Supporting decision makers through rapid assessments of remote sensing data: the case of Tefé National Forest, Brazil

Providing scientific subsidies for public policies is a compromise that is beyond the boundaries created by the academic universe, requiring scientists to respond to the challenges posed by increasingly complex societies, both socially and environmentally. Considering this, the objective of this work was to build a pilot project for rapid assessment of Tefé National Forest (TNF) land use zoning and evaluate its relevance as a tool to support actions and influence discussions in protected area management councils.

The assessment considered remote sensing data on deforestation and fire from 2005 to 2015. Deforestation maps (PRODES-INPE) and active fire (MODIS) information were overlapped with TNF land use zoning. Although National Forest, in general, has its land use rules provided by law, each protected area defines on its Management Plan their own land use zoning, with specific rules.

The study showed that in 2015, 97% of TNF was covered by forest, and although no deforestation was recorded in the same year, the number of active fires was 1.8 times higher than the average from 2005 to 2014. This demonstrates the vulnerability of this area to the extreme drought which affected the region this year. The Population Zone, where 44% of the TNF population lives, recorded the highest rates of deforestation and fire. The Preservation Zone, on the other hand, showed to be fulfilling its function, presenting no active fires and only one deforestation event during the whole analyzed period.

These results were presented at the 20th TNF Council Meeting, in 2017. The TNF manager pointed out the great importance of spatial and temporal diagnoses, which can exert in prioritize actions to tackle specific problems in most threatened zones. Community leaders participating in the meeting contributed to the completion of the results with in situ day-to-day reports, offering hypotheses for some phenomena observed on the assessment, such as the deforestation observed in 2010. After that, it became clear that actions directly focused on the Population Zone, and mainly related to the use of fire in years of extreme drought, can improve the conservation outcome for this protected area. Integrated socio-environmental diagnosis, such as this pilot project, can be an important tool, allowing a broader version of the monitoring strategies.