Evaluation of areas for the creation of a conservation unit in the transition region between Cerrado and Atlantic Forest, South Central Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

The creation of conservation units (UCs, in Portuguese) is one of the most effective strategic actions for protecting and conserving nature. However, many locations do not have this instrument, even those that have significant biological diversity, such as the municipalities of Barroso and Prados in Minas Gerais. In this sense, this work, carried out during the year 2022, aimed to evaluate four remnants of native areas in the municipalities in order to verify whether they can be transformed into conservation units and which categories would be most appropriate. We proposed to adapt the analytic hierarchy process method, using the objectives established in Law 9.985/2000 as factors that justify its creation and categories. In the method, for the evaluation of the conservation potential, punctuated values from zero to nine were assigned in a decision matrix, called the potential decision matrix, for each area based on field observations and previous knowledge. The method for categories of conservation units was the category decision matrix, applied separately in each area. This served to define the most suitable category based on characteristics raised in a field visit, carried out between June and July 2022, as well as prior knowledge. The areas were evaluated individually, and the characteristics were described based on the objectives, attributes, and specificities of categories of conservation units in Brazil, recommended in the National System of Conservation Units (SNUC), and also scored from zero to nine. The areas evaluated met very well with the objectives set out in the SNUC, and their values and classes of relevance for conservation were given in “strong” (60 to 80%), with values between 64 and 73%. In the evaluation of categories, the area of relevant ecological interest was the one that obtained the highest scores in three of the four evaluated areas. However, the hierarchical order proposed in the method – highest score to lowest score – does not simply indicate the category with the highest score without taking into account other categories with relevant scores from the cutoff score assigned up to 25%, considering that there may be impossibilities to apply a certain category, which may be defined in the public consultation, based on the choice of the results presented here. We also suggest the creation of an Environmental Protection Area as a solution for the creation and simultaneous protection of UC in the municipality of Barroso, but this needs to be evaluated in subsequent studies for its viability, such as potential socio-environmental and landowner conflicts, as well as for the independent creation of the UC.