Avaliação do papel ecológico das reservas legais no bioma Mata Atlântica do Estado da Bahia através da determinação do uso e cobertura do solo

Abstract

Legal reserves (RL) constitute one of the main governmental instruments for the restoration and conservation of Brazilian ecosystems in private properties. Its establishment is of fundamental importance to assist in the conservation and rehabilitation of ecological processes, to promote the conservation of biodiversity and to provide shelters for wildlife and native flora, especially in highly disturbed and fragmented biomes such as the Atlantic Forest. The RL is an instrument foreseen since the first edition of the Forest Code of 1934. Since then, its concept has undergone several changes, such as those imposed by the new Forest Code of 2012. With the implementation of the new Forest Code, to be approved after their respective registration, carried out in a self-declaratory manner by the owner of the rural property in the State Forest Registry of Rural Property (CEFIR). Together, this legislation made land use more flexible within RL, allowing its economic use. Since the implementation of these RL modifications in rural properties (i.e., self-declaratory registration and possibility of economic use), the determination of the environmental protection function of these properties has never been evaluated. Therefore, verification of the overlap between the location of the RLs registered and the use and cover of the soil with the highest ecological value (i.e., that shelter native vegetation) within them is of fundamental importance to guarantee its intended environmental function. For this, the data of the RLs registered in the CEFIR between the years of 2013 to 2016 in the Atlantic Forest biome were used in conjunction with the land cover and use mapping developed by the Annual Mapping of Soil Coverage and Use in Brazil (MapBiomas ). The results showed that 180.481 hectares (46%) of the area registered as RL is not composed of native vegetation, being occupied by categories of economic use and other non-vegetated areas. In addition to being characterized by an inadequate occupation for conservation, the results showed a reduction over time in the proportion of the native vegetation area covering the RL. These facts show an inadequate characterization of the RL role in promoting environmental functions for the conservation of the Atlantic Forest biome. In this sense, in case that this tendency of improper use of RL is maintained, negative effects are predicted on the Mata Atlantica biome.