Month: January 2016

MAAP #23: Increasing Deforestation Along Lower Las Piedras River (Madre De Dios, Peru)

Posted on by dcadmin

The Las Piedras River in the southern Peruvian Amazon (department of Madre de Dios) is increasingly recognized for its outstanding wildlife (for example, see this video by naturalist and explorer Paul Rosolie, and this trailer for the upcoming film Uncharted Amazon). As seen in Image 23a, its headwaters are born in the Alto Purus National Park, but the lower Las Piedras is surrounded by a mix of different types of forestry concessions (logging, Brazil nut harvesting, ecotourism, and reforestation).

Here in MAAP #23, we document the growing deforestation on the lower Las Piedras River in the area surrounding the community of Lucerna (see red box in Image 23a for context).

Image 23a. Las Piedras River and surrounding designations. Data: MINAGRI, IBC, SERNANP.
Image 23a. Las Piedras River and surrounding designations. Data: MINAGRI, IBC, SERNANP.

Deforestation Analysis

Image 23b shows our deforestation analysis for an area along the lower Las Piedras River near the community of Lucerna (see red box in Image 23a for context). We found a sharp increase in deforestation starting in 2012. In the 11 years between 2000 and 2011, we detected the deforestation of 88 hectares (218 acres). In contrast, in the 4 years between 2012 and 2015, we detected the deforestation of 472 hectares (1,166 acres). 2015 had the highest deforestation total with 155 hectares (383 acres).

Image 23b. Lower Las Piedras River deforestation analysis. Data: MINAGRI, CLASlite, PNCB/MINAM, Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA.
Image 23b. Lower Las Piedras River deforestation analysis. Data: MINAGRI, CLASlite, PNCB/MINAM, Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA.

Note that the Las Piedras Amazon Center (LPAC) Ecotourism Concession represents an effective barrier to deforestation. However, note that two other, less active, ecotourism concessions are experiencing extensive deforestation. The 4,460 hectare LPAC concession (which was created in 2007 and transferred to ARCAmazon in March 2015) hosts an active tourist lodge, research center,  and Forest Ranger Protection Program, which employs local people to patrol the area while monitoring wildlife and human impacts.

Image 23c. Recent Landsat image showing deforestation along lower Las Piedras. Data: USGS,MINAGRI.
Image 23c. Recent Landsat image showing deforestation along lower Las Piedras. Data: USGS,MINAGRI.

Image 23c shows a very recent (December 2015) Landsat image of the deforestation highlighted in Image 23b. The pinkish-red areas indicate the most recently cleared forests. We have received information indicating that much of this new deforestation is associated with cacao plantations. Cacao is of course used to produce chocolate.

Citation

Finer M, Pena N (2015) Increasing Deforestation along lower Las Piedras River (Madre de Dios, Peru). MAAP #23

MAAP #22: Yaguas – Another Big Conservation Opportunity For Peru

Posted on by dcadmin

Peru recently celebrated a major conservation victory for 2015 with the creation of Sierra del Divisor National Park. Prior to this announcement, Sierra del Divisor was classified as a Reserved Zone, which is a temporary measure to protect an area of biological importance until the government is able to determine a final designation. In these cases, national park status represents the strongest possible final designation.

Now in 2016, there is the opportunity for another major conservation victory in Peru: creation of Yaguas National Park. Yaguas received Reserved Zone status in 2011 and is now awaiting its final designation. Yaguas Reserved Zone is both big (868,928 hectares or 2,147,168 acres) and remote, located in extreme northeast Peru within the department of Loreto (see Image 22a).

Image 22a. Yaguas Reserved Zone. Data: USGS, SERNANP, PNCB/MINAM, Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA
Image 22a. Yaguas Reserved Zone. Data: USGS, SERNANP, PNCB/MINAM, Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA

Note that Yaguas is a critical part of a series of protected areas that provide landscape level biological connectivity in northeast Peru. In addition, Yaguas borders and complements a large protected Colombian landscape, forming one of the largest assemblies of protected areas and indigenous lands in the Amazon.

Deforestation Analysis

Yaguas Reserved Zone is the rare example of an area in extremely good conservation condition. As seen In Image 22b, we detected virtually no deforestation within or surrounding the reserve. Note that the background in Image 22b is a Landsat image (30 m resolution) from December 2015 showing the reserve is completely covered with intact forest.

Image 22b. Yaguas Deforestation analysis. Data: USGS, PNCB/MINAM, Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, MINAGRI, SERNANP
Image 22b. Yaguas Deforestation analysis. Data: USGS, PNCB/MINAM, Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, MINAGRI, SERNANP

Carbon Analysis

Dr. Greg Asner (Carnegie Institution for Science) and the Peruvian Ministry of the Environment recently produced a high-resolution carbon map of Peru (Asner et al. 2014 a,b). As seen in Image 22c, much of the reserve contains very high carbon levels. Using this data, we calculated that Yaguas Reserved Zone contains approximately 102 million metric tons of above-ground carbon, one of the highest totals for a protected area in all of Peru.

Image 22c. High-resolution carbon geography of the Yaguas Reserved Zone. Data: Asner et al. 2014 a,b.
Image 22c. High-resolution carbon geography of the Yaguas Reserved Zone. Data: Asner et al. 2014 a,b.

Asner GP, Knapp DE, Martin RE, Tupayachi R, Anderson CB, et al. (2014 a) Targeted carbon conservation at national scales with high-resolution monitoring. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(47), E5016-E5022.

Asner GP, Knapp DE, Martin RE, Tupayachi R, Anderson CB, et al. (2014 b) The high-resolution carbon geography of Peru. Berkeley, CA: Minuteman Press.

Biodiversity

The Yaguas Reserved Zone also contains extremely high levels of biodiversity, particularly for fish. In fact, according to a rapid biological inventory by the Field Museum in 2010, Yaguas may be home to the highest fish diversity in Peru. During the inventory, scientists recorded 337 fish species in three weeks, far more than any other rapid inventory in Peru (see Image 22d). Biologists estimate that Yaguas is home to around 550 fish species, making it one of South America’s most diverse aquatic ecosystems.

The Reserved Zone (and proposed national park) was specifically designed to protect this extraordinary aquatic diversity. It contains a complete gradient of lowland river aquatic habitats, from headwaters (first order and intermediate) and springs to lowland areas encompasing habitats such as floodplains, lakes, swamps, bogs, and a meandering main river (see Images 22e and 22f). Importantly, unlike most of the major rivers protected by Peruvian national parks, the Yaguas River is born in the Amazon lowlands, not in the Andes. Thus, it contains hydrological processes and riparian habitats that are not yet strictly protected by the Peruvian system of protected areas.

Image 22d. Number of fish species recorded in rapid inventories of the Yaguas Reserved Zone and 10 other sites in Loreto, Peru. Data: http://fm2.fieldmuseum.org/rbi/results.asp
Image 22d. Number of fish species recorded in rapid inventories of the Yaguas Reserved Zone and 10 other sites in Loreto, Peru. Data: http://fm2.fieldmuseum.org/rbi/results.asp
Image 22e. Aerial view of Yaguas River. Photo Credit: Alvaro del Campo (Field Museum)
Image 22e. Aerial view of Yaguas River. Photo Credit: Alvaro del Campo (Field Museum)
Image 22f. Aerial view of Yaguas River and the Cachimbo tributary. Photo Credit: Alvaro del Campo (Field Museum)
Image 22f. Aerial view of Yaguas River and the Cachimbo tributary. Photo Credit: Alvaro del Campo (Field Museum)

References:

Hidalgo, M. H., y A. Ortega-Lara. 2011. Peces. Pp. 98–108 y 308–329 en N. Pitman, C. Vriesendorp, D. K. Moskovits, R. von May, D. Alvira, T. Wachter, D. F. Stotz y Á. del Campo, eds. Perú: Yaguas-Cotuhé. Rapid Biological and Social Inventories Report 23. The Field Museum, Chicago. http://fm2.fieldmuseum.org/rbi/results_23.asp

Pitman, N., C. Vriesendorp, D. K. Moskovits, R. von May, D. Alvira, T. Wachter, D. F. Stotz y Á. del Campo, eds. 2011. Perú: Yaguas-Cotuhé. Rapid Biological and Social Inventories Report 23. The Field Museum, Chicago. http://fm2.fieldmuseum.org/rbi/results_23.asp

Acknowledgments

We thank the Field Museum and Instituto del Bien Común for helpful comments and information.

Citation

Finer M, Novoa S (2015) Another Big Conservation Opportunity for Peru: Yaguas.