Avaliação do papel ecológico das reservas legais da floresta Atlântica da Bahia determinado pelo uso do solo: MapBiomas. Conservação. Vegetação nativa. Paisagem. Cadastro Ambiental Rural

Legal Reserves (RL) are one of the main governmental instruments for conserving Brazilian ecosystems. RL occur on private properties to help preserve ecological processes and promote biodiversity conservation by maintaining natural habitat. In a highly degraded and fragmented biome such as the Atlantic Forest, RL are essential for conservation. To be an effective tool, however, RL must harbor ecologically valuable habitats, such as native vegetation. It is essential to determine the degree of overlap between the location of registered RL and the ecologically valuable land use and land cover they support. Failure to comply with this requirement (e.g., RL harboring pasture areas) invariably leads to losses in their environmental preservation functions. Here, we used data of RL registered from 2014 to 2019 in the Rural Environmental Register (CAR) of the Atlantic Forest biome of Bahia State. These data were juxtaposed with land use/cover mapping developed by the Annual Mapping of land cover and land use in Brazil Project (MapBiomas) to determine what proportion of the RL is embedded in a landscape with ecological and conservation value. Overall, 7941 RL were considered herein. At least 35% of their registered area (239,710 ha) was occupied by land use categories having low conservation value, such as pasture, non-vegetated and/or degraded areas. Furthermore, over time, the relative proportion of native vegetation declined in the RL. These facts show an inadequacy in the way RLs are established on private properties of the Atlantic Forest biome of Bahia State.