ABSTRACT
Although efforts to protect high levels of biodiversity and carbon storage can greatly increase the effectiveness of species loss and climate change mitigation, there is evidence indicating a trade-off scenario for their conservation at regional scale. Decisions making in trade-off scenarios can be supported by including information on the ecosystem stability of tropical forests (i.e., the ability of the ecosystem to maintain its function over time). Forest stability may affect biodiversity integrity and the residence time of carbon stored in tree biomass. Here, we assess the stability of old-growth forests' productivity by analyzing a 19-year time series of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). We also used geoprocessing tools to analyze the overlap among forest-specialist vertebrate species richness, carbon density, and stability of old-growth forest throughout the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We used model selection to find environmental predictors of the stability of primary productivity and build a predictive map of potential stability. Then, we overlapped maps of potential stability, species richness of forest-specialist vertebrates, and carbon density to identify hotspot areas of biodiversity and carbon density occurring at highest and lowest potential stability. We found that forest stability increases from north to south along the Atlantic Forest. High biodiversity occurs mainly at low stability while high carbon stock at high stability. Spatial overlap of the hotspots, where conservation co-benefits high biodiversity and carbon stock, occurs mostly at high stability in a large area along part of the coast and in smaller inland areas of the southern region. Most of the hotspots with low stability for biodiversity, carbon stock and combination of both are found in unprotected areas. Hence, the strategic mitigation of species loss and carbon emissions lies in three approaches: prioritizing forest protection in unprotected hotspots; implementing forest management practices in protected hotspots with low stability; and enforcing a comprehensive regime of protection and management in hotspots that exhibit low stability. Focused on forest stability, these approaches involve ecosystem-based planning offering Brazil's government effective strategies to fulfill its commitments in biodiversity conservation and carbon emission reduction.
Subject(s)
Ecosystem , Forests , Animals , Biodiversity , Biomass , CarbonABSTRACT
Abstract: The Native Vegetation Protection Law - 2012 - (NVPL) is the main Brazilian regulation for protecting native vegetation (NV) on private land. The NVPL, currently in the implementation phase, reduced Legal Reserves (LR) requirements compared to its previous version, the 1965's Forest Act (FA), through several legal mechanisms. Among them, Article 68 (Art.68) exempts landholders from LR obligations if NV was converted without offending the legislation in place at the time of the conversion. The technical implementation of Art. 68 is controversial and its effects are still unknown. We developed a model to estimate the effects of Art.68 on LR using São Paulo State (Brazil) as case study. We analyzed former environmental laws to identify key periods in which NV preservation requirements had changed. After, we searched for past spatial data on NV cover with sufficient accuracy for each legal benchmark. Combining legal benchmarks with spatial data, we created two scenarios for Art.68 effects, plus a baseline scenario. The first scenario considered a single legal benchmark, the 1965's FA (scenario "1965"), while the other included the 1989 Cerrado's protection Federal Law as a second benchmark (scenario "1965/89"). The baseline scenario did not include Art.68 effects. Scenario "1965" reduced LR deficits in 49% compared to the baseline scenario, waiving landholders from restoration or offsetting needs in 423 thousand hectares (kha) of NV. Scenario "1965/89" waved 507 kha of NV from restoration needs and represented a 59% reduction in LR deficit compared to the baseline scenario. The LR reduction by scenario "1965/89" assumed particular importance considering that the additional cutback was concentrated on Cerrado, an already very fragmented and impacted region. Together with reductions from other NVPL rules, the additional effects of Art. 68 unfolded great concerns about the role of LR as a tool for NV preservation on private land, threating governmental restoration commitments, and pointing that conservation command and control approaches should be complemented with incentive policies to achieve the desired and committed standards.
Resumo: A Lei de Proteção da Vegetação Nativa - 2012 - (LPVN) é a principal lei brasileira para proteção da vegetação nativa (VN) em terras privadas. A LPVN, atualmente em fase de implementação, reduziu os requerimentos de Reserva Legal (RL) presentes no Código Florestal (CF) de 1965 através de uma série de mecanismos legais. Entre eles, o Artigo 68 (Art.68) elimina a obrigação de recomposição ou restauração da VN convertida sem violação da lei vigente à época da conversão. O Art.68 é um dos mais controversos mecanismos da LPVN e cujos efeitos ainda não são conhecidos. Nós desenvolvemos um modelo para estimar os efeitos do Art.68 utilizando o estado de São Paulo, Brasil, como estudo de caso. Para isso, levantamos marcos legais nos quais os requerimentos mínimos de preservação da VN foram alterados. Em seguida, levantamos a existência de dados espaciais da cobertura de VN com a precisão necessária para cada marco legal. Combinando os marcos legais com os dados espaciais encontrados, criamos dois cenários incluindo os efeitos do Art.68 e um cenário linha de base para controlar tais efeitos. O primeiro cenário considerou apenas um marco legal, o CF de 1965 (cenário "1965"), enquanto o segundo incluiu a Lei Federal de proteção ao Cerrado de 1989 (cenário "1965/89"). O cenário "1965" reduz os déficits de RL em 49% quando comparado ao cenário de base, dispensando os proprietários de terra da obrigação de restaurar ou recompor 423 mil hectares (kha) de VN. O cenário "1989/65" dispensa da obrigação de restauração ou recomposição 507 kha de VN, representando uma redução de 59% do déficit de RL em comparação ao cenário base. A redução apresentada pelo cenário "1965/89" assume grande importância uma vez que se concentra em áreas de Cerrado, bioma já extremamente fragmentado e impactado. Em conjunto com as reduções promovidas por outros Artigos da LPVN, estes efeitos revelam grande preocupação sobre o papel das RL como uma ferramenta para a conservação de VN em terras privadas, ameaçando compromissos governamentais de restauração e indicando que estratégias de comando e controle deverão ser complementadas por políticas de incentivo para atingir os objetivos de conservação desejados.
