Abstract
It is understood the protect areas as the most important strategic instrument directed to the protection of the environmental patrimony and socio-cultural. With this understanding, it is inferred to the study the objective of analyzing the level of effectiveness of the protect areas of Maranhão based on the land use and coverage characteristics. Based on a systemic view aimed at the development of interrelated environmental assessments for conservation and planning, the study analyzes the spatial dynamics from the landscape metrics referring to area, shape, density and size in 11 protect areas and their respective damping. It is observed that about 60% of the protect areas presented an increase in the fragmentation of the forest cover, as well as an increase in the shape index, size of the fragments, both in the inside of protect areas scale and in the surrounding area. It is noteworthy that the great social agents,directly affecting the level of effectiveness of the state’s protect areas, directly influenced these transformations.