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Challenges and Opportunities for Biodiversity Conservation in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

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Challenges and Opportunities for Biodiversity Conservation in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest Challenges and Opportunities for Biodiversity Conservation in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest MARCELO TABARELLI,∗ LUIZ PAULO PINTO,† JOSEM.C.SIL´ VA,‡ MARCIA´ HIROTA,§ AND LUCIO´ BEDE†ˆ ∗Departamento de Botˆanica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife 50670-901, Pernambuco, Brasil, email [email protected] †Conserva¸c˜ao Internacional—Brasil, Avenida Get´ulio Vargas 1300, Belo Horizonte 30112-021, Minas Gerais, Brasil ‡Conserva¸c˜ao Internacional—Brasil, Avenida Nazar´e 541/310, Bel´em 66035-170, Par´a, Brasil §Funda¸c˜ao SOS Mata Atlˆantica, Rua Manoel da N´obrega 456, S˜ao Paulo 04001-001, S˜ao Paulo, Brasil Abstract: With endangered status and more than 8,000 endemic species, the Atlantic Forest is one of the world’s 25 biodiversity hotspots. Less than 100,000 km2 (about 7%) of the forest remains. In some areas of endemism, all that is left are immense archipelagos of tiny and widely separated forest fragments. In addition to habitat loss, other threats contributing to forest degradation include the harvesting of firewood, illegal logging, hunting, plant collecting, and invasion by alien species—all despite the legislation that exists for the forest’s protection. More than 530 plants and animals occurring in the forest are now officially threatened, some at the biome level, some throughout Brazil, and some globally. Many species have not been recorded in any protected areas, indicating the need to rationalize and expand the parks system. Although conservation initiatives have increased in number and scale during the last two decades, they are still insufficient to guarantee the conservation of Atlantic Forest biodiversity. To avoid further deforestation and massive species loss in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, the challenge is to integrate the diverse regulations, public policies, new opportunities, and incentive mechanisms for forest protection and restoration and the various independent projects and programs carried out by governments and nongovernmental organizations into a single and comprehensive strategy for establishing networks of sustainable landscapes throughout the region. Retos y Oportunidades para la Conservaci´on de Biodiversidad en el Bosque Atl´antico Brasileno˜ Resumen: En peligro y con mas´ de 8,000 especies end´emicas, el Bosque Atlantico´ es uno de los 25 sitios de importancia para la conservacion´ de biodiversidad en el mundo. Actualmente quedan menos de 100,000 km2 (cerca de 7%) de bosque. En algunas areas´ de endemismo, lo unico´ que queda son inmensos archipi´elagos de fragmentos de bosque pequenos˜ y muy aislados. Adicionalmente a la p´erdida de habitat,´ otras amenazas que contribuyen a la degradacion´ del bosque incluyen – a pesar de la legislacion´ existente para la proteccion´ del bosque – la recoleccion´ de lena,˜ la tala ilegal, la cacer´ıa, la recoleccion´ de plantas y la invasion´ de especies exoticas.´ Mas´ de 530 especies de plantas y animales ah´ıpresentes estan´ amenazadas oficialmente, algunas a nivel de bioma, algunas en Brasil y algunas globalmente. Muchas especies no han sido registradas en ningun´ area´ protegida, lo que indica la necesidad de racionalizar y expandir el sistema de parques. Aunque las iniciativas de conservacion´ han aumentado en numero´ y escala durante las dos ultimas´ d´ecadas, aun son insuficientes para garantizar la conservacion´ de la biodiversidad del Bosque Atlantico´ Brasileno.˜ El reto, para evitar mayor deforestacio´nyp´erdida masiva de especies en el Bosque Atlantico´ Brasileno,˜ es integrar a las diversas regulaciones, pol´ıticas publicas,´ nuevas oportunidades y mecanismos para incentivar la proteccion´ y restauracion´ del bosque y los diversos proyectos y programas independientes llevados a cabo por los gobiernos yorganizaciones no gubernamentales en una estrategia amplia y unica´ para el establecimiento de redes de paisajes sustentables en toda la region.´ Paper submitted November 19, 2004; revised manuscript accepted January 14, 2005. 695 Conservation Biology, Pages 695–700 Volume 19, No. 3, June 2005 696 Biodiversity Conservation in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest Tabarelli et al. The Atlantic Forest Cˆamara 2003). Ten percent of its remaining cover was lost just between 1989 and 2000, despite considerable The Atlantic Forest is the second largest rainforest of the investments in surveillance and protection (A. Amarante, American continent, once stretching almost continuously unpublished data). Covering enormous areas, remaining along the Brazilian coast and extending inland in the south forest has been reduced to immense archipelagos of small and into eastern Paraguay and northeastern Argentina. In to tiny, widely separated forest fragments (Gascon et al. the past, it covered more than 1.5 million km2—92% of 2000). Forests in the northeast were already largely dev- it in Brazil (Funda¸c˜ao SOS Mata Atlˆantica & INPE 2001; astated (cattle ranching and timber shipped to Europe) Galindo-Leal & Cˆamara 2003). It is one of the world’s in the sixteenth century (Coimbra-Filho & Cˆamara 1996). 25 biodiversity hotspots. Even though it has been largely Dean (1996) identified the proximal causes of habitat loss: destroyed, it is still home to more than 8000 endemic overexploitation of forest resources by human popula- species of vascular plants, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and tions (timber, fruits, firewood, poaching) and the expro- mammals (Myers et al. 2000). priation of land for human activities (pasture, agriculture, Extremely heterogeneous in composition, the Atlantic and silviculture). Brazilian government subsidies have fu- Forest extends from 4◦ to 32◦S and covers a wide range eled agricultural expansion, stimulating high-yield agricul- of climatic belts and vegetation formations, from trop- ture (sugar, coffee, and soybean; Galindo-Leal et al. 2003; ical to subtropical. Elevation ranges from sea level to Young 2003). Forest clearance has been especially severe 2900 m, with abrupt changes in soil type and depth in the last three decades; 11,650 km2 of forest have been and average air temperature (Mantovani 2003). Longitu- lost in the last 15 years (2.84 km2 per day; Funda¸c˜ao SOS dinal variation is also marked. Forests further inland are Mata Atlˆantica & INPE 2001; Hirota 2003). increasingly seasonal, with average annual rainfall drop- Deforestation rates defy the legislation that exists to ping from 4000 mm to 1000 mm in some areas of the protect the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The Forest Code of Serra do Mar (Oliveira-Filho & Fontes 2000; Mantovani 1965 requires that 20% of the area of any rural property in 2003). Along with the tropical rainforest, the Atlantic For- the region be managed as a legal forest reserve (reserva est encompasses mixed Araucaria pine forests and dis- legal) and that gallery forest (the width determined by tinct Lauraceae-dominated forest in the south and decidu- the width of the river) and forest on steep slopes (for ous and semideciduous forests inland. A number of asso- example) be areas of permanent protection (areas de ciated formations include mangroves, restingas (coastal protec¸ao˜ permanente) and preserved as such (Schaffer forest and scrub on sandy soils), high-elevation grassland &Prochnow 2002). Federal Decree 750 of 1993 delim- (campo rupestre), and brejos (humid forests resulting ited the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and its associated ecosys- from orographic rainfall in otherwise semidesert scrub tems and determined that any logging, forest cutting, or in the northeast of Brazil; Cˆamara 2003). disturbance requires prior permission by the appropriate The history of the Atlantic Forest has been marked by government agencies (reviewed by Cˆamara 2003). periods of connection with other South American forests Many threats persist despite this legal protection; for (e.g., Amazon and Andean forests) that resulted in biotic example, there is a permanent lobby to expand agricul- interchange, followed by periods of isolation that led to tural lands (by changing the legislation governing the le- geographic speciation (Silva et al. 2004). Consequently, gal forest reserve), residential areas, and land settlements. the forest’s biota is composed of both old (pre-Pliocene) From 1985 to 1998, for example, the National Institute for and young (Pleistocene) species (Silva & Casteleti 2003), Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) converted 50 and a number of areas of endemism (defined by both old large rural properties into land settlements, resulting in and young species) have been identified (Silva et al. 2004). the clearance of at least 150 km2 of forest—10% of the re- Although the extent and the current location of these ar- maining forest in southern Bahia (Rocha 2002). Despite eas are still controversial, at least five can be recognized recent improvements in staff capacity, the Brazilian In- based on the distribution of terrestrial vertebrates and stitute for the Environment (IBAMA) and state agencies plants: Brejos Nordestinos, Pernambuco, Central Bahia, are still generally unable to penalize offenders with any Coastal Bahia, and Serra do Mar, all in Brazil (Silva & alacrity, and only a negligible portion of fines are ever Casteleti 2003; Silva et al. 2004). paid (Laurance 1999). In addition to the relentless loss of habitat, the remain- ing forests continue to be degraded through the harvest- ing of firewood, illegal logging, collection of plants and Habitat Loss plant products, and invasion by alien species (Galetti & Fernandez 1998; Tabarelli et al. 2004). Poaching contin- More than 93% of the original forest is
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