Áreas prioritárias para restauração de serviços ecossistêmicos de regulação e provisão em uma região semiárida

Abstract

In the Brazilian semiarid, the Caatinga is susceptible by several chronic disorders that threaten the living conditions of the human population. Ecological restoration is important to achieve biodiversity recovery and ensure the provision of ecosystem services (ES) relevant to the well-being of local communities. However, there is a lack of studies that focus on the mismatches between the ES supply and demand. In this sense, we seek to identify priority areas that address the ES supply and demand. To aim this goal, we use two ES provision (wood and food and / or medicinal use) and an ES regulation (pollination). We developed two scenarios for each service: (i) ES offer which we used the maps of the potential geographic distribution of native tree species and (ii) ES demand, which we included, areas ES supply and demand. We conducted the prioritization in Software Zonation, a responsible spatial tool for prioritizing areas that have the potential to increase biodiversity and provide ES. We found a percentage increase in representation in demand scenarios in all SEs, following in increasing order, the provision of food and / or medicinal species (1.5%), provision of wood (1.8%) and the most significant pollination (69.1%). These results indicated that for some ES the supply corresponds to the demand while for others there is a mismatch between them. This ES – provision of food/medicine and wood supply - showed larger overlap between supply and demand, signaling that active restoration actions in these areas can directly contribute to improving the welfare of people dependent on the extraction of forest resources.