Abstract
Habitat loss and natural vegetation fragmentation are significant causes of global biodiversity decline, impacting plant and animal species negatively. This issue is worrisome in the private areas of Cerrado in Brazil, which is the second-largest biome, considered a hotspot for biodiversity conservation, and a provider of ecosystem services. Herein, we present a novel integrated approach to define priority areas for biodiversity conservation and environmental compensation in Cerrado, using multicriteria analysis. Our approach combines variables like deforestation projection, integral index of connectivity, threatened species occurrence, and environmental information of rural properties, ranking the importance of remaining native vegetation for biodiversity conservation and forest certificate issuance. Landscape metrics were used to observe and predict land use and land cover changes from 1988 to 2038. We found a loss of native vegetation in the Cerrado superior to 20% between 1988 and 2018, associated with increased of its fragmentation and its connectivity loss, especially after 2008. Natural cover was replaced mostly by pasture and more recently by agriculture. Moreover, we determined that is expected a loss of native vegetation of around 55% by 2038 in the study area. The proposed approach can predict the consequences of future changes in the landscape of the private areas in the Cerrado biome. It should be replicated in other ecosystems, supporting the decision-making process for biodiversity protection.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq); the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel - Brazil (CAPES); the Graduate Program in Applied Geosciences and Geodynamics of the University of Brasília; the Ministry of Environment; Esri and Imagem (contract nº 2011 MLK 8733), for making available the package of tools that make up the ArcGis 10.x family and supporting the programs.
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This work was supported by National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel - Brazil (CAPES).
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Samuel Fernando Schwaida conceptualized the work (methodology, data acquisition, analysis, and validation) and wrote the original draft manuscript. Rejane Ennes Cicerelli conceptualized the work (methodology, analysis, and validation) and helped to write the original draft manuscript. Tati de Almeida conceptualized the work (methodology, analysis, and validation) and helped to write the original draft manuscript. Edson Eyji Sano participated in the data analysis and writing-review and editing. Carlos Henrique Pires participated in the data analysis. Ana Paula Marques Ramos helped to write the original draft manuscript.
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Schwaida, S.F., Cicerelli, R.E., de Almeida, T. et al. Defining priorities areas for biodiversity conservation and trading forest certificates in the Cerrado biome in Brazil. Biodivers Conserv 32, 1807–1820 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-023-02578-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-023-02578-y