PAs curb deforestation; but for how long? [14/11/2006 15:03]

The second Special Feature report on deforestation, and the fifth article in a series published by ISA, shows that Protected Areas (PAs)  are proving effective for conservation, despite facing pressure from new land clearings caused by land grabbings and highways. The barrier however may begin to crumble even in hitherto untouched areas if environmental activities focused on these territories do not move forward. The situation is more concerning in the region of the expanding agricultural frontier. 

Figures and studies confirm that the majority of Protected Areas (PAs) and Indigenous Territories (IT) are managing to hold off deforestation in the Amazon Region, despite the State’s inefficiency in implementing these areas, coupled with the invasions and illegal logging. They have proved efficient even given the two major deforesting vectors: the opening up or asphalting of highways, together with land grabbing. In the latter case, making the areas official and their limits public have caused land prices to tumble and consequently increased the risk of occupying them and making illegal sales, thereby deterring land grab activity.

* Data from the ISA Geoprocessing Laboratory, up to October 2006. Not including Flonas of Rio Negro (revoked), of Amazonas and Roraima (to be revoked), which fall totally within TIs.

These findings corroborate the Lula administration’s strategy of creating, in almost 4 years, 19.5 million hectares in Federal PAs, or 36.6% of the total created to date, according to data from the ISA Geoprocessing Laboratory. Since 2003, 8.5 million hectares in full protection PAs have been created, a category allowing only scientific research activity and, in some cases environmental education and ecological tourism. A further 11 million hectares have also been made official in sustainable use areas. The 19.5 million hectares officially protected under the current mandate represent an area just over the size of the Uruguayan territory. Up to 2002, the Amazon Region had 33.8 million hectares within Federal PAs whereas today it boasts 53.4 million.

Map of protected areas in the Amazon Region updated to July 2006. Click here to expand.

A large proportion of the new protected areas have been instituted in precisely those critical land grab conflict areas, within the expansion zone on the agricultural frontier, where urgent territorial ordainment measures were needed not only to curb deforestation but also the violence wrought on the local populations, rural workers, settlements and social movement leaders. The creation of PAs in the Terra do Meio and the area affected by the Cuiabá-Santarém highway (BR-163) in Pará, between February and September 2005, for instance, yielded relatively swift results.  Between 2004 and 2005, there were decreases in deforestation of between 50% and 100% in the areas of the two regions according to government data.  

The wall may crumble 

Some analyses however, also indicate that PAs suffer greater invasion and produce poorer results where there is improved access and where the agricultural frontier is already consolidated. This suggests that the wall represented by the protected areas may begin to fall, even in areas hitherto untouched, if effective implementation, land ordainment, improved inspection and economic measures deterring forest clearing do not move forward.

Recent analyses carried out by ISA based on data as late as 2005 from the Amazon Region Deforestation Calculation Program (Prodes) by Inpe (National Space Research Institute – Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa Espacial), confirm the effectiveness of the ITs and PAs in combating forest clearing. The survey shows that, between 2000 and 2005, the annual percentage of deforestation outside the protected areas was seven times greater on average than within them. The indigenous territories have proven to be of even greater importance in conservation: in their interior, tree felling was 2.5 fold lower than within the federal full protection PAs for the same period. In non-protected areas, the annual average percentage of forest clearing was 1.12% between 2000 and 2005, whilst within federal full protection PAs this rate stood at 0.19% and in ITs, at 0.07%.  The ITs present an average of 98.7% original forest cover whereas this figure is 94.1 % for full protection Federal areas (see table below). The analysis assessed only deforestation in forest areas. 

UCs and TIs come having basic paper to more than contain deforestation, as it is the case of the great corridor of protecting areas of the Xingu, with 28 million hectares. Click to extend here

If the research heralds good news that the protected areas are working, at least for the meantime, it also calls environmental policies into question, particularly those of the Federal, Pará and Mato Grosso  governments, for non-protected lands. Within these, an average of 64.5% of forest remains, falling short of the 80% Legal Reserve level for rural properties stipulated by the Forestry Code for the Amazon Region. In some regions, such as the 50km belt running either side of the BR-158 highway in Mato Grosso, the percentage of remaining forests outside protected areas attains 35%. Along the BR-163 (MT and PA), this percentage is 59%, and 56% on the BR-364 (MT and RO).

In general, deforestation follows the highways in The Amazon Region. Detail of junction between the  BR-163 and Transamazônica (BR-230) highways, in the Itaituba and Trairão regions (PA). Click here to expand.

“The figures highlight the importance of the PAs and the ITs in curbing the advance of the predatory frontier, but we should bear in mind that we are dealing with the restriction of clearcutting by the farming industry and not the theft of timber and exploitation of biodiversity. We do not yet have reliable indicators on this”, warns André Lima from ISA, one of the authors of the analysis. He also warns that a higher priority should be given to tackling the causes of deforestation outside the PAs”. Lima maintains that, besides setting up management boards, devising management plans, building up infrastructure and hiring inspectors for these areas, it is also necessary to integrate them into the regions where they are located in order to ensure their conservation.” “This also means having control and ordination for those activities outside these areas protected by law, especially in the surrounding areas.

Remaining forest by land category in legal The Amazon Region up to 2005.   

The ISA analysis was devised based on cartographic data from INPE which serve as a basis for the official deforestation rate. The survey was presented on the 18th of October during a technical seminar promoted by the Federal government in Brasilia. The event included representatives from 36 non-governmental organizations, ministries, federal and state governmental organs, and participation by the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva.

Break-down 

Another study presented at the same event showed that more than 64% of ITs and PAs in the Amazon Region are managing to contain deforestation, even in those regions bordering highways. Authors Leandro Ferreira from the Emilio Goeldi Museum, and Eduardo Venticinque from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), point out however, the process of weakening of protected areas of the States comprising the so-called “deforestation curve”, a region encompassing central Amazon Region and where the advance of the agricultural frontiers is most concentrated. In Maranhão for example, of the 20 areas investigated, 17 are not managing to halt deforestation, that is, rates are higher in the interior than expected, according to a mathematical model developed by the researchers. Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia and Roraima present a similar trend only to a lesser extent. 

Above, a map of Pará showing impact of protected areas on deforestation (in red). Below, detail showing Indigenous Xikrin Lands of the Cateté, the Tapirepé, Flonas do Carajás and Tapirepé Biological Reserves. Source: Leandro Ferreira and Eduardo Venticinque/Geoma Project.

Ferreira states that the work has yet to be concluded and intends to answer the question on how long the PAs and ITs can resist the pressure of invasions. To this end, a series back-history by Prodes must be included in order to allow trends to be established for a number of critical regions. The biologist states that one of the study’s objectives is to provide the government with indicators to enable them to make better investments and economise resources in implementing plans for management of the PAs. He stresses that the vast majority of them still exist only on paper. “It is necessary to implement these protected areas urgently as they are unable to survive in the long term without mechanisms to sustain them”, he warns.

Source: Leandro Ferreira and Eduardo Venticinque/Geoma Project.

 % of deforested area [a linha vertical] distance from highway (km)

Outside Protected Areas/Inside protected aeras

The Federal government admits that is has invested more in the creation of PAs than in their consolidation, which may present opportunity for deforestation. “Never before have so many areas been created as in the past three and a half years, not least in the Amazon and areas of conflict. This is extremely laudable. Yet it is clear than we have not managed to keep up this same pace in implementation”, asserts Valmir Ortega, member of the IBAMA Ecosystems Directorate, the body responsible for full protection areas. He argues that the almost 70 million hectares of Federal PAs currently in place throughout the country are overloading IBAMA, which is struggling to keep permanent technicians and teams in isolated areas of the Amazon Region. “The major challenge of Lula’s second term is to develop schemes to implement the PAs.” Ortega believes that, besides public funds, it will be vital to launch alternative ways of financing protected areas in the coming years, such as through developing economic activities, including resource extraction and ecological tourism. “This will be fundamental to integrate the PAs into regional economies and show their benefits to society in a more explicit manner.”

Burning in the Terra do Meio Esec recorded in August 2006.

The Ecological Station of the Terra do Meio and the Serra do Pardo National Park, located in the Terra do Meio (State of Pará), for example has not left the drawing board, some one and a half years after being decreed. The first stages for implementation of the two areas – demarcation of its boundaries, the land survey of property owners in its interior, and the mapping of critical points of deforestation, have not yet been performed while its operating budget is extremely limited. The executive management of IBAMA in Altamira (State of Pará), responsible for both areas, today employs a team of 20 plus ten policemen to cover seven districts – 231.7 thousand square kilometres - an area almost the size of Rondônia (see figure).

ISA, Oswaldo Braga de Souza.