Highlights
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- The Guaporé–Paraguay ecotone is an important link between the Amazon and the Pantanal.
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- Drivers of change are agriculture and hydroelectric dams, fragmenting natural wetland systems.
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- Long-term conservation can only be realized if biodiversity targets (CBD) are part of land use planning policy.
Abstract
The
biogeographic regions Amazonia and the Pantanal, two areas of high
biodiversity importance, have a link to each other through an ecotone
formed by the upstream part of the rivers Paraguay and Guaporé. The two
river basins share part of their flora and fauna species and in this
ecotone species exchange processes takes place. Therefore it should be
considered as an important area to realize the targets for 2020 of the
Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) at the regional level. However,
since over 20 years this area is under severe pressure of land
conversion and is increasingly threatened by river change, due to
building of hydroelectric power stations. This causes direct and
indirect damaging effects on the region and on its role as biodiversity
corridor. In the framework of the BioNorte project we carried out a
Driver, Pressure, State, Impact, Response (DPSIR) analysis of the region
and included a stakeholder analysis. The direct pressures are changes
in the use of land and rivers that constitute the river ecotone between
the Amazon and Pantanal. Indirect pressures are road access, opening the
land for further deforestation and agricultural developments.
Fragmentation of the remnant forest patches in combination with river
fragmentation can cause decline in biodiversity, prevent species
exchange between the Amazonia and the Pantanal and fish to spawn
upstream. If river flows are being blocked, the flood pulse and the
migration corridor of fish and the transport of plant seeds will be
hampered. The societal response to this can be denial, a positive
reaction by enforcement of traditional conservation actions or, as
agreed at the COP 2010 by the Convention of Parties to the CBD as a goal
for the year 2020, the integration of biodiversity targets into land
development toward sustainable land use by diminishing river and forest
fragmentation.
Graphical abstract
Keywords
- Amazon;
- Bionorte, biodiversity planning;
- CBD;
- DPSIR;
- Hydroelectricity;
- Land use change;
- Pantanal
- Corresponding author at: Wageningen UR, Alterra, The Netherlands. Tel.:
+31 317423345.
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
