Title Presentation

Central Amazon Biosphere Reserve: a review of carbon and climate

change projects
Time: over 15mis
Responsible: Tamires or Milton

Slide 1
First, we would like to make a brief descriptions about the Central Amazon
Biosphere Reserve.
The Reserve was Created in 2001, and have over 20.860.000 hectares of
Tropical Rainforest Environmental still well preserved in most of its area.
Located in a vast region influenced by the Negro and Solimões rivers tributaries
of the Amazon River, and in the Amazon Plains-Guyana Shield transition area.
It is representative of the largest forest in the world and is made up of vast
protected areas as well as smaller units that are important as ecological
corridors for maintaining the genetic flow of species between these different
units.

Slide 2
One of the main functions of the Biosphere Reserve will be the integration of
these areas under different administrative institutions, allowing co-operation to
meet common conservation objectives.
The Reverse is form by:
Strictly Protected Area (no people living inside theoretically) – Ecological
Stations, Biological Reserves and Federal and State Parks: Core Zone
Sustainable Use: Extratictives Reserves, National Florests and Sustainable
Development Reserves: Buffer Zone
Others protected and unprotected Areas: Transition Zonestrictly protetion area

Slide 3
The Central Amazon Biosphere Reserve includes several regions with low
population density where traditional forms of natural resource use are
developed (mainly extraction and traditional agriculture).
Over 100,000 inhabitants (2001) live in the Biosphere Reserve, presenting a
rich cultural diversity (indigenous people who are in the region for a long time,
others traditional populations and small north-eastern farmers).
Slide 4
The primary purpose of the Biosphere Reserve is the conservation of these
strategic remains of forest areas and their immense biodiversity. Another goal is
the study and recognition of the local population, traditional knowledge of
biodiversity.

Slide 5
Also, the Reserve is integrated in two others corridor areas.

Amazon Central Corridor, created in 2002 and have over 52.159.206,17ha.

The main objective of the Amazon Central Corridor is maintain the maximum
integrity existing in these large areas without penalizing local populations.

Slide 6
Low Rio Negro Mosaic., created in 2015 and have over 7,300,000 hectares
It covers 14 Protected Areas (federal and state) in the Amazon with high
biological and sociocultural diversity.
Main objective is to integrate the management of Protected Areas.

Slide 7
Main Environments
The Reserve possess all main amazonian ecosystems

Floodplain forest (Várzea) along white water rivers and Lakes

“Floodplain forests represent between 3-4% of the Amazon Basin area and are
highly productive riverside areas that are flooded during the rainy season, and
which receive rich sediment from the Andes Mountains. These factors have
resulted in the evolution of ecosystems and habitats with a high number of
species. They have also lead to a thriving economic activity of riverine
communities.”
“Major tributaries with headwaters in the Andes are all turbid because of the
huge amount of loose material in the high mountain chain that is easily eroded
and then carried downstream as far as the Atlantic Ocean.”
Igapó forest along black water rivers and lakes
“Blackwater rivers are usually associated with basins with extremely sandy
soils, the largest being the Negro River. Black water is essentially tea that is
brewed in areas where plant compounds are not completely decomposed.
Black water can be formed wherever the rate of carbon fixation (photosynthesis)
and its partial decay to soluble organic acids exceeds its rate of complete decay
to carbon dioxide (oxidation)”

Upland forest: Unflooded forest, the trees can reach almost 60 m tall

Slide 8
In our review, we also try to identify the areas that belong the Reserve. The
results was: 20 protected areas and four settlement project. Ten is under control
of federal government, and 14 is under control of state government.
7 are Strictly Protected Areas and forme the core zone,
10 are Sustainable Use areas and forme the buffer zone
7 Sustainable Use areas belong the transition zone.

The transition zone was estimated based in an imagery from internet, it's
accuracy is not exact, for exemple: we don't know if the indigenous lands that is
close the core and buffer zones belong the CABR transition zone.

Slide 9
About the projects
We did a review searching for projects concerning directly or indirectly carbon
stocks and climate change
Until now, 14 Projects/Programs was found. We using personal
communications, websites and others sources available14.
These projects/programs are ongoing in 16 areas
These yellow stars represent the area of each project, and one star can
represent one or more projects3 projects in Core areas
8 projects in Buffer areas
4 projects in Transition áreas
1 in a Mosaic area: Low Rio Negro Mosaic
Slide 10
Projects regarding Carbon and Climate Change
Two or more stars can represent one project
9 Direct: 1 Core area, 6 Buffer area, 2 Transition area
5 Indirect: 1 Core area, 2 Core/Buffer area, 1 Transition area, 1 Buffer area

Slide 11
We did send an email for all of you with the completed review in a excel file
Here we list the projects with direct focus with main goal and main results when
was available.

Conservation of an endangered species of squirrel monkey (Saimiri vanzolinii)

through a multidisciplinary approach: mitigating the effects of climate change.
Phenology in Central Amazon wetlands: Fruit yield and primate abundance
response to climate change
Hydrological dynamics influence on forest structure and biomass allocation in
Amazonian floodplain forests: a three-dimensional remote sensing approach.
For these three projects it was only available the titles
Slide 12
Providence
Main goals
Create a tool to effectively monitor biodiversity in real time in the Amazon to
predict impacts.
Create a monitoring network across the Amazon with 1,000 modules distributed
100 km from each other to study the impact of climate change and human
activities on this habitat.
Main results
Installation of ten modules in different areas, aquatic and terrestrial, to check
the system's ability to operate in adverse conditions; the processing of data in
the modules and its transmission over the internet. In places without internet
coverage, the data was transmitted via satellite.

Slide 13
Family Forest Scholarship Program: It is a state public policy to encouraging the
forest conservation by the payment to people that living in state protected areas

Ongoing in six State Sustainable Development Reserves

Areas in the map shown in black lines

Main goal

Reward and improve the quality of life of traditional populations of the Amazon,
responsible for maintaining the environmental services provided by the forest.

Families receive a small amount about $250.00 per year.

Slide 14

Monitora Program

Participatory National Biodiversity Monitoring Program

Jaú National Park

Uatumã Biological Reserve

Biological integrity assessment using long term of biodiversity monitoring to

assess and monitor in situ the impacts of the
current and future climate change on biodiversity.

This Program apply two basic protocol

Minimum Protocol
Terrestrial vertebrates transect sighting
Plants
Butterflies

Advanced Protocol
Team network (www.teamnetwork.com) camera trap protocol: No use yet in
these areas.

There is a report with results of three years of the Program.

This Program is ongoing in 17 Amazonian Protected Areas, 4 in the Atlantic

Forest an 5 in the Cerrado - Brazilian Savanna.
We working with this Program in the Terra do Meio Ecological Estation and Rio
Iriri Extractive Reserve using both minimum and advanced protocol regarding
terrestrial vertebrates.

Slide 15
The availability and pattern of game fauna use by Traditional Fishers in
Brazilian Central Amazon

Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve

Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve

Assess the patterns of natural distribution and use of game fauna in flooded
forests of the Central Brazilian Amazon, and thus to support climate change
impact projections on these traditional populations and their implications for the
regional economy.

This project is part of the REDEFAUNA Research Group, and we also working
with this group. More details about this group will be given in another
presentation on 9 dezember.

Slide 16

Climate Change and Environmental Service Program

Uatumã Sustainable Development Reserve: This area is out of Reserve but it is
very close of transition zone, so, we decided to include the projects because of
the direct link with the topics that we are searching for
Creation and development of innovative mechanisms and solutions for
mitigating climate change, promoting forest conservation and reducing tropical
deforestation. Development of activities to reduce emissions from deforestation
and forest degradation (REDD+), reforestation and other instruments under the
UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and voluntary carbon markets.

Slide 17

Neutral Carbon Program

To connect major urban centers to forests, allowing people, businesses and

initiatives to take responsibility for the impacts they have on the planet,
offsetting their greenhouse gas emissions. The compensation is made through
the recovery of degraded areas in the Uatumã Reserve.

Fourt thousand planted trees and 330 thousand square meters of reforested
area
Slide 18

To finish, we would like to presentation one project that have indirect

relationship with climate change.

Jaú National Park

Rio Unini Extractive Reserve

Conflicts between wildlife and traditional people: a look at the Low Rio Negro
Mosaic

Main goal

Assess the panorama of conflicts involving wildlife and traditional populations.

Is important to mention this project because we are engaged with it, and it is the
our direct link with the Central Amazon Biosphere Reserve.

Title Presentation

SYNERGISTIC EFFECTS OF PRIMARY FOREST CONVERSION AND

HUNTING ON AMAZONIAN GAME VERTEBRATES ALONG A LARGE-
SCALE URBAN-RURAL-WILDLAND GRADIENT OF HUMAN
DISTURBANCE

Time: over 70mis

Responsible: Milton

This is the main project of my PhD

The amazonian game vertebrates considered here are medium- and large-sized
mammals, birds and reptiles commonly hunted by human beings.
They belong the terrestrial vertebrates group, and this group are of critical
importance to the maintenance of natural ecosystems, and play key roles in
ecosystem processes.
They directly and indirectly sustain the composition and structure of plant and
faunal communities and, thereby, the myriad of ecosystem services associated
to these species.
Changes in game community structure (depletion or extinction) are likely to
eventually cause profound transformations across the entire trophic structure of
the ecosystems where they occur
ore specifically, declines in game populations are generally known to affect
other vertebrates through processes related to competition and predation
One celebrated example on how predation, herbivory and competition by large
vertebrates may affect other vertebrate populations can be seen in Yellowstone
National Park, USA. Elk populations living within the park boundaries suffered a
steep decline in their abundance and marked changes in their foraging activities
due to a reintroduction of wolves, whereas beaver, bison and a myriad of
smaller vertebrate species experienced an increase in their populations
because of a decrease in elk overgrazing, particularly along riparian areas

Another exemple is from this paper: Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth

In this paper the authors review contemporary findings on the consequences of

removing large apex consumers from nature.

Riparian habitat near the confluence of Soda Butte Creek with the Lamar River
(Yellowstone National Park) illustrating the stature of willow plants during
suppression (left, 1997) from long-term elk browsing and their release from elk
browsing (right, 2001) after wolf reintroductions of 1995 and 1996 (25). (D)
Decline of woody vegetation in Serengeti after eradication of rinderpest (by
early 1960s) and the recovery of native ungulates (by middle 1980s). Left, 1986;
right, 2003 (69).

In tropical forest herbivore game vertebrates are important agents controlling

plant populations and shaping plant community structure. By feeding on fruits,
frugivores may act as efficient seed dispersers, promoting the development and
establishment of a vast array of plant species

Effects of native pigs (Sus scrofa) on woody understorey vegetation in a

Malaysian lowland rain forest

This study focused on the extent to which wild pigs (Sus scrofa) influence the
dynamics of tree seedlings and saplings in a lowland rain forest at Pasoh Forest
Reserve in West Malaysia. Native

The number of recruits inside exclosures was three times greater than in
unfenced control plots.
The observed differences between exclosure and control plots can be attributed
to soil-rooting and seed predation, suggesting that these two behaviours of wild
pigs are important to plant dynamics in the understorey.

Bushmeat and the Fate of Trees with Seeds Dispersed by Large Primates in a
Lowland Rain Forest in Western Amazonia

The authors test the hypothesis that otherwise intact Neotropical forests with
depressed populations of large primates experience decline in recruitment of
large-seeded trees.

Cocha Cashu and Pakitza: Protected

Boca Manu-Isla de los Valles: Hunted

Tree species richness was 55 percent lower and density ofspecies dispersed by
large and medium-bodied primates 60 percent lower in hunted than in protected
sites.
Overhunting threatens to disrupt the ecological interactions between primates
and the plants that rely on them for seed dispersal and recruitment.

Dispersal limitation induces long-term biomass collapse in overhunted

Amazonian forests
The forest ecosystem services may be threatened by hunting-induced
extinctions of plant–animal mutualisms that maintain long-term forest dynamics

Large-bodied Atelinae pri- mates and tapirs in particular offer nonredundant

seed-dispersal services for many large-seeded Neotropical tree species, which
on average have higher wood density than smaller-seeded and wind- dispersed
trees.

We used field data and models to project the spatial impact of hunting on large
primates by ∼1 million rural households throughout the Brazilian Amazon.
We then used a unique baseline dataset on 2,345 1-ha tree plots arrayed
across the Brazilian Amazon to model changes in aboveground forest biomass
under different scenarios of hunting-induced large-bodied frugivore extirpation.

Two conservative faunal extinction sce- narios, in which (A) only large ateline
primates (i.e., Ateles and Lagothrix) are extirpated (scenario I); and (B) both
ateline genera and lowland tapir are extir- pated (scenario II).

These findings highlight an urgent need to manage the sustainability of game

hunt- ing in both protected and unprotected tropical forests, and place full
biodiversity integrity, including populations of large frugivorous ver- tebrates,
firmly in the agenda of reducing emissions from deforesta- tion and forest
degradation (REDD+) programs.

Mammal diversity influences the carbon cycle through trophic interactions in the
Amazon
While it is known that the efficiency of carbon capture and biomass production
by ecological communities increases with species diversity, the role of
vertebrate animals in the carbon cycle remains undocumented.

Relationship between animal and plant species richness, feeding interactions,

tree biomass and carbon concentrations in soil.

Mammal and tree species richness is positively related to tree biomass and
carbon concentra- tion in soil—and the relationship is mediated by organic
remains produced by vertebrate feeding events.

Advances knowledge of the links between biodiversity and carbon cycling and
storage, supporting the view that whole community complexity—including
vertebrate richness and trophic interactions—drives ecosystem function in
tropical systems. Securing animal and plant diversity while protecting landscape
integrity will contribute to soil nutrient content and carbon retention in the
biosphere.

Also, these species play key role too in supplying protein and fat to rural
populations in tropical areas worldwide, especially in areas with poor access
income and markets.
In the Brazilian Amazon was estimated the consumption of over eighty-nine
thousand tons of game meat per year by rural population.

However, these species are currently impacted in tropical forets by

deforestation, forest degradation, intense urbanization and unsustainable
hunting, and some areas has experienced drastic population reduction or
extiction.

Since game vertebrates are so important in maintaining the integrity of

naturalecosystems and supplying food, severe impacts on this group are likely
to produce profound large-scale implications to natural ecosystems and
compromisse the food security of many human populations that rely on this
resourse.

In this context, the present project are examining how amazonian game fauna
are currently impacted by forest habitat conversion and hunting along an urban-
rural-wild gradient of large-scale of human disturbance in the first hinterland
road in Amazonia, the TransAmazon Highway and two Protected Areas.

The study is ongoing in four municipal counties, along a 320-km paved and
unpaved section of the TAH and two neighbouring PAs, Rio Iriri Extractive
Reserve and Riozinho do Anfrísio Extractive Reserve.

Mapa

The study area covers approximately 210,513 km2 in a landscape dominated

by Amazonian upland forest.

The socioeconomic reality is complex and can be characterized in basically two

contexts:
Extractive Reservers are occupied by traditional low-income populations wich
are descended form formr rubber tappers (mainly or northeastern origin), and
are distributed in small communities along river banks, living primarily on
fishing, hunting and income from comercial fishing and extractivist products.
TransAmazon Highway areas are occupied by urban and rural populations
under different economic levels. Many arrived in the early 1970s with the
building of TransAmzon Highway.

The municipal counties are located in a non-consolidated boundary known as

the ‘Terra do Meio’ region, where the PAs are located.Terra do Meio also
represents one of the world’s largest biodiversity corridors (of ~7.9 million
hectares of relatively intact primary forest) and the second largest in Brazil. This
region is hugely significant in terms of tropical forest biodiversity conservation
due to its high levels of species endemism and valuable forest ecosystem
services. Yet this region faces an intractable challenge in integrating
conservation development, because of the clear possibility of spiraling
deforestation rates. The urbanization process in this region has intensified since
the 1970s by the expansion of the agricultural, mining and logging frontiers.
The Terra do Meio also form the Xingu Socio-Environmental Corridor. This
Corridor have approximately 28,000,000 hectares, including 21 Indigenous
Land and nine Protect Areas

Unfortunately, in this year this area is facing a triggering a cycle of deforestation

and forest degradation by the almost complete absence of environmental policy
of the current Federal Government

To assess how species can cope with the synergistic threats of forest habitat
conversion and hunting, we are using rapid interview surveys based on
traditional ecological knowledge of local experts and camera trapping sampling.

We are applying standardized questions on the presence/absence of target

species. To each interiviewed was asked the nearest site where they had seen,
heard, killed, or otherwise indirectly detected, each target species during the
last 12 months. Participatory mapping is been using to georreferecing the
spatial location of each target species record.

The camera traps was deployment as function of logarithmic scale of distance

from the main antropic pression focus to capture of the depletion effect of the
target species.

In the TransAmazon Highway landscape, the camera traps was deployment

from distance of urban center. More camera traps was deployment close to the
urban center to avoid the "donut's effect". The sampling was just finished and
the images are been processing.
Unfortunately, the camera trap sampling was not possible in the Protected
Areas. In the period of sampling a close Protected Area, the Terra do Meio
Ecological Station, was encroachment and was not allowed the acess to our
study site in the area by the goverment due the possible risks.

Photos of field work

This project will therefore explore research questions about the synergistic
effects of the most serious threats to this functional group of species. This is
important because forest habitat conversion continues to increase in the
Amazon.
This study will also quantitatively assess how current levels of subsistence
hunting impact game species within sustainable-use PAs (Extractive Reserves)
contributing to knowledge on sustainable wildlife harvesting.

To finish, I would like to presentation the REDEFAUNA Research Group. My

project take a part of this Group.
The REDEFAUNA is a research group of biodiversity, conservation and fauna
use assessment, and was consolidated in 2018.
The REDEFAUNA is design to improve the know about the susbsitence hunting
aspects though the interdisciplinary and multi-institutional research in the Latin
America.

The REDEFAUNA is design to support and develop projects in basic areas of

diversity, ecology, morphology, physiology, behavior, conservation medicine,
management and socioecomics aspects of fauna use in the Amazon.

The REDEFAUNA therefore includes not only the generation of scientific

knowledge about the fauna, but also about its use, and its application in the
biodiversity conservation and management based on strong scientific precepts,
as well as for the maintenance of the traditional ways of life.
These are the institutions and partners involved.
These areas are where the main projects are been developing.
This area (Terra do Meio region: Rio Iriri, Riozinho do Anfríso and Rio Xingu
Extractive Reserves and Terra do Meio Ecological Estation) is where our local
research group develope our projects.

Our projects are focusing on biodiversity monitoring of game fauna and

threatened species and monitoring of game fauna use. We are using
participatory methodologies based in the local ecologic knowledge of traditonal
people wich living in these Protected Areas.
We are also assessing the contribution of these traditional people to biodiversity
conservation by the traditional form of subsitence that is closely linked to the
forest preservation and the maintenence of valuable environmenal services.