Mapping Land Suitability to Guide Landscape Restoration in the Amazon

Abstract

Beyond reducing deforestation, the control of forest degradation, the promotion of forest restoration, and the improvement of agricultural practices in the Brazilian Amazon are becoming increasingly important for sustainable development. To enable farmers and authorities to organize their landscapes and optimize both agricultural practices and the provision of ecosystem services, mapping land suitability is essential, but it is lacking in the region. In this paper, we present a method for mapping land suitability at a fine scale (30-m pixels), adapted to the needs of farmers and municipalities, to not only optimize agricultural production but also the ecosystem services provided by forests. We used topographic data from the Brazilian municipality of Paragominas to produce four maps, one each of soil texture, slope, floodplains, and hydrography, that we then combined into a single land suitability map. This map has been incorporated into a spatial database, which also contains information on land use, remoteness, and land tenure. We performed spatial analyses to measure the process of land use change, and to define indicators that enable local stakeholders to organize landscape restoration. We highlight an organic link between agricultural intensification and forest restoration, and provide a spatial tool for landscape design, assessment, and monitoring.

Sustainable Value Chains, Finance and Investment in Forestry and Tree Commodities

“…The second element is that land-use intensification in a zero-deforestation context is not spatially uniform, since farmers aim to optimize the use of natural resources by intensifying land use in areas with high agricultural potential and leaving others areas for forest conservation or regeneration (Plassin et al 2017;Poccard-Chapuis et al 2021). This calls for a better…”

Livestock grazing systems and sustainable development in the Mediterranean and Tropical areas

“…The other plots, which are too steep, poorly drained or subject to erosion, are gradually cleared: a new forest network can be reconstituted there, capable of once again producing ecosystem services based on biodiversity, the water and carbon cycle, as measured byPinillos (2021b).In the municipality of Paragominas, this observation has given a new impetus to forest protection: it is now understood that it is no longer incompatible with cattle ranching, but on the contrary is associated with it. Within the framework of the plan of Intelligence and Territorial Development decreed in 2019, a new territorial policy on livestock farming is being implemented on the basis of two mechanisms: green finance and municipal management(Poccard-Chapuis et al, 2021).…”

Élevages au pâturage et développement durable des territoires méditerranéens et tropicaux

“…Durant les cinquante années de cette course à la terre, les déforestations furent systématiques : les forêts étaient de simples réserves de fertilité, pour une éphémère production fourragère. élevage qui se met en place autour de deux ressorts : la finance verte et la gestion municipale(Poccard-Chapuis et al, 2021).Pour démocratiser l'intensification fourragère et ainsi donner plus d'ampleur à la recomposition des paysages, le crédit est un levier précieux s'il est à la portée du plus grand nombre. La Banco da Amazônia s'est engagée aux côtés du Cirad et du syndicat des éleveurs pour concevoir et lancer en 2021 une nouvelle ligne de crédit, réservée à l'intensification écologique des pâturages et privilégiant une technique simple et accessible à tous : le pâturage tournant (figure 4.12).…”