Reconfiguring the boundaries of the Chapada Diamantina National Park (Brazil) using ecological criteria in the context of a human-dominated landscape

The Chapada Diamantina National Park (Bahia State, Brazil) was created with the intention of protecting beautiful mountain scenery and important water resources, but its boundaries had to be drawn within the context of a highly human-modified landscape. The resulting reserve has a very irregular shape, a low area/perimeter ratio, limited core areas, and excludes neighbouring ecosystems. GIS techniques and extensive field work identified nine distinct areas contiguous with the park boundaries that were subsequently evaluated for potential annexation to the reserve, based on: (1) the lack of significant human habitation or economic use of the land; (2) the biological integrity of these sites, derived by considering the percentage of their land area degraded under four categories of anthropogenic alteration and the time required for natural recuperation; and (3) an enhancement factor that objectively evaluates the ecological benefits of any modification of the reserve. These techniques offered the possibility for re-evaluating the entire region surrounding the park, together with the capacity to precisely delineate new boundaries with high ecological gains for the reserve but with low potential for generating serious conflicts with established human populations. Three areas were recommended for incorporation into the Park, and six for off-reserve conservation management.