Conservation effectiveness of seven biosphere reserves in the Western Amazon : A counterfactual measure of deforestation avoidance

Deforestation is the main threat to biodiversity, ecological integrity and socio-ecological resilience of the of the Amazon biome, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth and home to at least 2 million people. A complex network of diverse protection strategies exists across the Amazon as key component of the global strategy to halt biodiversity loss. Biosphere reserves are a part of this network that aims to create spaces to learn how human communities can develop sustainably, while the protecting the environment, by implementing a zonation system with different degrees of protection We consider that it is necessary to produce relevant efficiency assessments on area-based conservation strategies in this region, and to understand how different protection strategies affect conservation outcomes. We used state-of-the-art matching methods to create a counterfactual deforestation avoidance measure of seven Biosphere reserves the western Amazon: Yasuní, Podocarpus-El Cóndor, Sumaco, Manu, BIOAY, Pilón Lajas and Beni. We obtained diverse efficiency results, some of the studied reserves avoiding large quantities of deforestation to reserves that were attracting deforestation. We found that more strictly protected zones were subjected to significatively lower relative pressure levels and did not have higher deforestation avoidance values. Representativity of the matched treatment area was also lower for these zones, meaning that the matching analysis was more difficult to perform in these areas. These research findings add to growing evidence about the important role of biosphere reserves in buffering against deforestation in one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots