Threats and Opportunities for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use in the Buffer Zones of National Parks in the Brazilian Cerrado

Ana Cristina da Silva Soares, Edson Eyji Sano (), Fabiana de Góis Aquino and Tati de Almeida
Additional contact information
Ana Cristina da Silva Soares: Institute of Geosciences, University of Brasília, Brasília 70910-900, Brazil
Edson Eyji Sano: Embrapa Cerrados, Planaltina 73301-970, Brazil
Fabiana de Góis Aquino: Embrapa Cerrados, Planaltina 73301-970, Brazil
Tati de Almeida: Institute of Geosciences, University of Brasília, Brasília 70910-900, Brazil

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 14, 1-21

Abstract: In recent decades, the Brazilian Cerrado has faced rapid land conversion, resulting in the loss of approximately half of its original vegetation cover. Most existing conservation units within the biome are increasingly threatened by the expansion of land use around their boundaries. The establishment of buffer zones with land use regulations may protect biodiversity within these protected areas. In this study, we evaluated and ranked the 10 km buffer zones of 15 national parks (NPs) located in the Cerrado biome, identifying their priority for biodiversity conservation and sustainable land use interventions. The analysis considered the following data: land use and land cover change from 2012 to 2020, extent of natural vegetation fragments, presence or absence of state and municipal conservation units within the buffer zones, and drainage density. Two multicriteria analysis methods, the analytic hierarchy process and the weighted linear combination, were applied to classify the buffer zones into five levels of threat: very high, high, moderate, low, and very low. Among the 15 buffer zones analyzed, 11 were classified as having high to very high priority for conservation actions. The buffer zones surrounding the Serra da Bodoquena, Emas, Canastra, and Brasília NPs were ranked as having very high priority. Between 2012 and 2020, the most severe reductions in ecological connectivity were observed in the buffer zones of Grande Sertão Veredas (44.5%), Nascentes do Rio Parnaíba (40.4%), and Serra das Confusões (36.7%). Given the relatively high proportion of natural vegetation in the buffer zones located in the northern Cerrado, we recommend prioritizing conservation efforts in this region. In contrast, in the southern portion of the biome, where land occupation is more intense, strategies should focus on promoting environmentally sustainable land use practices.

Keywords: conservation units; protected areas; buffer zones; land use and land cover; tropical savanna (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/14/6597/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/14/6597/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:14:p:6597-:d:1705281

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().