Environment, Development and Sustainability (2024) 26:1371–1389

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02763-z

Ecological effects of changes on Brazilian native vegetation

protection law in an urban area

Thais M. Issii1 · Erico F. L. Pereira‑Silva2 · Edinéia A. S. Galvanin3 ·

Mario R. Attanasio Júnior1 · Elisa Hardt1

Received: 26 August 2020 / Accepted: 5 November 2022 / Published online: 6 December 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022

Abstract
This study compared the ecological effects on forest conservation before and after changes
in Brazilian forest protection, taking a case study of a water source area in Diadema, the
municipality with the highest demographic density in São Paulo State. We also evaluated
compliance with the laws (Forest Code—FC and Native Vegetation Protection Law—
NVPL), considering the reality of land use and land cover (LULC) in the year before the
new law NVPL. We created LULC maps of legal scenarios for both laws analyzed based on
landscape metrics of optimal resource availability (ORA), distance from the nearest neigh-
bor (ENN), and anthropogenic edge frequency and length (ESD and ED). Our findings
revealed that changes to some technical criteria in the NVPL reduced the quantity (220–
105 ha) and quality (­ORAFC = 0.02 and ­ORANVPL = 0.005) of Diadema protected forests
and altered their neighborhood relationships, stronger influenced by human-modified fields
as agents of fragmentation and pressure for further disturbances. The results indicate that
the new law does not substantially increase compliance (30–35%), but if it has full compli-
ance, landscape connectivity could be improved ­(ENNFC = 8.6 and ­ENNNVPL = 11.2). Our
technique to create a LULC map of legal expectation, combined with the application of
selected landscape metrics, proves valid for understanding the changes in Brazilian expec-
tative protection regarding forest conservation.

Keywords Landscape ecology · Legal protection · Landscape metrics · Land use · Land
cover

1 Introduction

The Forest Code (FC) has been subjected to several amendments and was considered the
most important law for protecting forests in Brazil (Laudares et al., 2019; Roriz & Fearn-
side, 2015). In addition to standardizing forest use, the law designated environmentally
sensitive areas as Areas of Permanent Preservation (APPs), aiming to conserve water

* Elisa Hardt
elisa.hardt@unifesp.br
Extended author information available on the last page of the article

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1372 T. M. Issii et al.

resources and prevent soil erosion, such as steep slopes covered with protected forests
(Santos-Filho et al., 2015).
Since 1965, the FC was seen as a device to hinder deforestation and especially to share
the responsibility of forest protection between state and private properties, which represent
44% of the Brazilian lands, in addition to 16% of unregistered or with unknown tenure
properties, where there is more than 50% of the vegetation remnant cover of the country
(Medeiros, 2006; Soares-Filho et al., 2014; Sparovek et al., 2019).
The FC established two crucial forms of forest protection: Areas of Permanent Pres-
ervation (APP) in environmentally sensitive areas, in both rural and urban spaces (such
as surrounding water resources, springs, hilltops, etc.); and Legal Reserves (LR), defined
as a portion of rural properties set aside to ensure the sustainable use of natural resources
and biodiversity conservation (art. 1°, 2°, 3°, and 16, Brazil, 1965). In 2012, the FC was
revised and replaced by the Native Vegetation Protection Law (NVPL), which is currently
in effect (Brazil, 2012). The NVPL introduced new regulations on APP, LR, and urban
green areas (Santos-Filho et al., 2015), changing the text and technical delimitation criteria
that modified the extension of protected areas. Examples of that were the restrictions on the
protection of only perennial springs and watercourses and the changes in the requirements
of altitude and slope for the protection of hills (art. 4° IV and V, Brazil, 2012; Brancalion
et al., 2016).
In addition, the NVPL incorporated the flexibility of the APP protection previously pro-
vided by CONAMA (Brazilian National Council for the Environment), which since 2006
already allowed the intervention or removal of vegetation in APP in exceptional cases of
public utility, social interest, or low environmental impact (Brazil, 2006). This flexibility
mainly affected urban areas, allowing the clearing of native vegetation in sensitive areas for
social interest and public utility, including road system works, sanitation, and channeling
of water courses (Azevedo & Oliveira, 2014; Brancalion et al., 2016; Castro et al., 2018).
For many authors, this flexibility in forest protection was aimed at assisting land regulation,
sustainable economic development, and the legalization of irregularities arising from non-
compliance with previous legislation (FC) (Miguel, 2014; Roriz & Fearnside, 2015; Sauer
& de França, 2012).
Some studies can exemplify the representation of environmental law’s expectations to
understand how it affects the dynamics of land use/land cover (LULC) (Hardt et al., 2012;
Issii et al., 2020a, 2020b; Oliveira et al., 2018; Payés et al., 2013; Stefanes et al., 2018;
Tavares et al., 2019; Vieira et al., 2018). These studies create legal scenarios using geo-
graphic information systems (GIS) to spatialize and compare protections. These legal sce-
narios permit, for example, the assessment of compliance with the law (Issii et al., 2020a,
2020b; Oliveira et al., 2018; Stefanes et al., 2018), the comparison between reality and
expectations, as social and environmental interests, or between different legal expectations
(Hardt et al., 2012; Payés et al., 2013; Tavares et al., 2019), the evaluation of legal effi-
ciency for biodiversity conservation (Hardt et al., 2013a; Issii et al., 2020a, 2020b; Payés
et al., 2013; Vieira et al., 2018), and the identification of social and environmental conflicts
regarding land use (Hardt et al., 2012; Oliveira et al., 2018; Payés et al., 2013).
The creation of legal scenarios, combined with landscape ecology, can help assess the
effectiveness of environmental legislation in biodiversity and forest conservation (Hardt
et al., 2013a; Issii et al., 2020a, 2020b). This approach is based on the premise that the
landscape structural patterns can indicate ecological effects on landscape functioning
(Cushman et al., 2008; Turner, 2003; Turner & Gardner, 2015). In the landscape approach,
structural measures or landscape metrics are exemplified by many studies in environmental
planning to compare spatial–temporal changes (Hardt et al., 2014; McGarigal & Marks,

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Ecological effects of changes on Brazilian native vegetation… 1373

2012; Romero et al., 2018). However, this approach is not often used to compare the eco-
logical effects of the law. In many cases, the studies focus on understanding the forest area
loss and the law’s non-compliance. The use of structural measures permits, for example,
the evaluation of forest quality based on metrics such as the optimal resource availability,
landscape connectivity, and anthropogenic pressure for further fragmentation, applied by
some studies as Hardt et al. (2014), Guo et al. (2018) and Issii et al., (2020a, 2020b).
Most Brazilian studies focused on evaluating protection changes in native vegetation
based on the remaining area and applied to rural areas (Preto et al., 2022; Tavares et al.,
2019). This study proposes to go beyond this perspective, using assumptions from land-
scape ecology to infer the effects of change on the quality of forests and the consolidated
urban environment. Understanding these effects on protected forest remnants is essential in
highly urbanized areas, where there is constant pressure for urban expansion over the for-
est due to the high population density. Based on these approaches and to understand how
the introduction of the NVPL affects the dynamics of LULC and the potential ecological
effects, this study was aimed at comparing forest conservation before and after changes in
the Brazilian legal protection of native vegetation (former Law 4771/65—FC replaced by
new Law 12,651/12—NVPL). This study also aimed to evaluate and compare the forest
cover compliance expected for these laws, considering the LULC reality of Diadema, a
highly urbanized area in the São Paulo Metropolitan region, in the year before (2011) the
new law NVPL. We hypothesize that a smaller area of forests protected by the NVPL com-
pared to the CF reduces forest quality.

2 Materials and methods

The FC and NVPL legal protection expectations were interpreted and spatialized as land
use and land cover maps—LULC that were compared in terms of forest quantity and qual-
ity. In addition, legal compliance estimates were made by comparing these legal forest pro-
tection expectation maps with the 2011 LULC reality map.

2.1 Study area

The study area comprised approximately 700 ha and is in the southern region of Dia-
dema (Fig. 1), a municipality in an urban area with the second-highest population density
(12,536.99 hab/km2) in Brazil (Diadema, 2008; IBGE, 2010). Medium- and high-density
urban areas are concentrated in the north of the study area (Romero et al., 2018). A critical
water reservoir in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, the Billings Dam, is located to
the south and consists of 10 main rivers and streams with the predominant urban use char-
acterized by low-density residential areas with green spaces (Romero et al., 2018). This
water source area concentrates remnants of dense ombrophilous forest from the Atlantic
Forest biome, covering 130 ha, representing 18% of the study area (Appendix 1).
Beyond FC and NVPL, there are other legal guidelines protecting the areas of native
vegetation in Diadema (Issii et al., 2020a, 2020b), such as the Atlantic Forest Law (2006)
and the APRM (2009). Unfortunately, these did not prevent the loss of more than half of
the vegetation in the Billings water source and the conversion from agricultural to urban
use between the 1960s and 2011 (Romero et al., 2018).

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1374 T. M. Issii et al.

Fig. 1  Forest cover of the study area in the municipality of Diadema, São Paulo, Brazil. A Map of forest
cover in 2011. B Legal scenario of the former Forest Code (FC; Law 4,771/65) and C Legal scenario of the
new Native Vegetation Protection Law (NVPL; Law 12,651/12)

2.2 Spatialization of laws

The spatial representation of forest protection was based on the interpretation of legal rules
(FC and NVPL) for APP protection using tools of A ­ rcGIS® software (ESRI, 2018). We
create two hypothetical scenarios of legal expectations for the area (Table 1), represent-
ing what the site would look like if the legal provisions fully complied with the law. For
that, we used the cartographic base data provided by the Municipality of Diadema (PMD,
2016).
The LULC reality of 2011, used to evaluate the laws’ compliance, was prepared based
on the visual interpretation of aerial orthophotos (2011) with a spatial resolution of 1 m
and scale of 1:25,000, with the identification of 12 types of LULC characteristics of the
study area (Issii et al., 2020a, 2020b; Appendix 1).

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Ecological effects of changes on Brazilian native vegetation… 1375

Table 1  Protection criteria, interpretation, and spatialization of the former Forest Code (FC; Law 4,771/65)
and the new Native Vegetation Protection Law (NVPL; Law 12,651/12) in Areas of Permanent Preservation
(APP) of the Billings water source in Diadema, São Paulo, Brazil
Type of Protection criteria (including regulations and Interpretation and spatialization of the law (in
APP changes) ­ArcGIS®)

FC NVPL

Water- 30 m along rivers or any 30 m along peren- Use of a hydrographic network map and the
course watercourse (width 10 m)1 nial and intermit- Buffer tool to create a strip around the water
tent watercourse bodies with variable width according to the
(width 10 m)4 protection criterion
Water 50-m radius around water 50-m radius
spring ­springs1 around perennial
­springs4*
Marsh 50 m around marshes and their e­ dges3
Reser- 30 m around ponds, lakes, Distance between
voir and natural and artificial the normal maxi-
reservoirs in the established mum operational
urban area (measured from level (745 m for
the maximum normal Billings)6 and
level)2 the maximum
maximorum level
(also 747 m)7 for
artificial reser-
voirs intended for
energy genera-
tion or as water
supply created
before ­20015
Hilltop 1/3 highest portion of 1/3 highest portion Manual vectorization of hills and ridges using a
hills and mountains of hills (alti- map created by the Slope tool from the Digital
(altitude > 50 m and tude > 100 m and Terrain Model-DTM, generated based on con-
slope > 17°)3 slope > 25°)4 tour lines by the tool Tin
Ridge- Ridgeline (1/3 highest portion of the lowest hill in
line 1000 m distance between mountain tops)3
Hillside Hillside with slopes greater than 100% or 45º in
line with the highest ­slope1,4

The NVPL changes are underlined and the parameters incident to both laws, without any modification, are
in a merged column
*Despite the unconstitutionality of this change recently discussed by the Brazilian Supreme Court
Federal law 4,771/65
1
Art. 2° a, c, e; CONAMA 303/02 art. 3° I and II
2
CONAMA 302/02 art. 3° I; CONAMA 303/02 art. 3° III a
3
CONAMA 303/02 art. 3° IV, V, VI
Federal law 12,651/12
4
Art. 4° I a, IV, V, IX, and XI
5
Art. 62
Others
6
EMAE, 2016
7
EPUSP—art 18 III Law 13,579/09 (APRS-B: Area of Protection and Recovery of Springs-Billings)

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1376 T. M. Issii et al.

An analysis of law compliance of both laws in the maintenance or recovery of for-

ests expected for APP was carried out using cross-tabulation with the tabulate area tool
to compare with the LULC reality. This analysis used map overlays between LULC real-
ity—2011 and the two scenarios of legal expectation (FC and NVPL). The observed differ-
ences between reality and expectations indicated the non-compliance rates. Before that, we
excluded from legal scenarios the areas of public u­ tility1,2,3 and social i­nterest1,3,4,5, except
for risk ­areas6,7 (superscript numbers refer to law articles cited in Table 1). Risk areas were
defined as those susceptible to processes such as floods, erosion, or accidental rock mass
movement (Brazil, 2006, art 9° e). Public infrastructure implementation for transportation
(paved roads) was considered a public utility, as well as sanitation and health protection
activities (canalized rivers) (Brazil, 2012, art 3° VIII). Public infrastructure for sports, lei-
sure, and educational and cultural outdoor activities was considered a social interest (Bra-
zil, 2012, art 3° IX). As well as land regularization in human settlements occupied predom-
inantly by the low-income population and the installations for collecting and conducting
water and treated effluents (Brazil, 2012, art 3° IX).
The compliance analysis did not include specific instructions for land regularization,
such as areas of social interest, due to the lack of spatial information, potentially overesti-
mating protected forest areas. However, protected forest areas were underestimated by not
considering mandatory LRs in the case of rural properties located in urban areas because
they were infrequent and lacked official and spatial records.
The comparison between forest areas protected under each legal device was carried out
using the same method to assess legal compliance—maps overlaid by cross-tabulation.

2.3 Application of metrics

The effectiveness of the two legal expectations in forest conservation was assessed using
­ArcGIS® (ESRI, 2018) and ­Fragstats® (McGarigal & Marks, 2012) based on a set of struc-
tural landscape metrics. It is the first time these metrics are applied to compare changes
between the old and the new forest law in Brazil. We choose the metrics considering the
three main ecological effects of forest loss and fragmentation on their quality: patch struc-
tural characteristics, their connectivity with neighboring patches, and their boundary with
anthropic uses (Forman, 1995), estimated by: (i) analysis of Optimal Resource Availability
(ORA), calculated as a function of forest ratio (FR), shape (FSh), size (FS), and succes-
sional stage (FSS) (developed by Hardt, dos Santos, et al., 2013 and applied by Issii et al.,
2020a, 2020b; Issii et al., 2020a, 2020b; Romero et al., 2018); (ii) analysis of landscape
connectivity using the Euclidean distance from Nearest Neighbor (ENN) (described by
McGarigal & Marks, 2012 and applied by many authors) and iii) analysis of fragmenta-
tion trend, based on the ratio of Edge Segment Density (ESD—frequency) and Edge Den-
sity (ED—length) (described by McGarigal & Marks, 2012 and applied by many authors)
among forests and different types of human land use (Table 2).

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Ecological effects of changes on Brazilian native vegetation… 1377

Table 2  The evaluation criteria of the potential forest conservation of the protection laws in Diadema, São
Paulo—Brazil
Metric Formula Description Software

Forest Forest ratio— FR = FA Forest cover area (FA) per total ArcGIS®
resource FR TA
landscape area (TA)
avail- Forest size—FS
∑n
(Ai .CSi ) Patch forest area (Ai) weighted ArcGIS®
ability FS = i=1
FA.CSmax by the coefficient of patch
variable size ­(CSi), ranging from 0 to
from 0 to 4: 0 (≤ 0.01 ha), 1 (≤ 10 ha),
1 (Hardt 2 (10–50 ha), 3 (50–100 ha)
et al., and 4 (≥ 100 ha), in relation
2013a, to the maximum size (­ CSmax);
2014) ­CSi values adapted from Hardt
et al. (2013a)
Forest shape— The proportion of the forest ArcGIS®
∑n
FSh = i=1 (CAi )
FSh FA core area ­(CAi), considering V-LATE
a 70 m edge width based on extension
data obtained by Hardt et al.
(2013b) for the Atlantic Forest
fragments with urban boundary
Forest succes- FSS =
FAadv The proportion of the forest in ArcGIS®
sional stage— FA
the most advanced succes-
FSS sional stage (­ FAadv), identified
during the mapping based
on differences in roughness
among aerial photographs
Optimal Forest quality, weighted by core ArcGIS®
∑n
ORA = i=1 (CAi .CSi .CSSi )
resource avail- TA.CSmax .CSSmax area ­(CAi), size coefficient
ability—ORA ­(CSi), and successional stages
­(CSSi = 1 for initial stage and
2 for medium/advanced stage)
concerning the maximum
potential in the total area (TA)
Landscape Euclidean Near- ENN = hij The measure of the focal ­patchi Fragstats®
connectiv- est Neighbor isolation by the shortest
ity distance— straight-line distance (hij) to
ENN the nearest neighboring ­patchj
of the same type, based on
patch edge-to-edge distance
(McGarigal & Marks, 2012)
Trends to Boundary fre- Number of boundary segments ArcGIS®
∑n
ESD = k=1 sik
forest quency/Edge (sik) between forest ­patchi and
fragmen- Segments human-related neighboring
tation Density—ESD ­patchk (Zeng & Wu, 2005),
calculated by the sum for
boundary type
Boundary Cumulative total boundaries Fragstats®
∑m
ED = k=1 eik
Length/Edge length (ED) between the for-
Density—ED est ­patchi and human-related
neighboring ­patchk, calculated
in meters by the sum for
boundary type (McGarigal
& Marks, 2012; Zeng & Wu,
2005)

It is modified from Issii et al. (2020a

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1378 T. M. Issii et al.

3 Results

The present study estimated an area of 220 ha of protected forests under the former FC,
whereas the area under the NVPL encompasses only 105 ha (Fig. 1).
The APP protections as hilltop and ridgeline comprised the largest protected area
under FC (87 ha and 117 ha, respectively) but were absent under NVPL. In addition, with
changes in the law, a decrease in 23 ha of the protected area was observed for water spring
APP (FC: 41 ha; NVPL: 18 ha) and almost 7 ha for reservoir APP (FC: 23 ha; NVPL:
16 ha). The only forms of APP protection that remained unchanged were watercourses and
marshes (Fig. 1).
In the total protected area, law compliance as forest cover (early and advanced) and as
dam or lake was lower under the FC (30%) than under the NVPL (35%) (Fig. 2). The high-
est non-compliance rate was represented by urban areas under the FC (25%) and by human-
modified fields (open areas for human use with occasional buildings and isolated trees)
under NVPL (31%). In the analysis of protection by APP type, the lowest compliance rate
under FC occurred in hilltops (25%) and ridgelines (27%). In contrast, water spring areas
(26%) were the least compliant under NVPL, mainly due to high-density urban use (areas
with concentrations of buildings and access roads). Compliance was higher in the water
reservoir area with NVPL (37%) than with FC (32%).
The ORA of forest areas protected under FC was four-fold that of NVPL ­(ORAFC = 0.02;
­ORANVPL = 0.005), mainly due to forest shape (­FShFC = 0.08; ­FShNVPL = 0.04) (Fig. 3 and
Appendix 2). As expected, both legal devices estimated a larger proportion of forest as com-
pared to the reality of 2011 ­(FR2011 = 0.18; ­FRNVPL = 0.28; ­PFFC = 0.39). However, in the

Fig. 2  Land use and land cover of 2011 inside the Areas of Permanent Preservation (APP) by type and total
of the former Forest Code (FC) and the new Native Vegetation Protection Law (NVPL) in the study area
(Diadema, São Paulo, Brazil). The percentage values of forest cover (early and advanced) and dam or lake
indicate compliance with the relevant law

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Ecological effects of changes on Brazilian native vegetation… 1379

Fig. 3  Landscape metrics calculated for the 2011 map and legal scenarios of the former Forest Code (FC)
and the new Native Vegetation Protection Law (NVPL) in the study area (Diadema, São Paulo, Brazil). A
optimal resource availability (ORA) and forest ratio (FR), shape (FSh), and size (FS); B Euclidean distance
from the nearest neighbor (ENN); C length (ED) and D frequency (ESD) of edges. Legends for land use
and land cover types are described in Appendix 1. The numerical results of metrics are presented in Appen-
dix 2

case of NVPL, this contribution was insufficient to improve the ORA (ORA NVPL = 0.005;
­ORA2011 = 0.005), as forest shapes (FSh) protected by this law were more irregular and
elongated than those of existing forest patches ­(FShNVPL = 0.04; ­FSh2011 = 0.06). That is
because a lower FSh value indicates a lower proportion of core area (CA) concerning the
total forest area (FA) (Table 2), which is a consequence of higher perimeters characteristic
of non-circular shaped patches (McGarigal & Marks, 2012).

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1380 T. M. Issii et al.

The distance between forest patches (ENN) protected under FC was shorter than that
under the NVPL, but both distances were almost six times shorter than those observed
for existing forest patches (­ENNFC = 8.6; ­ENNNVPL = 11.2; ­ENN2011 = 46.9) (Appendix
2). Based on the metric ED, the longest edge length with forest patches protected under
FC was the high-density urban use (­EDFC = 34.2%), followed by human-modified field
­(EDFC = 27.6%). For NVPL, this pattern was inverted, with the human-modified field as
the main land use ­(EDNVPL = 42.3%). These land uses were the most frequent segments
of edges (ESD) bordering protected forests (human-modified field: ­ESDFC = 28.2% and
­ESDNVPL = 32.6%; high-density urban area: ­ESDFC = 22.9% and ­ESDNVPL = 20.4%) (Fig. 3
and Appendix 2).

4 Discussion

The replacement of FC with NVPL has halved the protected forest area in the study area,
potentially changing the dynamics of local LULC. As mentioned before, the revisions in
FC were politically driven to reduce irregularities in compliance with forest laws, espe-
cially regarding rural properties. However, the difference in compliance with the two laws
was not substantial, an unexpected result, as FC was more restrictive and protected twice
the area of NVPL. In the study area, the consolidated urban use often makes forest pro-
tection compliance incompatible with legal expectations because of the high population
density. The low difference in compliance seems to reflect that the FC originally never
imposed specific criteria or restrictions on land use and occupation in urban areas. Its
replacement with the NVPL only increased the possibilities of intervention and suppres-
sion in law-protected Areas of Permanent Preservation (APP) in cases of public utility,
social interest, and low environmental impact (Azevedo & Oliveira, 2014; Brazil, 2012).
However, this flexibility of forest protection is likely to have adverse ecological effects
in urban environments such as Diadema in São Paulo State. Diadema frequently has irregu-
lar urban occupations (Almeida & Silva, 2017), including sensitive areas such as the water
source of the Billings Reservoir, which is responsible for public water supply in the São
Paulo Metropolitan Region (Bonzi et al., 2017). The social problems of the municipality
potentially exacerbate the environmental issues.
The primary justification for the changes in NVPL’s technical criteria was to increase
law compliance with the protection of native vegetation (Miguel, 2014), as non-compliance
with legal devices for forest protection is not uncommon in Brazil (Hardt et al., 2014; Issii
et al., 2020a, 2020b; Stefanes et al., 2018; Vieira et al., 2018). Part of the driving force for
this change was the argument that there is a lack of scientific data to justify the delimitation
of the protected areas previously defined by the FC of 1965 (Miguel, 2014). However, we
know that it is untrue, as several studies have been conducted on the subject. Many pieces
of research created a broad scientific framework on the fundamental role of native forests
in the preservation and conservation of biodiversity, and their role as ecological corridors,
recharge of groundwater and aquifers, a filter of water pollutants, stabilizer of soil, and as a
reducer of erosion and sedimentation of rivers and reservoirs (Sparovek et al., 2011).
In our study, the reduction in forest area protected by NVPL was mainly associated with
changes in technical criteria defining hills, with an increase in minimum altitude from 50
to 100 m and minimum slope from 17° to an average of 25° (Brazil, 2012). These changes
resulted in the absence of hilltops in the study area and have been described in other stud-
ies as the main reason for the reduction of forest area protected by the new law (Brancalion

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Ecological effects of changes on Brazilian native vegetation… 1381

et al., 2016; da Silva et al., 2018; Francelino & Silva, 2014). A reduction of 87% in APP
protection was estimated in hills and mountains throughout the national territory (Soares-
Filho et al., 2014).
The compliance analysis with hilltop APP regulations described in FC indicates that
urban uses currently occupy a large portion of these areas. In Brazilian cities with high
population density, such as Diadema, these naturally hilly areas are often occupied by
irregular settlements (Schlee, 2013). Although no longer legally protected, these areas are
still environmentally fragile, and their topography is inadequate or unsuitable for human
settlements (Alcántara-Ayala, 2002; Listo & Vieira, 2012). In these areas, soil sealing and
land use without adequate infrastructure or planning, as well as soil exposure by reducing
vegetation cover, can contribute to and promote morpho-dynamic processes, such as ero-
sion, landslides, and floods (Rodrigues & Listo, 2016).
About the limitation in identifying rural properties in the study area, which must com-
ply with LR and potentially increase the amount of forest protected by the NVPL, we con-
sider this increase insignificant given that only 0.1% of the municipality is destined for
agriculture. In 2015, Diadema comprised approximately 50% urban use (34% high density
and 13% medium density), 16% industrial, and 13% access roads (Atlas Ambiental de Dia-
dema, 2022).
Rates of non-compliance in urban areas were also high in APP of water springs, mainly
under the NVPL. Although the new law predicts a smaller protected area for this type of
APP, lower compliance is associated with the location of the water sources that are still
protected. Part of the water springs in the southern portion of the municipality, the Billings
Dam source area, is no longer protected based on the new technical criterion that excludes
intermittent watercourses (art. 4° IV) (Brazil, 2012). Therefore, the water springs protected
under NVPL are concentrated in a highly urbanized region in the northern portion of the
study area. This region’s water source area is under roads, buildings, and other forms of
soil sealing. This intervention alters soil water infiltration and percolation processes, reduc-
ing spring flow (Ikematsu et al., 2017). Thus, we can expect that changes in the legal pro-
tection of water spring APP can affect the hydraulic capacity of a vital reservoir partly
responsible for the water supply of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo.
Regarding the quality of protected forests and their potential ecological effects for biodi-
versity conservation, based on landscape measures such as Optimal Resource Availability
(ORA), full compliance with NVPL is worse than that with FC. It would not change the
reality evaluated based on the land use and land cover map of 2011 (Appendix 1). A previ-
ous study on the Atlantic forest has already demonstrated the adverse ecological effects of
aiming for increased areas under protection without any forest quality or biodiversity main-
tenance criteria in the landscape (Hardt et al., 2013a). These adverse effects are evident
in the watercourse APP, in which the lower ORA value is associated with forest patches’
shape (FSh) (irregular, elongated, and narrow). This patch type does not have a core area
and is more susceptible to edge effects, restricting the local biodiversity of species that are
unique to the forest interior and, at the same time, increasing the occurrence of an oppor-
tunistic, generalist, and invasive species (Forman, 1995; Pereira-Silva et al., 2007; Santana
et al., 2021; Turner & Gardner, 2015).
In addition to these effects on habitat quality, the 30-m strip of forest in riparian areas
required by both laws may not be sufficient to guarantee their role in protecting the qual-
ity and quantity of water resources (Guidotti et al., 2020; Menezes et al., 2016; Valera
et al., 2019). In addition, non-compliance with this minimum range can also lead to greater
erosion possibilities as riparian zones start to act as sediment sources for watercourses

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1382 T. M. Issii et al.

(Guidotti et al., 2020). By contrast, compared with the reality of 2011, regarding the eco-
logical effects on the forest assessed, using isolation metrics such as Euclidean Nearest
Neighborhood (ENN), full compliance with both laws (FC and NVPL) would improve
landscape connectivity. Other studies have already highlighted that compliance with the
legislation planned can improve the connectivity, increasing the matrix permeability (Nie-
meyer et al., 2020).
Maintaining connectivity is one of the goals of APP protection laws, which in the-
ory, aim to facilitate the gene flow of fauna and flora (Brazil, 1965, 2012). In the study
area, the legal protection of the surrounding water courses, if in compliance, would play
an essential role in landscape connectivity. This prospect considers that this APP type
works as corridors that increase the functional connectivity for many species that may
use riparian areas to move from one habitat patch to another (Issii et al., 2020a, 2020b;
Rother et al., 2018; Zimbres et al., 2016).
The urban matrix of Diadema represents the leading anthropogenic edge with forests
protected under the former FC. As this relationship depends on the matrix (element
of dominance in the landscape in the areas surrounding the habitat) and the degree of
human disturbance (Driscoll et al., 2013), the urbanization of Diadema may hinder the
realization of benefits expected by the law. The relationship between forest and urban
space is reduced in NVPL, but this change in boundaries is not an environmental ben-
efit, as it is based on reducing protected forests in urban areas. Many studies have high-
lighted the potential of urban boundaries to reduce forest quality by increasing pressure
due to edge effects (Hardt et al., 2013a, 2013b; Santos-Barrera & Nicolás Urbina-Car-
dona, 2011) and acting as driving forces for new LULC transformations (Antrop, 2005;
Zeng & Wu, 2005).
Despite the pressure exerted by urban areas on forest remnants, it is relevant to highlight
that these remnants or any green areas play a role in increasing the permeability and infil-
tration of rainwater and reducing floods (Phillips et al., 2019). The forest can also filter air
pollutants, improve air quality, regulate temperature, and reduce the microclimate effects of
heat waves (Martini et al., 2018; Parsa et al., 2019).
Under FC, the leading neighborhood pressure is human-modified fields, also identi-
fied as the type of land use responsible for the trend of new ruptures and fragmentation.
Changes in the study area in the last 50 years show the conversion dynamics of forests
into these fields, with future projections of new deforestation hotspots (Romero et al.,
2018). Unfortunately, the forest configuration under NVPL does not change this trend in
the landscape.
The Atlantic forest of São Paulo State has undergone profound changes in the last six
decades, influenced by the dynamics of LULC with periods of forest gains and losses
(Lira et al., 2012), which is expected for a developing country. The Diadema municipal-
ity is part of this context, and in this same period, the forest changes were accompanied
by an intensive urbanization process (Romero et al., 2018). The intensive urbanization
process is the first cause of local forest loss. However, the law change of FC to NVPL
significantly reduces the potential law benefit to the point of matching the current situ-
ation of forests. This result showed that the changes under NVPL, if in full compliance,
give few ecological benefits related to FC fulfillment, representing a setback to local
forest protection.
Suppose the decision-makers have decided to implement the new NVPL with fewer pro-
tected forest areas. In that case, it is at least necessary to consider some environmental
mitigations to maintain or increase the remaining quality. Based on our scientific data, we
have two technical suggestions with the potential to improve forest quality and mitigate the

13
Ecological effects of changes on Brazilian native vegetation… 1383

negative neighborhood pressure: (i) establish a buffer zone surrounding protected areas,
considering land cover with less anthropogenic pressure, and (ii) consider the geolocation
of APP areas to indicate LRs in nearby areas, increasing the forest fragment size. This
other type of private protected area (LR) was not included in this study but has the poten-
tial to have complementary effects on forest conservation. In this context, we highlight the
importance of Brazil investing in compliance enforcement, as full compliance with the cur-
rent law would improve the connectivity of the local landscape, despite not changing the
reality of forest quality.

5 Conclusions

The methodology and the scientific data we used are efficient approaches to guiding deci-
sion-making. Not just to help conservationists to justify the importance of maintenance of
the protected area but to plan more robust legislation from an ecological point of view.
Our technique, which used the GIS environment to map legal expectations regarding
forest protection, combined with assessing its ecological effects using selected landscape
metrics, has proved to be valid for understanding the differences and changes in the Brazil-
ian protection of forest conservation.
Studies that evaluate environmental laws change frequently focus on the amount
of remaining forest in rural areas; however, using simple application tools that con-
sider the quality of forests can more coherently infer the expected effects on biodiversity
conservation.
The repeal of FC and its replacement with NVPL reduced the protected forest area
by half (52%), but without the expected increase in compliance, that was amplified by
only 5%. This reduction was mainly caused by changes in technical criteria defining
hills, eliminating this type of APP in the study area. Non-compliance is primarily asso-
ciated with urban uses (25%) and human-modified fields (31%), the same land-use types
that in 2011 bordered the remaining forest, which is responsible for fragmentation and
can be drivers of new disturbances. As limitations of this research, we highlight the
lack of information about rural properties inserted in the urban area, despite it probably
being insignificant to quantify forest protection areas. Another limitation is that func-
tional evaluation for a species or ecological group could have more assertiveness for
conserving biodiversity evaluation than structural measures.

Appendix 1

13
1384 T. M. Issii et al.

B
Land use and land Description
cover type
Secondary Atlantic Forest fragments with continuous canopy (dark-colored
advanced forest
canopy)
Secondary Atlantic Forest fragments with discontinuous canopy (light-
early forest
colored canopy)
forest plantation with an Old stands of exotic species of Eucalyptus spp. or Pinus spp. with the
understory regeneration of native vegetation in the understory
Stands of densely or sparsely planted exotic species of Eucalyptus spp. or
forest plantation
Pinus spp. (Forestry)
Tree cluster of at least three individuals within a 40 m area
grouping of trees
Open areas of anthropogenic use with occasional buildings and isolated
human-modified field trees. Characterized by gardens, bare soil, agricultural and forest plantation
soil preparation, plots devoid of buildings, and abandoned areas
Areas with low densities of residential buildings and the presence of trees
green residential area
and gardens
Areas with a moderate density of buildings with isolated trees
urban medium density
Areas with a high density of buildings with access to paved or unpaved
urban high density
roads
The urban cluster of at least three buildings within 40 m or buildings ≥ 30
isolated buildings
m in length
Paved and unpaved roads, avenues, and streets. It does not include access
road net
roads from the urban high-density land cover type
Reservoir and flooding areas
dam or lake

A—Land use and land cover (LULC) map of the Billings water source in Diadema, São Paulo—Brazil, in
2011. B—Description of LULC types used in the mapping. Source: Issii et al. (2020a)

Appendix 2

See Table 3.

13
Ecological effects of changes on Brazilian native vegetation… 1385

Table 3  Landscape metric values calculated for the 2011 map and legal scenarios of the former Forest Code
(FC) and the new Native Vegetation Protection Law (NVPL) in the study area (Diadema, São Paulo, Brazil)

Legal Device
Map of 2011
Metric FC NVPL
(Issii et al., 2020a) (Law 4,771/65) (Law 12,651/12)
Forest quality
ORA 0.005 0.02 0.005
FSh 0.06 0.08 0.04
FS 0.32 0.53 0.46
FR 0.18 0.39 0.28
Forest isolation
ENN Median 10.8 5 6.4
ENN Mean 46.9 8.6 11.2
ENN Standard error 9 1 1
Forest edge ED (%) ESD (%) ED (%) ESD (%) ED (%) ESD (%)
Dam or lake 1.2 2.2 1.7 0.4 2.2 0.5
Forest plantation 2.8 2.9 2.5 1.6 3.9 2.0
Forest plantation with an
8.6 6.2 6.7 4.0 8.2 4.1
understory
Green residential area 5.8 8.0 7.2 6.0 8.2 4.8
Grouping of trees 3.9 9.5 3.2 9.3 4.3 9.7
Human-modified field 60.3 43.6 27.6 28.2 42.3 32.6
Isolated buildings 0.6 2.5 0.6 4.7 0.8 4.5
Road net 12.2 18.2 14.9 17.8 12.9 17.4
Urban high density 3.9 5.8 34.2 22.9 15.9 20.4
Urban medium density 0.8 1.1 1.6 5.1 1.4 4.1
ORA, optimal Resource availability; FSh, forest shape; FS, forest size; FR, forest ratio; ENN, Euclidean
distance from the nearest neighbor; ED, edge density (length); ESD, edge segment density (frequency)

Acknowledgements The National Council supported this work for Scientific and Technological Develop-
ment – CNPq/Brazil [Grant Numbers 426178/2016-5] and Science Intern Fellowship Program of Federal
University of São Paulo – UNIFESP/Brazil [Grant Numbers 152593/2015-2, 101335/2017-2].

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Ecological effects of changes on Brazilian native vegetation… 1389

Authors and Affiliations

Thais M. Issii1 · Erico F. L. Pereira‑Silva2 · Edinéia A. S. Galvanin3 ·

Mario R. Attanasio Júnior1 · Elisa Hardt1
Thais M. Issii
thais.issii@unifesp.br
Erico F. L. Pereira‑Silva
erico.ps@usp.br
Edinéia A. S. Galvanin
edineia.galvanin@unesp.br
Mario R. Attanasio Júnior
mario.attanasio@unifesp.br
1
Department of Environmental Sciences, Laboratory of Ecology and Nature Conservancy
(LECON), Group of Landscape Ecology and Conservation Planning (LEPLAN), Universidade
Federal de São Paulo, Rua Prof. Artur Riedel, 275, Diadema, SP 09972‑270, Brazil
2
Faculty of Education, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. da Universidade, 308, Cidade Universitária,
São Paulo, SP 05508‑040, Brazil
3
Universidade Estadual Paulista, Campus Experimental de Ourinhos ‑ Av. Renato da Costa Lima,
451, Ourinhos, SP 19903‑302, Brazil

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