Avaliação de Perda da Biodiversidade no Ecossistema da Mata Atlântica em Viçosa do Ceará (CE)

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest biodiversity in Viçosa do Ceará is considered of extreme biological importance, but this wealth of animals and plants is threatened by the deforestation, that provoked a loss of 80% of the original covering of the ecosystem in the city. The aim of this study is to analyze the loss of biodiversity from the decrease of varieties of birds, mammals and reptiles that inhabit the Atlantic Forest, in Viçosa do Ceará, and estimate the cost of preserving the remnants of the ecosystem through payment for environmental services to farmers who have preserved the forest area in the city. In the first part of the methodology, a model is built to estimate the loss of biodiversity from the model of species-area relationship. In the second part, in the amount of payment for environmental services to producers of biodiversity (landowners that preserve the native vegetation of the Atlantic Forest), was measured the model of loss of species richness as a result indicated out the critical point of the ecosystem to reach 93% of deforestation and the coefficient of loss of biodiversity showed extreme level of loss. The owners of property with the remaining Atlantic Forest proved to be receptive to receiving financial incentive to protect local biodiversity. We conclude that the model estimate of the loss of birds, mammals and reptiles presented significantly to assessment of loss of biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest ecosystem in the city, proposing politics of payment for environmental services for the maintenance of biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest in Viçosa do Ceará.