Pantanal conservation papers presented at conference in Brazil
Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology
July 27, 2005



Last week nearly 2,000 of the world's leading environmental scientists of various disciplines met in Brasilia to present papers at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology. The conference featured more than 750 oral presentations and 965 scientific abstracts.

Below is a sampling of some Pantanal conservation papers submitted for the conference. All descriptions are excepts from the official "Book of Abstracts" from the meeting. More abstracts.


ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF PANTANAL OTTERS, RIO NEGRO, PANTANAL, BRAZIL.

WALDEMARIN, HELEN; Muanis, Manoel; Rico, Miguel. Projeto Ecolontras, Associação Ecológica Ecomarapendi, Rua Paissand Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil, ecolontras((AT))ecomarapendi.org.br.

Two otter species occur in Brazil, the Neotropical otter (Lontra longicaudis) and the giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) and in Pantanal both species occur sympatricaly. This study is being undertaken since March 2002 at Fazenda Rio Negro, with field trips approximately every two months. We are studying specially habitat use, diet and behavior of these otter species, using both, signs and sightings of the animals. As a general rule the river is more used by Neotropical otters while the oxbow lakes are more used byABSTRACTS Universidade de Brasília, Brazil, July 2005 giant otters. Neotropical otters are solitary animals, and more animals are been seen together (two or three) more frequently around October and November. Both species are diurnal animals in the area and there is not a visible separation between the areas that they use. It is very common see Neotropical otters using old giant otter dens and vice versa. Several times we saw both species using a same fishing area, but never in the same time. These are the first available data concerning a study of both otter species in the same area in Brazil and one of the first information about observation of Neotropical otters that is more crepuscular and shyer in other areas

MONITORING FLOODS AND ANALYSIS OF FIRES IN THE PANTANAL WETLAND.

PADOVANI, CARLOS; Mourão, Guilherme; Calheiros, Débora. Laboratory of GIS and Remote Sensing, Embrapa Pantanal, Rua 21 de Setembro, 1880, Bairro N. S. Fátima, Corumbá, MS, Brazil, guara((AT))cpap.embrapa.br, 79320-900, (PC, MG, CD).

The GIS and Remote Sensing laboratory of the Embrapa Pantanal is developing a flood and vegetation/deforestation monitoring system based on imagery of MODIS and the Brazilian sensor RRD, CBERS-2 satellite as part of the GIS Pantanal project - Duks Unlimited - USA and Wageningem University - Netherlands. This monitoring could be the baseline information for estimating the Pantanal flood pulse hidrology dynamics and can be very useful to evaluate and modelling the possible negative impacts of projects like the waterway Paraná - Paraguai. Wildlife aerial surveys have been performed by the Wildlife laboratory in the last years and the wildlife data distribution and abundance has been mapped for analysis with the floods, vegetation, deforestation and fires. Monitoring and analysis of fire data has been done. Additionally, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay should start a international environmental treaty for the conservation of the Upper Paraguay River Basin to stablish regulation measures for deforestation and soil conservation at the highlands and deforetation, fires and hydrology management of the Pantanal, perhaps building on the Tratado del Rio de La Plata, 1974. The future of the Pantanal and the Bacia de la Plata is uncertain and the monitoring system can help a lot to find solutions for conservation of the Pantanal

LOOKING FROM THE 5TH FLOOR WINDOW, A REVIEW OF THE PANTANAL'S PROTECTED AREAS BASED ON COMPREHENSIVENESS, ADEQUACY, REPRESENTATIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY.

LOURIVAL, REINALDO; Stewart, Romola; Wilson, Kerrie; Possingham, Hugh; Mourão, Guilherme; Machado, Ricardo; Arcangelo, C.; McCallum, H.; Grigg, G. University of Queensland, School of Life Sciences, The Ecology Center, St. Lucia, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia, r.lourival((AT))sols.uq.edu.au.

This paper evaluates the Pantanal protected areas in Brazil, considering the existing five overlaying levels (Federal, State, Municipal, Private and multilateral initiatives) and how they perform according to the CARE principles of comprehensiveness, adequacy, representativeness and efficiency. The need for a comprehensive evaluation of such layers to avoid redundant financial and political costs is critical (Rodrigues et al. 1999). Results shown that existing protected areas poorly represent (less than 5%) surrogates such as the 16 vegetation classes from (da Silva et al. 2000) the level of comprehensiveness is even worst if the results of the 1998's Cerrado-Pantanal Priority Setting (BRASIL 1999) workshop recommendations are considered, 3 out of 10 subregions of the Pantanal (Da Silva & Abdon 1998) have public protected areas and the sum of all public and private reserves is around 923,995 hectares or less than 7% of the floodplain and just 2.5% of the upper Paraguay river watershed. We use MARXAN software (Possingham et al. 2000) to evaluate the existing protected areas and their potential to better represent regional biodiversity and ecological processes. The Pantanal Biosphere Reserve, created in 2000 but not implemented yet, have great potential for improve and coordinate regional Protected Areas System.

Society for Conservation Biology - Brasilia 2005





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