Custo-eficiência de programas de monitoramento participativo da biodiversidade: o caso do PROBUC (Programa de monitoramento da biodiversidade e do uso de recursos naturais em unidades de conservação estaduais do Amazonas)

Abstract

Biodiversity monitoring systems, especially in protected areas, support the decision making process for conservation. In developing countries, where financial resources destined to monitoring programs are scarce, participatory monitoring programs have emerged. Nevertheless, there is very little availa bleinformation regarding the financial execution and cost structure of participatory biodiversity monitoring programs, which limits the possibility of strategy proposals to improve the programs’ performance. Therefore, the present study contributes to this gap by providing a financial analysis of ProBUC, which monitors Amazonas´protected areas, in order to contribute with the program’s financial sustainability. It was observed that administrative costs represent 49% of the program´s historic costs. ProBUC´s implementation is the most expensive stage due to the monitoring maintenance phase, which represents 33% of all the macroprocesses costs. On the other hand, the phase with lower investments is the results analysis phase, which concentrates only 4% of the costs. When comparing protected area efficiency, the Sustainable Development Reserve of Uatumã is the most efficient area whereas Parque Rio Negro-Setor Norte (PAREST RNSN) is the most inefficient area due to the low number of monitors. The most inefficient monitoring components currently in execution are the boat transit component and the caiman component. After these analyses, it is recommended that ProBUC descentralizes its operations to reduce administrative and implementation costs and that it invests time and resources in the improvement of data management, community involvement activities in PAREST RNSN, and training of boat transit and caiman monitors.