Protected area mosaic

A protected area mosaic, or conservation mosaic is a collection of environmentally protected areas that are treated as a whole, either formally or informally. The protected areas may be of different types, including strictly protected areas and sustainable use areas, which may be administered at different public levels or privately. They may include areas assigned to indigenous people. A mosaic may be more flexible and effective than an attempt to combine all the areas into a single conservation unit under one agency. In practice, results with mosaics in different countries have been mixed.

A conservation mosaic may be defined as "a network of protected areas and complementary landscapes that include combinations of national parks (i.e. the core conservation areas), production landscapes and collectively-owned ethnic territories (i.e. the surrounding areas)". Conservation mosaics are similar to the biospheres promoted by UNESCO under the Man and the Biosphere Programme. The cooperative approach between different agencies and types of protected area avoids the conflicts and disagreements over land use and conservation that often result with a single agency and single type of conservation unit. The value of creating protected area mosaics has been the subject of intense debate among conservationists. Protected areas are of great importance in protecting biodiversity, but conservation efforts must take into account the social and economic needs of the surrounding communities and the resulting pressure on land usage.

A mosaico de unidades de conservação is a legally recognized entity in Brazil, a collection of protected areas of the same or different categories that are near to each other, adjoin each other or overlap, and that should be managed as a whole. It may include conservation units, private lands and indigenous territories. Brazil has created a mosaic of federal and state conservation units along the BR-319 highway through the Amazon rainforest in an effort to better prevent deforestation when the highway is paved through more efficient management of a larger area. However, WWF-Brazil has pointed out that it is not enough to simply create the protected areas on paper. They must be staffed, delimited, legal owners compensated and so on.

The Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park in the state of Goiás, Brazil, was expanded by Federal Decree in September 2001 and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 2001. In 2003 the expansion was successfully challenged and 72% of the national park lost its protection status. The park is part of the Cerrado Biosphere Reserve. Brazil has outlined plans for a mosaic of new conservation units with different management categories covering an equivalent area to the expanded National Park, but UNESCO has questioned whether the mosaic will be sufficient to ensure the statutory protection required for the World Heritage properties.

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