Landscape Ecology in rural properties of the São Paulo Paraíba Valley

• Grant number: 24/06611-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: May 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Ramon Felipe Bicudo da Silva
• Grantee: Danielle Mota Torres Nogueira
• Host Institution: Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas Ambientais (NEPAM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/16002-1 - Multi-scale analysis of environmental changes and management practices in rural properties in the Atlantic Forest: effects of payment for ecosystem services, AP.JP

Abstract

We are entering the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) in a period where environmental degradation is still a major threat to human societies and biodiversity. However, in recent decades, different strategies and processes underpinning restoration were developed, such as programs of payment for ecosystems services (PES). PES are known as mechanisms for working through incentives (cash or in-kind transactions) to foster changes in resources practices or to conserve and restore natural areas. In Brazil, such programs have been implemented in the Southern region of Paraíba Valley (São Paulo state) since 2018, through a partnership including public environment agencies and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). To contribute to the efforts to cope with environmental degradation and to foster restoration, this proposal will apply a multi-scale approach (biome, municipality, and rural property) under a socio-environmental mixed-methods framework to understand the effects of the Conexão Mata Atlântica-PES program in the Paraíba Valley. This proposal will apply land-use and land-cover (LULC) analysis for the Paraíba Valley, and will collect data through a mixed methods approach with landowners participating (and not participating) in the PES program. Statistical analyses (e.g., hypothesis testing, correlation analysis, spatial econometric regression analysis) will be performed, together with spatially-explicit modelling using digital elevation models (DEM), landscape metrics, national statistics on agriculture and economy, and climate and hydrologic datasets. This proposal will be conducted in partnership with scholars from Michigan State University (USA), King's College London (UK), University of Twente (NL), and State University of Campinas (Unicamp). This proposal has support from the São Paulo State Agency for Infrastructure and Environment, responsible for the implementation of the PES program.