Oscar Rodas 1, Roger Sayre 2, Andrea Grosse 3, John Mosesso 4

1 Landscape Program, Asociación Guyra Paraguay, Asunción, Paraguay
2 USGS Geographic Analysis and Monitoring Program, Reston, USA
3 National Biological Information Infrastructure, Reston, USA
4 USGS Gap Analysis Program, Reston, USA

Introduction

Signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are required to undertake a gap analysis of biodiversity protection by December 2006, as mandated the CBD’s Seventh Conference of Parties (COP.

Gap analysis requires assembling information that can be difficult to obtain. This method of analysis, developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Gap Analysis Program (Scott et al. 1993), is based on three kinds of data: land cover, species distribution, and stewardship. In this work we illustrate how we conducted a rapid Gap Analysis of ecosystems in Paraguay.

Paraguay , especially the Ministry of Environment, has limited data on native species for use in a gap analysis. In response to this limited data, we developed a rapid gap analysis based on ecosystems and protected wildlife areas included in the Protected Wildlife Areas’ National System (SINASIP) (CDC, 1993), managed by the Ministry of Environment. The information generated will help provide knowledge on protected and unprotected ecosystems in Paraguay, conducting resources and efforts towards effective conservations actions.

Association Guyra Paraguay (Guyra), the Non Governmental Organization (NGO) responsible for this gap analysis, has worked cooperatively with the USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) for several years. The Staff of Guyra, including ecologists, ornithologists, geoprocesing specialists and others, have learned GAP’s goals, objectives, and methods (Scott et al. 1993; Christ 2000).

Guyra conducted a gap analysis of 101 Paraguayan terrestrial ecosystems in the national protected area network , with financial support from GAP and technical support and training from the USGS Geographic Analysis and Monitoring program. This project is part of the Global Integrated Trends Analysis Network (GITAN), a multidisciplinary network of collaborators interested in understanding the types, causes, and consequences of landscape and ecosystem change (Sayre 2005).

The major goal of this project is to provide an institutional framework for gathering data into a decision support system, which will be targeted at Paraguayan government authorities and civil society organizations interested in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

Ecosystems protection will help conserve the species associated with these environments, as well as target species such as endemic, migratory and endangered species. Paraguay is a confluence of five ecoregions (Nature Serve 2003, Clay & Fragano 2005, Guyra Paraguay 2004): Cerrado, Pantanal, Dry Chaco, Humid Chaco, and Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest. The presence of these ecoregions in Paraguay converts it into a rich biological region, at both the ecosystem and species levels.

We hope resource managers and public officials will use these data in their land use and land management decisions. In addition, with an increased understanding of the protection status of all Paraguayan species, Guyra can help establish an expanded network of refuges, parks and other protected areas across the country using scientific information.

Project goals

We set out to (1) conduct a gap analysis that documents the representation of Paraguayan terrestrial ecosystems in the national and private protected area network; (2) enhance the access of Paraguayan government authorities and civil society organizations to geo-referenced data on biodiversity in protected areas; (3) build capacity in Paraguay for conducting ecosystem analyses using systems that support decision making; (4) demonstrate collaboration within GITAN by providing reliable information to share with researchers of other regions of the world; (5) contribute towards international biodiversity conservation initiatives; and (6) provide results and a report of results to GAP.

Methodology

Ecosystems were mapped as unique physical environments using data on land cover, elevation, landforms, geology and bioclimate. Ecosystems data were provided for South America by The Nature Conservancy, NatureServe and the U.S. Geological Survey (Bow et al. 2005).

The geospatial database of Paraguayan ecosystems was obtained by clipping Paraguay’s ecosystems from South America ecosystems data (Bow et al. 2005). This data layer was reviewed by Paraguayan experts in ecosystems, natural communities and protected areas. They evaluated the accuracy of the information and determined its relationship with other databases in the country such as existing land use maps at different scales and previously conducted studies. Experts also verified certain areas using a precise interpretation of vegetation cover through recent high-resolution satellite images, provided by Landsat 5 and 7 sensors. This process was necessary in order to evaluate the quality of the basic ecosystems information in Paraguay.

Field technicians of Guyra Paraguay are also integrating an ecosystems verification protocol into ongoing field exercises across the country, using the ecosystem map made by Bow et al. 2005 and adapted by Guyra Paraguay, in combination with recent satellite images; to verify information quality, and to collect other data that can be used to get a better classification of the ecosystems. This field information has been georeferenced and used in the first basic analysis of spatial correlation between fauna elements and the data base of ecosystem distribution.

During the analysis, ecosystem maps were overlapped with the SINASIP map, to obtain the percentages of the ecosystem protected in the Protected Wildlife Areas’ National System, and to determine the conservation status for each ecosystem in each Protected Area.

 Figure : Data inputs used to map ecosystems.

Results

There are 101 ecosystems in Paraguay distributed among five ecoregions (Table 1)

Table 1 Number of ecosystems identified for each ecoregion in Paraguay

Our analysis showed that 55 ecosystems out of 101 identified are not protected. An additional 14 ecosystems (not including the above) are poorly protected, with less than 5% of their area under protection. Another 8 ecosystems have between 5 and 10% of their area under protection. And only 24 ecosystems (of the 101 in the country) are well protected, with more than 10% of the total surface area of the ecosystem in protected areas.

Figure 2: Map of ecosystems and protected areas in Paraguay.

Conclusion

Our results were presented at the Eighth COP in Curitiba, Brazil, in March 2006 . Although preliminary, our results were well received, because they provided information to the decision makers in government and civil society who are working to protect and sustainably manage Paraguay’s ecosystems within protected areas.

Our intent is to improve our products through collaboration with local and international experts and by incorporating information from other maps and reports available for Paraguay. Field validation of a minimum of five sites per ecoregion will continue for several months. The initiative will end in a standardized database that will be compatible with regional and global ecosystems maps and will be served through the GITAN Data Toolkit ( http://rockyitr.cr.usgs.gov/gitan/).

We believe other countries could conduct a gap analysis using ecosystems. We are open to inquiries from interested institutions.

Literature Cited

Bow, J., R. Sayre, C. Josse, and J. Touval. 2005. Modeling Natureserve’s Latin America and Caribbean Ecological Systems throughout South America. Unpublished final report. The Nature Conservancy, Washington, DC.

Crist, P. J. 2000. Mapping and Categorizing Land Stewardship in Gap Analysis Program Handbook: A Handbook for Conducting Gap Analysis, version 2.1.0.

Clay, R., F. Fragano. Status da biodiversidade da Mata Atlântica de Interior do Paraguai in: Mata Atlântica : biodiversidade, ameaças e perspectivas. Edited by Carlos Galindo-Leal, Ibsen de Gusmão Câmara;translated by por Edma Reis Lamas. – São Paulo : Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica — Belo Horizonte : Conservation International, 2005. Original title in english: The Atlantic forest of South America: biodiversity status, threats, and outlook.

Dinerstein E., D. Olson, D. Graham, A. Webster, S. Primm, M. Bookbinder, G. Ledec. 1995. Una evaluación del estado de las Eco-regiones terrestres de América Latina y el Caribe . Banco Mundial, WWF. Washington D.C.. 133 p.

Guyra Paraguay. 2004. Lista comentada de las Aves del Paraguay. Annotated checklist of the Birds of Paraguay. Asunción, Paraguay.

Josse, C., G. Navarro, P. Comer, R. Evans, D. Faber-Langendoen, M. Fellows, G. Kittel, S. Menard,M. Pyne, M. Reid, K. Schulz, K. Snow, and J. Teague. 2003. Ecological Systems of Latin Americaand the Caribbean: A Working Classification of Terrestrial Systems. NatureServe, Arlington, VA.

Sayre, R. 2005. USGS-CRG Colloquium Series: Modeling the Ecosystems of North America and the World. Lakewood, CO.

Scott, J. M., F. Davis, B. Csuti, R. Noss, B. Butterfield, C. Groves, H. Anderson, S. Caicco, F. D'Erchia, T. C. Edwards, Jr., J. Ulliman, and R. G. Wright. 1993. Gap Analysis: A geographic approach to protection of biological diversity, Wildlife Monographs 123: 1-41

Ecological system formed by the interaction of individuals and its environment.

Group of natural communities geographically delimited that shares ecological process (Dinerstein et al. 1995).

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