Forest fragmentation of anthropogenic origin is one of the results promoted by the disorderly process of the land use and land cover, especially in intensively cultivated landscapes. In this context, this study aimed to define priority areas to facilitate connectivity among forest fragments, seeking forest recovery actions in the Pardo River Basin, SP, using the multicriteria approach (Weighted Linear Combination). The Participator Technique was used to define the criteria and the weights of the factors. The factors considered important to the objective of this study were the following: proximity between the fragments with greater nuclear areas, proximity to forest cover, proximity of the river system, distance to urban centers, slope, erodibility of soil. Whereas the variables that influence the selection of priority areas for forest restoration in the Pardo River Basin, SP contribute with different weights in the final decision process, a hierarchy according to the importance of each factor to the fitness area was established. The major factor was proximity among fragments of the largest nuclear area (0.3713), followed by proximity to forest cover (0.1911), proximity to the river system (0.1516), distance to urban centers (.1168) , slope (0.0840) and erodibility (0.0854). The result was a map of priority areas, with five classes of priority. The priority areas occurred in order to promote the first union of forest patches with greater nuclear area, and from this union, the successive expansion of these regions of very high priority tending to very low. The methodology was adequate to the mapping of priority areas for restoration in watersheds. Fragments with bigger nuclear areas, connected with small fragments where they are predominant in the landscape, promoting the formation of larger fragments from the formation of forest corridors and recompositon of vegetation.
Watershed; Multicriteria Evaluation; Forest Restoration; Connectivity Forest
