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Copyright of Sustainability in Debate / Sustentabilidade em Debate is the property of University of Brasilia, Center for Sustainable Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente is the property of Universidade Federal do Parana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article uses a multiscale approach for assessing landscape changes in one of the world's biodiversity hotspots in Brazil, the Rio Doce State Park (PERD). In this article, we assess land use changes over a 30 year period. Our results show that, while inside the park landscape changes were minimal, in the park buffer zone human induced changes are steadily rising due to an increase in eucalyptus plantations and urban sprawl that grew by 4% and 1.9%, respectively. Agricultural land has been reduced by 6.35%, but there are trends that a form of welcome forest transition has been occurring. We report an increase in native forests from 40,588 ha in 1985 to 45,690 ha in 2015. The analysis of human impacts in the study area delivers very different results when varying the pixel size from 25 ha to 900 m2. The former shows a very high level of human influence while the latter reveals small but vital patches of native forest offering hopeful opportunities for sustainable natural resource management in this critical biome. Our work stresses the importance of better targeted policy making and sympathetic land use management of buffer zones of protected areas. Currently, such zones suffer from many development pressures and often experience contradictory policy frameworks which encourage a clash between biodiversity conservation and intensive agro husbandry production. Highlights: • We characterize land use transitions in a hotspot of biodiversity in Brazil. • Analysis at finer resolution show that there is still hope for forest recovery. • For instilling sustainable forest transitions there is the need for fresh governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is necessary to understand the importance of landscapes that comprise the environment across a broad range of time and space and that each part of these landscapes responds to changes in environmental factors and land use. This study employs a multiscale modeling approach in the Rio Doce State Park (PERD), located in Minas Gerais, Brazil, based on a previous study on land use change in this region over the last 30 years (1985–2015), with an aim of predicting possible scenarios for the next 15 years (2015–2030). The results indicate that the municipalities and buffer zones within the PERD will suffer from increased human disturbance in all four land use types present in the region (Urban, Agriculture, Pasture, and Forestry). Correspondingly, areas of natural environment (Forest and Water) will shrink due to an increase in forest fragmentation, causing the loss of permanent ecological reserves, thereby endangering the biodiversity of these areas. Cooperation between the local community and private companies is therefore necessary to improve regional environmental conservation, encourage advanced sustainable development, and improve the quality of life for residents within each municipality near the State Park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]