Elsevier

Journal of Environmental Management

Volume 232, 15 February 2019, Pages 1028-1036
Journal of Environmental Management

Short communication
Land-use conflicts between biodiversity conservation and extractive industries in the Peruvian Andes

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.12.016Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Land-use conflicts between extractive industries and biodiversity are examined.

  • Conservation areas overlap with logging, mining and hydrocarbon concessions.

  • Several endemic species almost exclusively occur within resource concession areas.

  • Better natural resources planning is needed for enhanced biodiversity conservation.

Abstract

The exceptional endemic species richness found in the Tropical Andes is being subjected to high rates of environmental degradation and natural resources exploitation. While many forms of land-cover change and other impacts on species are difficult to control through environmental regulations, governments usually determine how and where extractive industries can take place. This study examines potential conflict between the location of extractive industry activities and biodiversity conservation in the Peruvian Andes. Using geographic information systems, we carry out overlay analyses to determine the spatial congruence between mineral mining, hydrocarbon and logging concessions, on the one hand, and the distribution of protected areas and endemic vertebrate species on the other. The results show that regional protected areas extensively overlap with resource concessions. Furthermore, 16% of endemic species hotspots concur with current concessions, while the geographical distribution of 21 endemic vertebrate species overlap by more than 90% with concession areas. To reconcile conservation and economic development objectives in the future, the geographical distribution of biodiversity, and in particular of endemic species, needs to be considered in natural resources planning and land-use/management activities.

Introduction

The continued expansion of destructive land-use systems throughout tropical regions is the predominant cause of species extinctions (Haddad et al., 2015, Newbold et al., 2015). Fueled by global demands for agricultural commodities, timber and other natural resources, the world's remaining natural ecosystems are increasingly being threatened and exploited by human populations (Rands et al., 2010). Widespread land-cover changes resulting from unplanned agricultural encroachment, illegal timber harvesting and the concomitant development of informal roads represent an important share of the net contribution to tropical habitat degradation (Hosonuma et al., 2012). Many of these land management practices take place in a rapid and uncontrolled fashion, and are driven by a myriad of institutional, socioeconomic and cultural factors that vary in time and space (Lambin et al., 2001, Geist and Lambin, 2002, Nelson et al., 2005). Effectively regulating these rampant land-use and land-cover change processes through legislation and other types of government intervention is often difficult (Angelsen, 2010, DeFries et al., 2010). In contrast, the geographical expansion of authorized extractive industries usually results directly from the intentions of and decision making by governments (Kohl and Farthing, 2012, Ferreira et al., 2014). Most of the world's tropical forests and other natural assets are owned by national governments (FAO, 2010). Yet, in the attempt to stimulate economic growth, governments are often strongly inclined to transfer long-term resource exploration and exploitation rights to large corporations through lucrative deals. Given that extractive industry regulations unambiguously favor the interests of private companies over the environment (Gordon and Webber, 2008), the privatization of resource extraction rights is commonly associated with increased pollution levels, land-cover change, and other forms of environmental degradation (Bakker, 2007, Wang and Chen, 2014).

As a megadiverse country with an agriculture and resources based economy, Peru faces the challenge to parallel the preservation of natural landscapes with sustained economic growth and prosperity. Peru's mining and hydrocarbon sectors contributed to over 13% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017 (INEI, 2018), while the areas for metal and fossil fuel exploration continue to expand sharply under current levels of investment (Bebbington and Bury, 2009, Cuba et al., 2014). Not all concessions become active mines or oil wells, however, resource exploration operations are equally linked to ecological deterioration. In the case of hydrocarbon exploration for example, there is deforestation related to the construction of the basecamp, sub-basecamps, heliports and the clearing of hundreds of kilometers of seismic survey lines, which concurrently opens up areas for agriculture, logging and hunting activities. Further disturbances are caused by exploratory drilling, the influx of numerous crew workers, and the detonation of thousands of seismic explosions (Finer and Orta-Martínez, 2010, Harfoot et al., 2018). During the exploitation phase, impacts on biodiversity are usually more severe, causing conversion, degradation and pollution at extraction sites (Finer et al., 2008, Harfoot et al., 2018). Similarly, environmental degradation caused by metal exploration and exploitation in Peru has been related to large-scale deforestation (Asner et al., 2013), water pollution (Bebbington and Williams, 2008), bioaccumulation of heavy metals in trophic chains (Bianchini et al., 2015), and socioenvironmental conflict (Bebbington and Bury, 2009). In contrast, Peru's timber industry contributes significantly less to the economy (approximately 1% of the Peruvian GDP (FAO, 2009)). Yet, the extent of logging concessions has increased significantly as a result of forestry reforms, now covering more than 10% of Peru's forested areas (Salo and Toivonen, 2009). Although concessions are supposed to foster sustainable logging practices, in Peru they have been found to enable widespread illegal timber extraction (Finer et al., 2014), which could greatly undermine species conservation and management efforts.

While multiple studies on the expansion of extractive industries in Peru and beyond have examined their potential impact on protected areas (Finer et al., 2008), indigenous territories (Cuba et al., 2014) and forest cover (Elmes et al., 2014), it has been less common to link the location of exploration and/or extraction sites to the geographical distribution of species. Yet, there is urgency to generate knowledge in this regard, since the extent of resource concessions is rapidly expanding while biodiversity continues to degrade at alarming rates. Here, we determine the potential impacts of the mining, hydrocarbon and timber industries on endemic species in the Peruvian Tropical Andes, which is considered one of the world's most critical regions for biodiversity conservation (Myers et al., 2000). We focus on endemic species, as their conservation can only be achieved within the Tropical Andes. Further, we focus on vertebrate species as comprehensive data on the geographical range distribution of plant and invertebrate species is largely unavailable. Following previous studies (Armendáriz-Villegas et al., 2015, Harfoot et al., 2018), we first assess the geographical overlap between the location of concessions and protected areas. Conversely, while protected areas form the single most important biodiversity conservation strategy in the Tropical Andes (Hoffmann et al., 2011), their location is often not in agreement with important ecological features (Rodrigues et al., 2004, Venter et al., 2014). Hence, we additionally determine to what extent the distribution of individual endemic species as well as the location of endemic species hotspots overlap with current concessions.

Section snippets

Study area

The study area (Fig. 1) includes Peru's Tropical Andes biodiversity hotspot (Mittermeier et al., 2004) and all forested areas along the eastern flank of the Tropical Andes between approximately 500 and 3000 m.a.s.l. (Bax and Francesconi, 2018), which are known to harbor many narrow ranged endemic species (Young et al., 2011). This area is located between coordinates 3°4′37 South, 77°56′4 West, 18°2′54 South and 69°47′1 West, and corresponds to about 500,000 km2.

Data collection and preprocessing

Following Cuba et al. (2014), we

Results

Species geographical range maps were refined based on their altitudinal and habitat requirements as reported by IUCN and BirdLife International. Of the 394 endemic or nearly endemic species considered in this study, the geographical range of two species (Colostethus poecilonotus and Dipsas schunkii) were beyond reported elevation boundaries, while six species (Erythrolamprus problematicus, Hyloxalus leucophaeus, Pristimantis pardalinus, Pristimantis sternothylax, Psychrophrynella usurpator and

Discussion

The Tropical Andes region is a widely recognized priority for conservation efforts, given that its exceptional endemic plant and vertebrate species diversity is confronted by high rates of anthropogenic disturbance (Myers et al., 2000, Brooks et al., 2006). Massive species extinctions in the Tropical Andes are projected under current climate change and habitat conversion scenarios (Brooks et al., 2002, Malcolm et al., 2006). While many of these pressures on biodiversity have proven to be very

Acknowledgement

We thank two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. This work was supported by funding provided by Universidad de Ciencias y Humanidades.

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