Habitat loss and the effectiveness of protected areas in the Cerrado Biodiversity Hotspot

Abstract The definition of conservation targets is strategic for the protection of biodiversity and must ensure the representativeness and persistence of biodiversity components. This is especially critical in fast-disappearing ecosystems, such as in the Cerrado, where opportunities for conservation are rapidly diminishing. We evaluate how different categories of protected areas (PAs) in the Cerrado contribute to achieve the 17% conservation target defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Deforestation rates in sustainable use PAs (IUCN categories IV to VI) are similar to those outside PAs, indicating they are not adequate to ensure the protection of biodiversity. Conversely, strict PAs exhibit significantly less deforestation and should form most of the target content. Because strict PAs represent only 3% of the Cerrado, Brazil is far from achieving the 17% target defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity. Urgent measures toward the creation of strict PAs in the Cerrado are needed, to ensure the representativeness and persistence of its conspicuous biodiversity.

[1]  David P. Braun,et al.  Are We Conserving What We Say We Are? Measuring Ecological Integrity within Protected Areas , 2003 .

[2]  H. Locke,et al.  Rethinking protected area categories and the new paradigm , 2005, Environmental Conservation.

[3]  T. Brooks,et al.  Global Biodiversity Conservation Priorities , 2006, Science.

[4]  Lissa M. Barr,et al.  A New Way to Measure the World's Protected Area Coverage , 2011, PloS one.

[5]  Kevin J. Gaston,et al.  The ecological effectiveness of protected areas: the United Kingdom , 2006 .

[6]  Tarla Rai Peterson,et al.  Conservation and the Myth of Consensus , 2005 .

[7]  E. Stokstad.  The empty forest. , 2014, Science.

[8]  R. L. Pressey,et al.  Representing biodiversity: Data and procedures for identifying priority areas for conservation , 2002, Journal of Biosciences.

[9]  A. Rylands,et al.  Brazilian Protected Areas , 2005 .

[10]  C. Peres.  Effects of Subsistence Hunting on Vertebrate Community Structure in Amazonian Forests , 2000 .

[11]  R. Mittermeier,et al.  Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities , 2000, Nature.

[12]  S. Stuart,et al.  Wildlife in a changing world : an analysis of the 2008 IUCN red list of threatened species , 2009 .

[13]  G. Clarke,et al.  Predictable waves of sequential forest degradation and biodiversity loss spreading from an African city , 2010, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[14]  K. Peh.  Crop failure signals biodiversity crisis , 2011, Nature.

[15]  Leona K. Svancara,et al.  Policy-driven versus Evidence-based Conservation: A Review of Political Targets and Biological Needs , 2005 .

[16]  R. Loyola,et al.  Defining spatial conservation priorities in the face of land-use and climate change , 2013 .

[17]  Elinor Ostrom,et al.  Insights on linking forests, trees, and people from the air, on the ground, and in the laboratory , 2006, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[18]  Marc Hockings,et al.  A Global Analysis of Protected Area Management Effectiveness , 2010, Environmental management.

[19]  M. Adams.  Beyond Yellowstone? Conservation and Indigenous rights in Australia and Sweden , 2005 .

[20]  D. Nepstad,et al.  Inhibition of Amazon Deforestation and Fire by Parks and Indigenous Lands , 2006, Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology.

[21]  Liana N. Joseph,et al.  Targeting Global Protected Area Expansion for Imperiled Biodiversity , 2014, PLoS biology.

[22]  R. McDonald,et al.  Global development and the future of the protected area strategy , 2011 .

[23]  Paul J. Ferraro,et al.  Protected areas reduced poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand , 2010, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[24]  Igarapé Açú,et al.  Effects of Subsistence Hunting on Vertebrate Community Structure in Amazonian Forests , 2000 .

[25]  K. Redford.  The Empty Forest Many large animals are already ecologically extinct in vast areas of neotropical forest where the vegetation still appears intact , 1992 .

[26]  Valerie Kapos,et al.  Protected Area Effectiveness in Reducing Conversion in a Rapidly Vanishing Ecosystem: The Brazilian Cerrado , 2014 .

[27]  Huilin Wang,et al.  Average optimacity: An index to guide site prioritization for biodiversity conservation , 2008 .