Federal Protected Areas Research Articles

Public spending in federal protected areas in Brazil

Establishing protected areas (PAs) is one of the most common land use policies implemented by governments to maintain healthy ecosystems at different spatial scales and in distinct socioeconomic settings. However, reliable knowledge on government spending in PAs and the factors that influence this spending is limited. In this study, we describe the public spending by the Brazilian government in a set of 289 federal PAs that altogether cover an area of 743,406 km2. Then, we assess how six contextual factors (area, age, population density, human development index [HDI], ecological regions, and management group) influence this spending. From 2013–2016, the Brazilian government invested at least US$197.8 million in 289 PAs. The average annual spending per km2 presents a wide variation, ranging from US$0.3/km2 to US$392,250/km2. A linear regression model indicates that (1) the annual public spending increases with PA size, PA age, human population density, and HDI; (2) multiple-use PAs receive fewer resources than strict-protection PAs do; and (3) no difference exists in the public spending in PAs between Amazon—the region perceived by the national population as the most important for Brazil’s natural resources—and other ecological regions in the country. Our study highlights the urgent need to document the flows of financial resources to PAs, with the aim of understanding their variation patterns and the processes that cause such a variation. Similar studies in other countries are required to evaluate if the patterns that we describe here are general or are country specific. Besides, separately assessing the investments coming from governments and the financial resources provided by other conservation investors (i.e., NGOs, multilateral, corporations) is worthwhile to produce a more comprehensive and nuanced view of financial flows to PAs.

Ecological and sociopolitical assessment of congressional and presidential designation of federal protected areas.

Protected areas are one of the most effective means by which biodiversity is conserved, but are often criticized for either neglecting the importance of local communities or sacrificing conservation objectives for political expedience. In the United States, federal protected areas can be designated via a democratic legislation process or via executive action, which allows for comparison of the ecological and sociopolitical context of these top-down and bottom-up processes. We compared protected areas resulting from congressional designation vs. presidential designation with respect to their ecological context (using measures of biodiversity and climate refugial potential) and sociopolitical context (using measures of local support for conservation and reliance on natural resource-based industries). We found minimal differences between these designation modes for both ecological and sociopolitical variables. These results suggest that presidentially designated protected areas tend to be no more burdensome to local communities and no less valuable for ecological conservation than more widely accepted federal protected areas such as national parks, and they provide new evidence to inform the current debate over national monuments.

Territórios, populaçôes tradiconais e conflito: a realidade da reserva extrativista extremo norte do Tocantins, Brasil

Este estudo analisa os inúmeros conflitos relacionados à posse, uso, gestão e criação do território protegido, atualmente denominado de Reserva Extrativista Extremo Norte do Tocantins. A análise é feita a partir do conflito enquanto elemento constituinte da memória do território que conforma a Unidade de Conservação (UC). Para este estudo qualitativo foram combinadas revisão bibliográficas, com dados secundários (fontes oficiais) e dados primários (notas de campo). Como resultado, se identificou a falta de coordenação entre os objetivos da políticas públicas agrícolas, energéticas, ambientais e de integração do território na região de abrangência da Resex, tal falta de articulação é, inclusive, alavanca para tensões entres os diversos atores que compartilham esta realidade. A tensão entre os agentes sociais está relacionada à tomada de decisão derivada de diferentes lógicas de apropriação de recursos naturais. Os agentes sociais da reserva extrativista mantêm relações tradicionais estabelecidas entre sociedade e natureza através da exploração do coco babaçu (Attalea speciosa). Além disso, novos atores sociais ocupam extensos espaços de áreas nesse território, a exemplo disso se tem a criação de gado, a qual onera efeitos à exploração do babaçu e aos objetivos da UC, dentre estes: a privatização dos recursos vegetais e; a transformação abrupta da paisagem e consequentemente a diminuição do recurso natural em questão. O ponto chave para entender o conflito é a regularização fundiária, uma vez que a área da UC é sobreposta em propriedades privadas que ainda estão pendentes de regularização, levando a tensões e processos de exclusão e de servilismo aos usuários da UC por parte dos fazendeiros.

Invasive species and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation: how close has Brazil come to achieving Target 10?

Abstract Target 10 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation establishes that "Effective management plans are in place to prevent new biological invasions and to manage important areas for plant diversity that are invaded" by 2020. The rationale for the target is that invasive alien species are a major threat to native plants, and thus should be excluded from areas reserved for the conservation of plant species, especially when endemic and/or threatened. In Brazil, although most management plans report the presence of invasive alien species and the need for management in federal protected areas, there are only a very limited number of management plans implemented. The national strategy on invasive alien species, published as CONABIO Resolution 05/2009, has not been implemented, so progress on policies and legislation focused on invasive alien species at the federal level has been slow. In order to reach an effective development of public policies in Brazil, federal environmental agencies must function as focal points and be in charge of coordinating actions aimed at (1) identifying priority areas for preventing and managing biological invasions, and (2) managing invasive alien species and reduce their impacts.

Spatial Analysis of Federal Protected Areas and Priority Areas for Biodiversity Conservation in Brazil

This study presents a spatial analysis of priority areas for biodiversity conservation (PABCs) in Brazil and their coverage by federal protected areas as an indicator of the level of protection afforded to biodiversity in the country and the convergence of environmental protection policies in the sphere of federal government. Georeferenced data were processed using a geographic information system, enabling the calculation of areas, analyses of superimpositions, localizations, and the obtainment of other information using spatial features manipulated in this system. A comparative analysis is done of the PABCs mapped in two periods (2003 and 2007) to ascertain the evolution of this public policy instrument in detecting environmental priorities in protected areas. The improved coverage of PABCs by protected areas in the more recent mapping indicates a good convergence of environmental policies, which are enhanced by technical improvements to mapping procedures and methods for identifying such areas. As a result, the priority areas for biodiversity conservation could become a protected area regulated and recognized by the federal government.

Cypripedium calceolus (Orchidaceae) in Central Russia: a case study for its populations in two protected areas in the Republic of Mordovia (Russia)

Cypripedium calceolus is considered as one of the flagship plant species of nature conservation. It is legally protected throughout Eurasia. Due to its wide distribution range, this Eurasian species could be considered as Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered taxon. We performed an analysis of the status for some C. calceolus populations in Central Russia located in the Republic of Mordovia, with emphasis on populations situated in the federal protected areas. The aim of our study was to asses the modern state and the endangerment of C. calceolus populations. The environment conditions and species composition in five habitats with rare species in Mordovia were compared using phytoindication methods. Changes in stage spectrum and total abundance dynamics in C. calceolus populations over 2011–2016 were estimated and compared with available data from other locations within species’ range. Reproductive ability of populations from the federal protected area, Mordovia State Nature Reserve, were studied. The results showed that C. calceolus grows in three habitat types that differed in environment conditions and floristic composition. Convallaria majalis was the only species registered in all studied locations, together with C. calceolus. In Central Russia this species occurs in broad-leaved, coniferous and mixed forests. The three populations of C. calceolus within the Mordovia State Nature Reserve and National Park “Smolny” were characterized by the dominance of vegetative individuals in stage spectrum, while generative plants predominated in two other populations located in mixed forests. No correlation between total abundance of individuals and stage spectrum in populations of threatened species has been found over the study period. The population in Mordovia Reserve showed a higher fruit set (36.7% as a mean) than others reported within its range. Continued population monitoring of C. calceolus in Central Russia from different habitat types is suggested. Generalization of jointly obtained demographic, ecological, phytocoenological data will be appropriate in order to develop measures for conservation and management of C. calceolus habitats.

Illegal use of natural resources in federal protected areas of the Brazilian Amazon.

BackgroundThe Brazilian Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest regions and plays a key role in biodiversity conservation as well as climate adaptation and mitigation. The government has created a network of protected areas (PAs) to ensure long-term conservation of the region. However, despite the importance of and positive advances in the establishment of PAs, natural resource depletion in the Brazilian Amazon is pervasive.MethodsWe evaluated a total of 4,243 official law enforcement records generated between 2010 and 2015 to understand the geographical distribution of the illegal use of resources in federal PAs in the Brazilian Amazon. We classified illegal activities into ten categories and used generalized additive models (GAMs) to evaluate the relationship between illegal use of natural resources inside PAs with management type, age of PAs, population density, and accessibility.ResultsWe found 27 types of illegal use of natural resources that were grouped into 10 categories of illegal activities. Most infractions were related to suppression and degradation of vegetation (37.40%), followed by illegal fishing (27.30%) and hunting activities (18.20%). The explanatory power of the GAMs was low for all categories of illegal activity, with a maximum explained variation of 41.2% for illegal activities as a whole, and a minimum of 14.6% for hunting activities.DiscussionThese findings demonstrate that even though PAs are fundamental for nature conservation in the Brazilian Amazon, the pressures and threats posed by human activities include a broad range of illegal uses of natural resources. Population density up to 50 km from a PA is a key variable, influencing illegal activities. These threats endanger long-term conservation and many efforts are still needed to maintain PAs that are large enough and sufficiently intact to maintain ecosystem functions and protect biodiversity.

Collateral benefits from public and private conservation lands: a comparison of ecosystem service capacities

SUMMARYProtected areas remain the most commonly used tool forin situconservation; however growth in the USA's system of public lands has stagnated while private land conservation continues to expand. Easements can provide a range of ecosystem services (ESs), but it is unknown whether conservation easements maintain ES capacities equivalent to public protected areas. Evaluation of the capacity of seven ESs on federal and state protected areas and conservation easements in the USA using spatially-explicit ES models and publicly available data indicated that ES capacities in easements were equal to or greater than capacities within state or federal protected areas for six of seven services and, when bundled together, conservation easements protected greater focal ES capacity than other conservation areas. Economic incentive programmes and regulatory mechanisms may be used to stimulate capacity improvements for surface water regulation, riparian filtration, erosion control, and carbon storage on conservation easements, and landscape-level conservation efforts should (1) continue to protect natural and uninhabited areas that provide ecosystem and biological diversity, (2) expand private conservation efforts close to human population centres, and (3) limit future development to areas with high regulating service capacity that can sustain new population growth.

Legal Framework for Protected Areas: Canada

This case study focuses on terrestrial national parks in Canada, where the protected areas system has evolved for over a century since the creation of a national park at Banff in 1885. The role of 'ecological integrity' as a statutory standard following recent legislative renewal of the Canada National Parks Act is a distinctive feature of the Canadian system. While the national parks system has experienced significant recent expansion in conjunction with the resolution of northern aboriginal land claims, there are only limited indications in Canada of either co-management or community-conserved areas. The Canadian framework incorporates a wide range or reporting and accountability mechanisms which contribute importantly to public and non-government participation in the development of parks policy and administration. The national terrestrial parks system, while a keystone of Canada's protected areas framework, does not appear to be fully integrated with other federal protected areas initiatives or with corresponding protected areas regimes operating at the provincial level, although a jointly agreed biodiversity strategy has been developed through federal-provincial-territorial consultation.

Mapping Recent Deforestation and Forest Disturbance in Northeastern Madagascar

We conducted an analysis of deforestation and forest disturbance from 2005-2011 in Masoala National Park, the largest federal protected area in Madagascar. We found that the annual rate of forest change in 2010-2011 within the park (1.27%) was considerably higher than in 2005-2008 (0.99%), and was higher than the most recently published deforestation rate for all of Madagascar. Although deforestation and disturbance immediately following the 2009 coup d'état were lower than in the other time periods analyzed, the longer-term increase in forest change over the study period corroborates recent ground-based accounts of increased illegal activities in national parks, including logging of precious hardwoods. We also analyzed forest disturbance patterns in relation to rivers and travel distance from permanent villages. Forest disturbances were significantly closer to rivers than expected by chance, and 82% of disturbance was within the mean maximum travel distance to villages surrounding the park. Both results strongly indicate that most of the mapped disturbance in the study area is anthropogenic, despite two cyclones during the study period. High-resolution forest monitoring ensures that forest change statistics accurately reflect anthropogenic disturbances and are not inflated by forest losses resulting from natural processes.

Directives for the conservation of the northern muriqui, <i>Brachyteles hypoxanthus</i> (Primates, Atelidae)


 
 
 
 There are two species of muriqui, Brachyteles — the northern muriqui (B. hypoxanthus) and the southern muriqui (B. arachnoides). The northern muriqui is the most endangered of the two. The species originally occurred through most of the Atlantic forest in the south of the state of Bahia, eastern Minas Gerais, and south central Espírito Santo. Hunting and widespread loss of its native forest means that today just a few small and isolated populations remain, with poor chances of survival in the long term. Currently the northern muriqui can be found in 12 places, six on private land, three in state protected, and three in federal protected areas. Combined, these areas total about 160,000 ha and a minimum known number of 855 individuals. The known population has increased significantly in the last five years, but the total is still very small and fragmented for long-term viability — no single population exceeds 500. In this article we report on the areas where they are known to occur, the main threats to them, and the conservation measures that have been proposed to avoid the premature extinction of the species.
 
 
 

The national parks of Argentinian Patagonia — management policies for conservation, public use, rural settlements, and indigenous communities

This paper presents an overview of some aspects of the federal protected areas system of Argentinian Patagonia We discuss its features and coverage relating to conservation, management issues, and challenges for the future, particularly relating to rural settlers, indigenous communities, and public use