Journal
LAND
Volume 10, Issue 10, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/land10101067
Keywords
biomes; ecoregions; land-use and land cover change; Latin America and Caribbean; terrestrial protected areas
Categories
Funding
- Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) [0709645, 0709627]
- Fulbright Specialist Program [4738]
- Universidad Pedagogica y Tecnologica de Colombia
- Emerging Frontiers
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0709627, 0709645] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The study focused on determining protected area coverage and woody vegetation change in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2001 and 2010. It found that overall woody cover in the region decreased by 2.2%, with significant losses in Moist Forests and Flooded Grasslands/Savannas biomes, and an increase in Mediterranean Forests. Despite most biomes experiencing a net decrease, the Dry Forest Biome saw a regional gain, which was surprising.
We determined protected area coverage and woody vegetation change in Latin America and the Caribbean at biome and ecoregion scales, for the years 2001 to 2010. For each ecoregion's terrestrial protected area (TPA) and unprotected area, a linear regression of woody vegetation area against time (10 years) was used to estimate 2001 and 2010 woody vegetation, respectively. We calculated a conversion-to-protection index, termed the Woody Conservation Risk Index, and identified trends in relation to existing conservation priorities. As a whole, the region lost 2.2% of its woody cover. High woody cover loss was observed for the Moist Forests (3.4% decrease) and the Flooded Grasslands/Savannas (11.2% decrease) biomes, while Mediterranean Forests exhibited a 5.8% increase. The Dry Forest Biome, the most threatened biome worldwide, experienced a 2% regional gain, which was surprising as we expected the opposite given a net regional loss for all biomes. Woody cover was more stable in TPAs in comparison to areas with no protection. Deforestation inside and surrounding TPAs remains high in humid ecoregions. High overall ecoregion deforestation, with stable TPAs, characterized some Amazonian ecoregions, the Dry Chaco, and moist forests on the eastern Andean foothills of Ecuador and Peru. Woody regrowth inside and outside of TPAs was observed in the Sonoran-Sinaloan transition subtropical dry forests and the Sierra Madre Occidental pine-oak forests in Mexico.
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