Data from: Logging and indigenous hunting impacts on persistence of large Neotropical animals

Areas allocated for industrial logging and community-owned forests account for over 50% of all remaining tropical forests. Landscape-scale conservation strategies that include these forests are expected to have substantial benefits for biodiversity, especially for large mammals and birds that require extensive habitat but that are susceptible to extirpation due to synergies between logging and hunting. In addition, their responses to logging alone are poorly understood due to their cryptic behavior and low densities. In this study, we assessed the effects of logging and hunting on detection and occupancy rates of large vertebrates in a multiple-use forest on the Guiana Shield. Our study site was certified as being responsibly managed for timber production and indigenous communities are legally guaranteed use-rights to the forest. We coupled camera-trap data for wildlife detection with a spatially explicit dataset on indigenous hunting. A multi-species occupancy model found a weak positive effect of logging on occupancy and detection rates, while hunting had a weak negative effect. Model predictions of species richness were also higher in logged forest sites compared to unlogged forest sites. Density estimates for jaguars and ocelots in our multiple-use area were similar to estimates reported for fully protected areas. Involvement of local communities in forest management, control of forest access, and nesting production forests in a landscape that includes protected areas seemed important for these positive biodiversity outcomes. The maintenance of vertebrate species bodes well for both biodiversity and the humans that depend on multiple-use forests.

用于工业采伐的区域与社区所有森林合计占现存热带森林总面积的50%以上。纳入此类森林的景观尺度保护策略，预计将为生物多样性带来显著效益，尤其是对于那些需要大面积栖息地、却易因采伐与狩猎的协同效应而发生局部灭绝的大型哺乳动物与鸟类而言。此外，由于这些物种行为隐秘且种群密度较低，目前人们对其仅受采伐活动影响的响应机制尚不清楚。本研究针对圭亚那地盾（Guiana Shield）上的一片多用途森林，评估了采伐与狩猎活动对大型脊椎动物检测率及占用率（occupancy rate）的影响。本研究的样地已通过认证，采用负责任的木材生产管理模式，且当地原住民社区依法享有该森林的使用权。我们将用于野生动物检测的红外相机（camera trap）数据，与包含空间显式信息的原住民狩猎数据集进行了整合。多物种占用（multi-species occupancy）模型分析结果显示，采伐活动对占用率与检测率仅存在微弱的正向影响，而狩猎活动则带来微弱的负向影响。模型预测的物种丰富度在采伐过的森林样地中，同样高于未采伐的森林样地。本研究区域内美洲豹（jaguar）与虎猫（ocelot）的种群密度估算值，与完全保护区内的相关估算值相近。当地社区参与森林管理、管控森林准入，以及将生产林整合进包含保护区的景观格局中，似乎对实现上述积极的生物多样性效益至关重要。脊椎动物类群的存续，不仅有利于生物多样性保护，也对依赖多用途森林的人类群体意义重大。