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Effects of past and future land conversions on forest connectivity in the Argentine Chaco

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Abstract

Context

Land-use change is the main driver of habitat loss and fragmentation worldwide. The rate of dry forest loss in the South American Chaco is among the highest in the world, mainly due to the expansion of soybean production and cattle ranching. Argentina recently implemented a national zoning plan (i.e., the Forest Law) to reduce further forest loss. However, it is unclear how the effects of past deforestation and the implementation of the Forest Law will affect forest connectivity in the Chaco.

Objective

Our main goal was to evaluate the potential effect of the Forest Law on forest fragmentation and connectivity in the Argentine Chaco.

Methods

We studied changes in the extent, fragmentation, and connectivity of forests between 1977 and 2010, by combining agricultural expansion and forest cover maps, and for the future in a scenario analysis.

Results

Past agricultural expansion translated into an overall loss of 22.5 % of the Argentine Chaco’s forests, with deforestation rates in 2000–2010 up to three times higher than in the 1980s. Forest fragmentation and connectivity loss were highest in 1977–1992, when road construction fragmented large forest patches. Our future scenario analysis showed that if the Forest Law will be implemented as planned, forest area and connectivity in the region will decline drastically.

Conclusions

Land-use planning designed to protect stepping stones could substantially mitigate connectivity loss due to deforestation, with the co-benefit of preserving the greatest amount of biodiversity priority areas across all evaluated scenarios. Including scenario analyses that assess forest fragmentation and connectivity at the ecoregion scale is thus important in upcoming revisions of the Argentine Forest Law, and, more generally, in debates about sustainable resource use.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank R. Grau, I. Gasparri, L. Seghezzo, Y. Le Poulain de Waroux, J. M. Paruelo, and M. Vallejos for valuable discussions and support, and M. Matsumoto (TNC) for sharing their priority areas datasets. We are grateful to C. Israel, C. Levers, F. Gollnow and P. Gärtner for technical support and to A. Gavier for his support in the field. We also thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor M. Bakker for constructive and very helpful comments that improved this manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge funding by the Einstein Foundation Berlin.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geography Department, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany

    María Piquer-Rodríguez & Tobias Kuemmerle

  2. Grupo de Estudios de Sistemas Ecológicos en Ambientes Agrícolas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Intendente Güiraldes 2160, C1428EGA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Sebastián Torella & Rubén Ginzburg

  3. Grupo de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Gestión Ambiental, Instituto de Recursos Biológicos (CIRN), Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), CNIA-INTA, Nicolas Repetto y De Los Reseros, 1686, Hurlingham, Argentina

    Gregorio Gavier-Pizarro

  4. Laboratorio de Teledetección y SIG, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Salta, Ruta Nacional 68, Km 172, Cerrillos, Salta, Argentina

    José Volante

  5. Centro Regional Buenos Aires Norte (CRBAN), Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Ruta 32 Km 4,5 (2700), Pergamino, Argentina

    Daniel Somma

  6. Integrative Research Institute on Transformations in Human-Environment System (IRI THESys), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany

    Tobias Kuemmerle

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  1. María Piquer-Rodríguez
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Correspondence to María Piquer-Rodríguez.

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Piquer-Rodríguez, M., Torella, S., Gavier-Pizarro, G. et al. Effects of past and future land conversions on forest connectivity in the Argentine Chaco. Landscape Ecol 30, 817–833 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-014-0147-3

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