60% of Brazilian territory, 40% within some form of public protected area (e.g., conservation units and indigenous lands) and 60% in private or public areas [10,11]
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