Sustentabilidade dos ecossistemas costeiros: avaliação das pressões e ameaças aos serviços ecossistêmicos na Reserva Extrativista Marinho-Costeira de Maracanã, Pará, Brasil

Abstract

Sustainability in the coastal zone is crucial for preserving biodiversity, protecting fragile ecosystems, and ensuring the well-being of local communities, while maintaining essential ecosystem services. Failure to address this issue can lead to an irreparable imbalance between the exploitation of natural resources and the capacity for environmental regeneration. Among the primary threats to coastal ecosystem services are unregulated urbanization, unplanned tourism, coastal deforestation, and excessive exploitation of fishing resources. Furthermore, climate change represents a growing challenge, potentially raising sea levels, increasing global temperatures, intensifying erosion, generating floods and extreme weather events, and irreversibly impacting coastal areas. Faced with these risks, the adoption of sustainable practices and the implementation of conservation strategies become urgent. This research aims to analyze the sustainability of the ecosystems within the Maracanã Marine-Coastal Extractive Reserve in the Amazon coastal zone, focusing on assessing threats to coastal ecosystem services and developing strategic responses for effective management and conservation. The research aims to present the sustainability situation of the reserve's ecosystems and their ecosystem services, as well as the central pressures and, consequently, the threats faced, offering support for the area's management plan. For this, a mixed-methods design was employed, utilizing a methodological approach that integrated quantitative and qualitative data. Methods include bibliographic and documentary research, geospatial data analysis, land use, cover mapping based on the MAPBiomas project, and preliminary classification of ecosystem services. A specific analytical framework for coastal ecosystem services was applied to assist in identifying and mapping pressures on the reserve, complemented by field surveys for collaborative mapping of ecosystem services and respective threats. Additionally, the Threats Classification Scheme, was utilized to assess both internal and external threats. Finally, a Threat Assessment and Management Matrix for Ecosystem Services was developed, utilizing the DriversPressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework, to inform sustainable management actions for the conservation of coastal ecosystems and serve as a basis for the management plan for the research area. As an original contribution, this research presents a systematized overview of the pressures and threats affecting the Maracanã Extractive Reserve (RESEX), the results of which can support analyses in other extractive reserves on the Amazonian coast. The study also proposes viable responses and strategies to address these threats, establishing a practical framework for detecting pressures and formulating management measures in RESEX-categoryconservation units in the region. It is, therefore, an unprecedented contribution to the context of the Amazonian coast, still marked by a scarcity of studies with this focus. It is noteworthy that a large part of the RESEX in the region still lack management plans, and the identification of threats and the definition of responses are fundamental elements for the development and implementation of these management instruments.