O PLANO DE MANEJO DAS ÁREAS PROTEGIDAS DO CERRADO É UMA FERRAMENTA EFETIVA PARA CONTER A PERDA DE HABITAT?

Abstract

In the last decades the network of protected areas in Brazil has increased considerably, since 2003 about 74% of protected areas have been established in the country. Despite considerable expansion in the network of protected areas, there is a question if such areas are effective in achieving their conservation goals now and in the years to come. The Cerrado is considered one of the richest Neotropical savannas, with a great diversity of fauna and flora, with several endemic species. Anthropogenic pressures in the biome have accelerated in recent decades, putting this diversity and its ecosystem services at risk. Although the risk and biological importance are known, the Cerrado has a small percentage of protected areas, only 7.7%. The National System of Conservation Units (SNUC) divides PAs into two categories: Integral Protection and Sustainable Use. The SNUC establishes that all PAs have a technical document elaborated on a multidisciplinary character considering several aspects of the units as physical, biological and social diagnosis, the so-called management plan. The objective of this work is to test if the protected areas of the Cerrado that have a management plan are more efficient in preventing the loss inside the habitat inside (protected area delimitation) and also in its surroundings (buffer of 3 km and 10 km). It is considered only the protected areas with the surrounding area within the biome. From the adopted criteria, we obtained 200 protected areas for the Cerrado, and only 30% have a Management Plan. There was effect of an interaction between the management plan (AP with management plan vs. AP without management plan) and conservation unit category (Integral Protection vs. Sustainable Use) on the percentage of native vegetation cover within PAs and of the 3 km buffer. There is a percentage of native vegetation within the APs and also within the buffers areas (3 and 10 km) according to the category of the unit and presence of the management plan. Another important result is that the percentage of native vegetation within the protected areas was higher than in the buffers for all categories regardless of the management plan presence.