Deforestation in a Complex Landscape

Deforestation is often the primary threat to conservation goals in tropical countries. However, accessing the remote locations in which most remaining forests of conservation value occur makes it difficult to quantify deforestation trends and to galvanize preventive action. Using remotely sensed images we were able to quantify rates of forest loss in La Amistad Biosphere Reserve, Panama. Annual deforestation rates were low between 1987 and 1998 at 0.05% but increased nearly 12-fold between 1998 and 2001 to 0.6%. Net forest loss was 0.56% between 1987 and 1998 and 2.34% between 1998 and 2001. Deforestation rates differed significantly between protected areas. Protected areas on the Caribbean side of the Biosphere Reserve experienced greater levels of deforestation than those on the Pacific, even though both absolute and percent forest cover are higher on the Caribbean. Most forest conversion was for cattle pasture and an area of industrial cattle ranching was identified within the Palo Seco and PILA protected areas as a priority for enforcement activities. Forest conversion to pasture was highly correlated with proximity to roads, rivers, and villages (p < 0.001). The spatial scale of correlation varied between feature types, suggesting a greater area of impact from roads and towns versus rivers. The acceleration of forest conversion from 1998 to 2001 confirms the negative ecological impact of the recent increase in population and development pressure in this previously isolated region.