HABITAT LOSS AND FRAGMENTATION OF THE CERRADO IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AREA OF LAGO DE PALMAS, TOCANTINS

Abstract

Restrain deforestation, protect natural landscapes and preserve biological diversity are priorities that have been implemented with the establishment of conservation units. However, the achievement of these objectives is weaker in the conservation units of sustainable use, as they allow different forms of uses, occupation and extrac-tion of resources. In this category, the Environmental Protection Area - APA is the most common and extensive. In Tocantins State, APAs such as Lago de Palmas, were created for the purpose of obtaining environmental licenses for hydroelectric plants and still lack basic management tools today. In view of the evidence on the loss of native vegetation cover within its limits and the scenario of uncertainties about the role played by APAs in the conservation of biological diversity, we con-ducted a temporal analysis of the transformations of land use and coverage in the APA of Lago de Palmas and evaluated deforestation and urbanization as potential vectors of environmental transformation in the APA. Fifteen years after the creation, the areas impacted by human activities had an increase of 83.03%, while the native vegetation cover was significantly reduced, remaining a little more than a third of the original area. Agriculture and urbanization were confirmed as the most impacting ac-tivities, replacing areas of native vegetation. Among the remaining plant formations, the grassland, carrasco and the semideciduous seasonal forest demand more effec-tive actions for their conservation. They are phytophysiognomies with high floristic richness, containing rare and endemic species, in addition to a unique fauna. The im-plementation of the management plan and zoning with technical criteria are urgent and necessary measures to contain native vegetation loss and fragmentation and bi-odiversity conservation in the Lago de Palmas Environmental Protection Area.