Coordinated biodiversity monitoring systems: an multiscalar unificated approach in forest landscapes

Abstract

The global biodiversity decrease implies the necessity to study the state of the ecosystem, not only in preserved places but also in landscapes with diversified land use and territories currently under use. Considering the national efforts to gather biological data in Peru as in México and several diverse international referents, from the generation, implementation, and analysis of monitoring biodiversity protocols in forest management areas in both countries, a unified biodiversity monitoring protocol for forest use areas was elaborated through a logical and inclusive process. This protocol is capable of generating data in three different territorial approximation levels, and it can be used in several ecological conditions. The different stages of development of all the activities were implemented for a team divided into two sections with complementary functions: a) Situational analysis and methodological development; b) Field implementation of initial protocols for each country, analysis, and design of unified protocol. There were obtained coverage simples that ranged between 0,039 to 0,984 with the “plot point transect” TPP (Peru) protocol and from 0,937 to 0,996 with the “point transect monitoring” MTP (México) protocol, according to that adjustment and redistribution monitoring techniques were implemented into the biological groups involved to outline the unified biodiversity monitoring protocol (TPU). The territorial unified design is a 1,000-meter line transect, which depending on the physiography can change its direction (from 45⁰ to 90⁰). Therefore standardization in biological data collection is proposed, for local land, ecosystem, and landscape levels using the already mentioned protocol, which can be articulated with national environmental institutional efforts. The developed process can be replicated in other countries to promote standardization.