Patterns of biological diversity and coexistence human-wildlife: components that sustain ecosystem services

• Grant number: 18/16662-6
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Research in Public Policies
• Duration: February 01, 2019 - March 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Forestry Resources and Forestry Engineering - Nature Conservation
• Convênio/Acordo: Global Environment Facility (GEF)
• Principal Investigator: Katia Maria Paschoaletto Micchi de Barros Ferraz
• Grantee: Katia Maria Paschoaletto Micchi de Barros Ferraz
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Adriano Garcia Chiarello ; Ana Beatriz de Almeida ; Ana Cristyna Reis Lacerda ; Bianca Ingberman ; Bruno Henrique Saranholi ; Carlos Augusto da Silva Peres ; Daiane Cristina Carreira ; Juliano André Bogoni ; Leticia Prado Munhoes ; Lilian Bonjorne de Almeida ; Marcelo Magioli ; Marcelo Zacharias Moreira ; Mariana Bueno Landis ; Roberta Montanheiro Paolino ; Roberto Fusco Costa ; Rogerio Cunha de Paula ; Ronaldo Gonçalves Morato ; Silvio Marchini ; Yuri Geraldo Gomes Ribeiro
• Associated scholarship(s): 19/21074-9 - Mammal ecology: CAM traps and fecal samples collection, BP.TT

Abstract

Our proposal focuses on the thematic area 2.1.1 (i) item a. Biodiversity: Research, inventory and characterization of the biodiversity in the region, and the impacts to which it is subject; and 2.1.1 (ii) Research for the development of models to evaluate the social perception of ecosystem services; Research for the development of models to minimize the conflict between farmers and mammal predators. The study will be carried out in the Southeastern Atlantic Forest Corridor (CSMA) and our central questions are: (1) How does biological diversity sustain ecosystem services (ESS)?; and (2) What are the costs and benefits associated with biodiversity, considering both ESS and the conflicts arising from human-wildlife interactions? Specifically, we aim to answer: (1) How is the mammalian trophic chain structured in the CSMA? (2) What are the patterns of mammal diversity from a meta-community perspective? (3) What ecological functions may have been retained or lost in the CSMA and what are the impacts on ESS in the region? (4) Is there functional connectivity (e.g. gene flow) for mammals in the corridor? (5) How does the perception of costs and benefits associated with biodiversity determine attitudes and behaviors among farmers towards wildlife and conservation? (6) How does the payment for ESS (PES) affect such perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors? (7) What are the most cost-effective strategies to: (i) mitigate conflicts; (ii) promote coexistence between farmers and wildlife; and (iii) engage local communities in the recovery and protection of ESS? We expect biodiversity patterns - i.e., high alpha and low beta - to be a proxy for generation or loss of ESS and carbon stocks. The explicit impact of the project enables us to map assemblies with reduced local diversity, unable to keep intact the functioning of ecosystems, conditioned to the rescue effect of adjacent assemblies. Low beta diversity patterns will indicate that assemblies have flow between them, and the forest continuum would serve to ensure the conservation of biodiversity and ESS. In this scenario, the potential erosion of ESS provided by mammals in the CSMA is associated with conflict and hunting, and fragmentation is not the driving force of a possible operational collapse. We hope that the incentive provided by the PES will increase tolerance towards large carnivores and herbivores and, in doing so, generate positive attitudes towards the ESS provided by the biodiversity and towards its protection. Our project will integrate interdisciplinary mammalian ecology and human dimensions of conservation, proposing a research and outreach model that will subsidize the design of public policies that aim at maintaining the ESS in the region. (AU)