Assessment of Land Use, Cover Changes, and Fire Hotspots in a Conservation Unit: A 20-Year Analysis

Abstract

Conservation units are specially protected territorial spaces whose primary goals are to preserve biodiversity and natural resources. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the spatial-temporal dynamics of land-use and land-cover classes and hotspots in a conservation unit in the Caatinga region. We assessed land-use and land-cover classes based on Mapbiomas’s data from 2002 to 2021. Then, we analyzed the hot spots made available by Programa Queimadas database, for the rainy and dry seasons, as well as data recorded on a yearly basis between 2002 and 2021. The class of agricultural activities in the buffer zone has increased; changes in the hotspots’ distribution pattern were observed, such as displacement from the Park’s central area towards the buffer zone’s. Furthermore, 12 hotspots tended to increase in the dry season, over the 20-year assessment process. Insights into the growth of agriculture and changing hotspot patterns assist in creating more effective conservation strategies.