Bruna Zorek

Mestrado | 2° ano

bru.zorek@gmail.com


Orientador

Marcos Bergamann Carlucci


Coorientador

Peter Leimgruber

How much of the Araucaria mixed forest still exists?

The Araucaria mixed forest is a unique component of Atlantic rainforest because it presents high phylogenetic diversity and it is critically endangered, mainly because of unsustainable timber exploitation of Araucaria angustifolia during the last century. The current conservation status of Araucaria mixed forest is poorly understood because, although loss rates have declined in recent decades, probably the current estimates may be lower today because deforestation still occurs. Here, we aim to evaluate the remaining distribution and cover area of Araucaria mixed forest across its historical distribution using medium-resolution satellite imagery (i.e. Sentinel 2) in combination with machine-learning classification approaches. We want to determine: i) What is the area of Araucaria mixed forest stands that remained throughout the original range of the forest type?; ii) How fragmented are the remaining Araucaria mixed forest stands?; and iii) How much of the remaining Araucaria mixed forest is currently covered by protected areas? Based on our supervised classification we made a land cover map whit high precision in our classification, with a value accuracy of 0.92 and Kappa value of 0.88. We found that remaining Araucaria mixed forest extends across only 4.34% of our study area, equaling 1,185.541.16 ha, from which only 13.3% is encompassed by protected areas (IUCN categories and Indigenous land). Moreover, we found that Araucaria angustifolia stands are very fragmented, with 99% of the number of stands having less than 50 ha. The summed area of these stands corresponds to 66.5% of the total remaining area of Araucaria mixed forest. Conservation polices are urgent to safeguard this forest type from extinction in the coming decades. It is necessary to increase the area covered by protected areas in Brazil and to manage projects that encourage the restoration of the Araucaria mixed forest.
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