Informing forest conservation planning with detailed human footprint data for Argentina

S MARTINUZZI; CR VOLKER; G MARTÍNEZ PASTUR; YM ROSAS; L LIZARRAGA; N POLITI; L RIVERA; A HUERTAS HERRERA; EMO SILVEIRA; A OLAH; AM PIDGEON

Global Ecology and Conservation

Elsevier

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2021 vol. 31

2351-9894

Conserving the remaining wildest forests is a top priority for conservation, and human footprintmaps are a practical way to identify wild areas. However, available global assessments of wildareas are too coarse for land use decisions, especially in countries with high deforestation rates,such as Argentina. Our main goal was to map the human footprint in Argentina?s forested areas toimprove conservation planning at regional and country levels. Specifically, we quantified thelevel of human influence on the environment and mapped the wildest native forests (i) acrossforest regions, and (ii) in the different land-use categories of the National Forest Plan, which is akey policy instrument for conserving the nation?s native forests through zoning, and (iii) identifiedwildest forests that are at risk due to human activities. We analyzed detailed spatial data onsettlements, transportation, energy, and land use change, and estimated the areal extent to whichthese various human activities disrupt natural processes. We defined pixels with human footprintindex of zero as wildest areas. We found that a substantial portion (43%) of Argentina?s forestedarea remains wild, which suggests there are opportunities for conservation. However, levels ofhuman influence varied substantially among forest regions, and Atlantic and Chaco forests havethe highest levels of human influence. Further, we found that the National Forest Plan does notconserve the wildest forests of the nation, as most (78%) of the wildest native forests are locatedin zones that allow silvopasture, timber production, and/or forest conversion to crops, thuspotentially threatening biodiversity in these areas. Our map of wildest forests is an important, butfirst, step in identifying wildland forests in Argentina, as available spatial data layers of humanactivities capture many, but not all, human influences on forests. For instance, small humanfeatures, like certain rural roads, trails, and rural settlements exist in our wildest areas.