Land Management Model Application for Biodiversity Conservation in Anthropic Landscapes

Abstract

Territorial ordering policies to balance conservation and production are essential to achieving sustainable development goals, having a place in agendas from all countries in the region. Political systems need easy tools to find new ways towards urban and rural sustainability. Canelones is the department surrounding the capital city Montevideo and currently provides the ecosystem service of drinking water for two million people; however, it shows a major land use conflict due to its intensification, population increase, and urbanization. Bringing ecology closer to land management is both essential to reach sustainable goals and a challenge to merge human activities with biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation. This work proposes a land management model to maximize conservation in urban and rural landscapes in three scales to provide the government land planning tools. Land uses mapped by the Official Agency were compared with the model 10:20:40:30. These guidelines are proposed to maximize biodiversity retention in an agricultural matrix landscape. A GIS was elaborated with current land uses reclassified by intensification model land uses categories (intensive, moderate, low, and natural land). The natural land surface was 50% lesser than the model reflecting land pressure on natural ecosystems at all landscape scales analyzed. This model offers each district the possibility to apply local strategies to achieve sustainable land management, natural protected areas or restoration zones, adequate to the dominant anthropic landscape conditions.

Keywords

• biodiversidad
• gestión ambiental
• ordenamiento territorial
• Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG)
• sustentabilidad