Fig 1.
Protected areas in Trifinio Central America.
Classification of PAs by levels of (a) restriction, (b) decentralization, and (c) management capacity. The Central America map shows the location of the study area in gray.
Table 1.
Factors used to classify PAs by decentralization and management capacity.
Table 2.
Number of PAs and sampled pixels by governance and management classification.
Fig 2.
Variation in NDVI measures in Trifinio between 1986 and 2016.
NDVI variation inside and outside PAs in Trifinio between 1986 (a) and 2016 (b). Pixels within PA polygons of selected forest PAs inside the Trifinio region were sampled as treatment units all control pixels are outside PAs. Clouds, cloud-shadow, and water pixels (Class 0) were masked out prior to cutting the rasters. The raster maps were reclassed to show variation in NDVI values as follows: Class 1 is >0 and <0.2, Class 2 is > 0.2 and < 0.4, Class 3 is >0.4 and <0.6, Class 4 is >0.6 and < 0.8, and Class 5 is >0.8 and < 1.0. There are no 1.0s in the raster database. A 3x3 mode filter is used on the reclassed pixels to reduce single vegetated polygons to approximately a hectare minimum. The map projection is UTM16N.
Table 3.
Summary statistics.
Fig 3.
Estimated impacts of PAs on NDVI outcomes showing mean value and 95% confidence intervals.
Table 4.
Impact of PAs on NDVI outcomes by governance and management sub-groups.