Assessment, Conservation and Sustainable Use of Forest Biodiversity

Assessment and Monitoring
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INDIAN LANDS AS A KEY ELEMENT IN THE BIODIVERSITY
CONSERVATION OF THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON
João Paulo Capobianco, Nurit Bensusan*, Adriana Ramos and Alicia Rolla
Instituto Socioambiental
Av. Higienópolis 901
01238-001 São Paulo – SP
Brazil
Keywords: biodiversity conservation, forests, Indian lands, Amazon, protected areas
Background
The identification and definition of important areas for biodiversity conservation in a region as vast as the
Amazon has been a challenge for researchers and policy makers for years. From 1970, the search for a method
beyond opportunism lead to the proposals of many methodologies for the selection areas in order to protect
the greatest biodiversity (Pressey et al., 1993). Some of them were applied in the Brazilian Amazon. The first
experience of selecting areas for conservation was made by the land use component of RadamBrasil, a
programme for mapping the Brazilian Amazon developed between 1973 and 1983. The identification of the
areas was based on their geological and geomorphologic characteristics, but it also included areas without any
specific use.
The second experience was based on the occurrence of centres of endemism in the Brazilian Amazon
(Wetterberg et al., 1976). At this time 30 areas were identified as priority. The third effort was, in 1990, the so
called Workshop 90. The selection of the areas was based on biogegographical analysis of endemism and
species richness. The results pointed to 57 priority areas (Rylands 1991). After some years, Rylands and Pinto
(1998) highlighted that many other areas were not included due to lack of information and argued that the
final map of Workshop 90 reflected only the limited knowledge we have about the Brazilian Amazon.
Because of the limitations of species-based identification of areas, suggestions of landscape and ecosystem
related approaches were put forward and, in 1999 as a part of the National Programme on Biodiversity six
non-governmental organisations co-ordinated by Instituto Socioambiental, promoted a workshop on
evaluation and identification of priority areas and activities in the Brazilian Amazon. This workshop, called
“Seminar on Evaluation and Identification of Priority Activities for Conservation, Sustainable Use and Benefit
Sharing of the Brazilian Amazon Biodiversity”, gathered the greatest number of data on the Brazilian Amazon
ever, and selected 86 new areas to be protected.
On the other hand, Indian lands have been established considering their traditional occupation of the land,
without taking in to account the biodiversity status of these areas. In the Brazilian Amazon, an area of
500.631.680 hectares, there are 370 Indian lands, encompassing 102.278.338 hectares, representing 20,43% of
the Amazon region.
Methods
The Seminar on Evaluation and Identification of Priority Activities for Conservation, Sustainable Use and
Benefit Sharing of the Brazilian Amazon Biodiversity developed its work on preliminary data including: a)
maps of cattle distribution, main crops cultures, mining, population, land use pressure, deforestation,
deforestation pattern, fire risk, hydro balance, fires in August 1999, ecoregions, phytophysiognomies,
protected areas, Indian lands, land reform settlement, roads, centres of wood exploitation, hydrography and
traditional knowledge; b) assessment of biological groups, such as plants, mammals, fishes and birds; and c)
socio-economic analysis.
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