Análisis espacial de los recursos forestales de la provincia del Napo como estrategia de soporte para el desarrollo de criterios ambientales que fortalezcan en el ordenamiento territorial en la provincia

摘要

Ecuador’s constitution approved in 2008 identified the need of local governments (GADs in Spanish) to develop land use regulation plans in order to promote equitable access to natural resources, which in turn promotes environmental conservation. In this context, people, as the main actors of land development, interact with their natural environmental though the use of plant resources for various activities. Specifically, in Napo province the ice-cream bean (Inga edulis) and the Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata) are being used as timber and non-timber resources. In order to determine these species’ distribution patterns used for creating land use guidelines, a modeling establishing their possible ecological niche and the potential areas that would require land use planning was developed. Herbarium QCA’s database and WorldClim’s bioclimatic variables were used to establish the spatial distribution, with priority on those species with the highest usage in the Napo province. The results showed that forests are mainly protected by the Subsistema del Patrimonio de Áreas Protegidas (PANE) with a significant occurrence of secondary forests, and an agricultural zone associated with populated areas and roads. According to these results, by 2080 there will be a decrease in vegetation coverage caused by both human activities and climate change. The data and cartographic information generated in this study constitute a contribution to the formulation of environmental standards. These in turn could be used to strengthen land use regulation plans based not only on the needs of nature and human beings, but also on scientific data applied to environmental conservation.