UDSMAUSDE

IABIN Thematic Networks

Specimens Species Ecosystems Invasive Species Pollinators Protected Areas

Photo by R. Westbrooks. U. S. Geological Survey. 2001.

UDSMAUSDE

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Creating IABIN: Challenges5 official languages

Identifying and narrowing objectives

Differing user requirements

Special issues of small countries

Technology infrastructure

Access to technology

Training

Intellectual property rights

Data restrictions and sensitivities

Economic value of biodiversity information

Data supplier commitment and incentives

Data quality

Differing standards: taxonomy, geo-referencing, …

Catalog

Vocabularies

Financial viability: short- and long-term

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Addressing the Challenges

Institutional Reform and Capacity

Building

Legal Frameworks

Mechanisms for Dispute

Resolution

Informational Exchange,

Data, Information Management, and Research

Integrated Land Management

Sustainable Sustainable Land Land

ManagementManagement

UDSMAUSDE

Subtropical Deforestation: Paraguay in the 1990sAlice Altstatt1, Sunghee Kim1, Alberto Yanosky4, John Townshend1, Compton Tucker1,2, John Musinsky3, Rob Clay4 and Oscar Rodas4

1University of Maryland, 2National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 3Conservation International, 4Guyra Paraguay

Paraguay Oriental

Forest

Nonforest

Deforestation

Water

Cloud

Acknowledgements: NASA Grant NAG5-9337 Improvements in Landsat Pathfinder Methods for Monitoring Tropical Deforestation and their Extension to Extra-Tropical Areas http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu

Introduction Investigations of changes in forest cover in South America have typically focused on the tropics, but much of the rapid deforestation in the 1990s was in subtropical South America. This investigation has generated rates of change and identified the principal causes of deforestation in the two main ecological zones of Paraguay.

The Rio Paraguay bisects the country into two distinct ecological regions. West of the river are dry woodlands on the alluvial plains of the Gran Chaco. To the east is the geologically more varied terrain of the Paraguay Oriental containing remnants of the humid Interior Atlantic Forest.

San Rafael

Mbaracayu

Caaguazu

Paraguay OrientalThe Interior Atlantic Forest once covered 85% of eastern Paraguay. This semi-deciduous moist forest contains many endemic subtropical tree species as well as some tropical and cerrado species. It is one of the most biologically diverse, yet threatened ecosystems in the world. This forest continues to disappear at an alarming rate. In the first time period (1987-1991), 32% of the study area was covered by forest (31,077 km2 of a total study area of 98,622 km2). By the second time period (1999-2001), forest cover had been reduced by 29% to 22,109 km2 - a loss of 8,969 km2 of forest. The rate of deforestation between the two time periods was 700 – 900 km2 per year.

The pattern of deforestation includes large scale conversion of forest to agricultural use, small scale encroachment into forest by rural settlers, and forest clearing and degradation through timber harvesting.

Conclusions

• Land cover classification procedures developed for the humid tropics can be successfully applied to subtropical areas.

• Except for a small reserves, most of the Interior Atlantic Forest will disappear in the Paraguay Oriental.

• Large scale conversion of woodlands to agriculture continues in the Paraguay Chaco amid uncertainty about sustainability in the region.

MethodologyNine pairs of Landsat scenes were used to produce this land cover change map using our established processing methods. A recent Landsat ETM+ scene is co-registered to an ealier orthorectified TM EarthSat Geocover scene. Spectral data from both dates is input into an unsupervised isoclustering algorithm. The output clusters are assigned to land cover classes using an in-house module, PClassV. Pixels of output cluster values that fall into more than one land cover or land cover change class are iteratively reprocessed under the isoclustering algorithm and reclassified under PClassV until all pixels fall into a single category. For each scene, the final land cover change thematic map is filtered to remove polygons of less than 4 contiguous pixels. The overlapping scene maps are checked for consistency, and then mosaiced into a single map. Image interpretation and classification is performed by experienced data analysts using supplemental data provided by collaborators in Paraguay.

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UDSMAUSDE Use values Non-use values

Direct use values

Outputs/services that can be consumed directly

Extractive (capture fisheries, mariculture, aquarium trade, pharmaceutical)

Non-extractive (tourism/recreation, research/education, aesthetic)

Indirect use values

Functional benefits enjoyed indirectly

Biological support to sea bird, turtle, fisheriesPhysical protection to other coastal ecosystems, coastline, navigation)Global life-support in terms of carbon storage

Bequest, option and existence values

Functions that value either the future use, expected new information and based on moral convictions

Endangered and charismatic species Threatened reef habitats Aesthetic reefscapes ‘Way of life’ linked to traditional use

Total Economic Value (TEV)

Use values Non-use values

Direct use values

Outputs/services that can be consumed directly

Extractive (capture fisheries, mariculture, aquarium trade, pharmaceutical)

Non-extractive (tourism/recreation, research/education, aesthetic)

Indirect use values

Functional benefits enjoyed indirectly

Biological support to sea bird, turtle, fisheriesPhysical protection to other coastal ecosystems, coastline, navigation)Global life-support in terms of carbon storage

Bequest, option and existence values

Functions that value either the future use, expected new information and based on moral convictions

Endangered and charismatic species Threatened reef habitats Aesthetic reefscapes ‘Way of life’ linked to traditional use

Total Economic Value (TEV)

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The EconomicsCreating the Benefits FunctionValuation methods and site-specific

economic survey data to create the benefits function - to be used as educational and planning tool to assist policymakers

Fishery NPV -- $1.31 million Tourism and Recreation NPV -- $315 m Coastal Protection Function -- $65

million