Land Use and Land Cover (LULC)

Introduction

This mapping project assessed the degree to which both existing and proposed terrestrial protected area networks protect/would protect landscape-level biodiversity, which are represented as vegetation types delineated from remotely-sensed imagery. A comprehensive, standardized, and thematically-appropriate map of Central American vegetation and landcover types was developed by classifying AVHRR imagery (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer imagery—1 square kilometer resolution) using advanced digital image processing routines and expertise provided by a Central America Vegetation Working Group. The map identifies 17 remaining natural vegetation types. The classification accuracy of the map is estimated to exceed 80 percent. The data accurately reflect conservation status up to 1995.

Using a gap analysis approach, a map of existing and proposed protected areas was overlaid on the vegetation map to analyze the protection status of vegetation types.  Eleven of the 17 vegetation types were found to be under-represented (<10% of their total area contained in parks) and of these, eight vegetation types were found to have less than 5% protection. A similar analysis of the protection status of ecoregions revealed that eleven of the 16 ecoregions are inadequately protected. Eight ecoregions have been extensively converted (<40% original forest remaining) from pre-colonization states.

This work was supported by PROARCA/CAPAS (Proyecto Ambiental Regional de Centroamerica/Central America Protected Areas Systems), a conservation partnership of the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Resources Group, Ltd. (IRG), The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Winrock International. This work was funded primarily by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Components of this work were additionally supported by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and NASA.