Distribution and importance of conservation units in the caatinga domain

Abstract

The Caatinga is a characteristic phytogeographic domain of the Brazilian semiarid, being one of the least studied areas and one of the Brazilian natural regions less protected. The Caatinga has undergone a rapid process of environmental deterioration, due to deforestation. Therefore, the present study aimed to show the current distribution and quantities of Conservation Units in the Caatinga Domain. Several books, journals, theses and periodicals were consulted for its accomplishment, regarding the conservation units and the consultations of the numbers of UCs, by states and biomes, were done through the website of the National Registry of Conservation Unit of the Ministry of the Environment. Presently, the Caatinga own 166 UCs indexed, that preserves a 63.677 km2 area, corresponding to 7,7% of domain, being 1,2% of this protected area belonging to Integral Protection group and 6,5% to Sustentable Use. The states that most own Caatinga areas, are Bahia, Piauí e Ceará, but Piauí is the only state that has little more than 10% of the destined area to conservation of this domain. Yet Rio Grande do Norte, Sergipe, Paraíba e Alagoas own less than 1% of your Caatinga area for conservation, the others has between 6 and 9,5%. Until 2008 more 45% of Caatinga area was already deforested, therefore it is necessary to increase the quantities of UCs, since that the process to deforested, consequently loss of biologic diversity, in this area, is pretty fast and occur not just by antropics actions, but also by natural phenomena.