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

PeerJ

article

Érico E. Kauano¹  Jose M.C. Silva¹  Fernanda Michalski¹ 

[1] Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversidade Tropical, Universidade Federal do Amapá;Parque Nacional Montanhas do Tumucumaque, Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade;Department of Geography - Geography and Regional Studies, University of Miami, Coral Gables;Laboratório de Ecologia e Conservação de Vertebrados, Universidade Federal do Amapá;Instituto Pro-Carnívoros

关键词: Illegal activities;    Protected areas;    Conservation;    Natural resources;    Amazon;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.3902

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY