Assessment of forest cover dynamics and ecosystem services perception in the Atlantic forest of Paraguay; combining remote sensing and household level data

Kurzfassung

The Upper Parana Atlantic Forest (BAAPA) in Paraguay is one of the most threatened tropical forests in the world. The rapid growth of deforestation has resulted in the loss of 91% of its forest cover endangering not only their continuity but the biodiversity within them. In order to halt the continuous advancement of deforestation's activities (e.g. agricultural crops, cattle ranching, and illegal logging), many strategies and programs have been initiated, e.g. Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes. While the approach of ecosystem services (ES) has been wildly applied by policy makers, it is not perceived strongly by the direct users of the forest. Therefore, this study provides a comprehensive understanding how landowners in the BAAPA region perceive the ES derived from the forest and what is their influence on forest conservation. The results were obtained from the combination of Earth Observation-based data and an extensive household survey carried out at the BAAPA region from January to February 2016. Remotely sensed data acquired from Landsat images from 2000 until 2016 were utilized in order to derive the extent of the forest cover and deforestation rates over the last 16 years. Household surveys provided a comprehensive understanding of the perception of the ecosystems service influence on the preservation of the forest in regards to a mixture of landowners, such as indigenous communities, small, medium and large farmers-scale farmers. Common to all is the understanding of the high ecological value of the forest. A strong dependency on forest-related products was observed for small and medium landowners whereas large-scale farmers considered forest’s main value to be mainly recreational and cultural. PES appears to be well accepted by forest owners however a stronger advertising must be given. Understanding the social value given to ecosystem services is a valuable contribution towards to conserving natural resources.