Assessing the Degree of Sustainability in Extractive Reserves in the Amazon Biome Using the Fuzzy Logic Tool for Decision Making

3. Resposta ponto a ponto aos comentários e sugestões dos autores

Comentários 1: [O resumo do artigo e as palavras-chave incluídas no início do trabalho estão corretas. No entanto, são de natureza muito geral e com base neles não é possível determinar a natureza das conclusões finais do artigo]

Resposta 1 : [ Para deixar clara a proposta do estudo em seu resumo e palavras-chave, foram feitas revisões no texto do resumo e palavras-chave, conforme destacado em verde] Obrigado pelo seu comentário [ Essas alterações podem ser encontradas na página 1, Resumo e Palavras-chave, linha 21 – 25, 28]

“[ Resumo: o que se traduz em baixa sustentabilidade nesses espaços no estado do Amazonas. A capacidade da metodologia de representar os principais fenômenos que impactam a sustentabilidade na RESEX estudada por meio de variáveis ​​linguísticas e ponderá-los em suas complexidades, bem como inferir um conjunto de regras de decisão que refletem o conhecimento de especialistas e que visam contextualizar quantitativamente a sustentabilidade sob incerteza e imprecisão nessas áreas ]”

“[ Palavras-chave: Territórios protegidos; Estado do Amazonas; Saúde Ambiental; Justiça social; Desenvolvimento sustentável ]"

Comentários 2: [O Capítulo 2 sobre o método de análise e as condições de análise é muito extenso. Apesar da grande quantidade de informação, acredito que todos os dados fornecidos poderão ser úteis. Útil no caso de reproduzir o procedimento em outros objetos com estrutura semelhante de dependências socioeconômicas e ambientais. No entanto, peço uma revisão muito detalhada do texto. Existem fragmentos em espanhol, o que não é problema para mim, mas para outros leitores pode dificultar a leitura do conteúdo. (por exemplo, título do subcapítulo 2.1 ou figura 2)]

Resposta 2: [Foram feitas revisões no texto do título 2.1 e na figura 2 para adaptá-los ao idioma inglês] Obrigado pelo seu comentário. [esta revisão pode ser encontrada em... – página 3 e linha 131, Figura 2].

Comments 3: [The investment outlays referred to in subsection 3.4 were compared with those in New Zealand and the USA. In my opinion, the amount is lower but comparable. The amount is much higher than in other countries in the world, which would be clearly visible if you compare it to Gross Domestic Product. I definitely disagree with the "pessimistic interpretation" of the authors of the article]

Response 3: [The investments in the Resex studied are higher than the average investments in Conservation Units in Brazil, where total annual investments may be higher than in many countries, thus aligning with the Reviewer's comment. It is not the authors' intention to extenuate persimistic or optimistic feelings about the use of resources earmarked for the management of Resex, in the respective manuscript] Thanks for the notes.. [there has been a textual revision of the manuscript pointing out other comparisons of investments in protected areas in other countries which can be found on... – page 13, paragraph 47, lines 427 – 431].

“[Although this figure exceeds the national average for investment in Conservation Units in Brazil, and that of countries like Argentina (R$ 21.37), Costa Rica (R$ 32.29) and Mexico (R$ 39.71), it is still lower than that of countries like New Zealand (R$ 110.39) and the United States (R$ 156.12) [104].]”

Comments 4: [Line 431: The data regarding the period of time necessary to approve new plans is not very encouraging. However, I believe that the decision support model created by the authors should take this factor into account. In the future, it is worth considering the introduction of a dynamic variable that would increase its value as the decision-making period shortens and increase the impact of the global indicator]

Response 4: [The Management Plan is a fundamental instrument in the management and territorial planning of Conservation Units that regulates, among other issues, the policy of access to natural resources by local populations and the promotion of well-being for these populations. For this study, the approval time of the respective instrument was analysed, according to the IIS2 indicator. This instrument can be used with different approaches (variables) to assess sustainability in Extractive Reserves. Such as assessing the effectiveness of this instrument on environmental health and social well-being in the Reserve. Or, how these instruments are inserted within global issues such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as their alignment with strategies capable of mitigating the effects of climate change, among others]. Thank you for your comments. [the respective notes are included in the manuscript on... - page 15, paragraph 52, lines 496 – 502].

“[This methodology can also make the sustainability assessment process more democratic, in which decision rules can be drawn up and reflect the knowledge of specialists involved in the management of these areas such as local managers, community representatives, fi-eld technicians and others, making it possible to include new variables and parameters in addition to those used in this study, thus promoting realistic sustainability scenarios in these spaces.]”

Comments 5: [I agree with the authors' conclusions that activities aimed at diversified development require Pro Publico Bono expenditure. However, it is not an action item. We can point to a number of cases where it is possible to balance all four aspects of a Sustainable System. I have the distinct impression that the creators belittle their achievements by describing them in an emotional way. Maybe time will change the assessment of the results achieved. All information that expands our knowledge and experience is valuable and worth reading to readers]

Response 5: [It is a fact that the traditional knowledge of local peoples and communities is an important part of maintaining protected spaces around the world. Analysing the environmental, economic, social and institutional aspects and their relationship with sustainability in Extractive Reserves has been the subject of many debates and studies. In the Médio Juruá Extractive Reserve, for example, the public-private partnership and organised civil society have made it possible to implement different public policies that play important roles in promoting environmental health and the quality of life of families. Despite low financial investment in recent years by the federal government in this reserve]. Thank you for your comments, which are pertinent to the debate on human populations in forest areas. [these notes are portrayed in the text of the manuscript on... – page 11, 12, paragraph 41, 46, lines 374 – 377; 410 – 416].

“[Protected areas inhabited by human populations have been shown to be more effec-tive in conserving biodiversity, and traditional peoples and communities in these areas play a critical role in global biodiversity conservation objectives, despite the fact that these populations are present in less than 15 per cent of the planet's forests [110].]”

“[in the Middle Juruá RESEX who access these services respectively, unlike what happens in the other RESEX investigated. In this RESEX, public policies have played an important role in promoting environmental health and quality of life for families. It has a number of programmes stemming from public-private partnerships and organised civil society, ma-king it the only RESEX in the state of Amazonas to offer distance learning higher educa-tion, which is the result of a partnership with the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM).]”

Comments 6: [I agree with the authors' final conclusions (6) that financial shortcomings and slow approval times for budget modifications may be the reason for the degradation of this valuable region of Brazil. Valuable not only on a micro scale and for the entire continent. Therefore, it is worth pointing out to the public what the cause of any possible effects is. So that educated people cannot hide behind a veil of ignorance]

Response 6: [Extractive Reserves fulfil different functions in the Amazon region. They serve as efficient barriers to contain deforestation in this region, guaranteed mainly by the way local people work and manage nature] Thanks for the notes. [for the respective note there was a textual revision at the conclusion of the manuscript on... – page 15, paragraph 54, lines 524 – 528].

“[Isso garantirá maior empoderamento desses espaços da região amazônica, pois desempenham um papel importante na contenção do desmatamento causado principalmente pelo avanço da pecuária e da agricultura extensiva nesta região.]”

3. Point-by-point response to Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Comments 1: [ some methodological ambiguity, not described precisely in the work, why and how many experts were selected for the preliminary accumulation of initial data on all indicators]

Response 1: [The information on which the indicators are based came from documents obtained through on-site visits to the local offices of the Extractive Reserves located in the municipalities of the state of Amazonas, through the managers responsible for the governance of these spaces, who total 13 civil servants. This information was also passed on by the respective managers to the authors of this study via electronic means. The same procedure was used to obtain information on cattle herds from the Amazonas State Agricultural and Forestry Defence Agency (ADAF) of the State Secretariat for Rural Production (SEPROR), through two field technicians] Thank you for highlighting this point. [textual revisions were made to the manuscript on page 4, paragraph 15, lines 162 – 165].

“[During the visits, information was collected in files passed on by managers (13) responsible for RESEX governance regarding cattle herds, land regularization, production activities, public policies and the number of employees who work in the management and supervision of RESEX]”

Comments 2: [ to check the stability of the model, it was desirable to assess the significance and impact of each input indicator parameter, for example, data deviating by 10-30%. That is, an assessment of the model’s sensitivity to input data deviations based on differing expert semantic data is not shown; Paste the full comment here.]

Response 2: In the Fuzzification stage of the Fuzzy Inference system, the inputs of the linguistic variables are defined with their respective terms, numerical reference intervals and linguistic values. These inputs are mapped by pertinence functions that calculate the association of these inputs in sets of rules, ranging from 0 (total exclusion) to 1 (total inclusion), and the pertinence factor can take on any value in this range of the set. This means that each input has an impact on the sensitivity of the fuzzy method for assessing sustainability in Extractive Reserves in the state of Amazonas. In the Extractive Reserves studied, the phenomena that impact their sustainability may be different, given the environmental, economic, social, institutional and cultural heterogeneity, among others, of these, areas. Therefore, assigning weights to the variables (indicators) at this point would not be appropriate. The sensitivity of the model to the weights assigned to the variables (indicators) and the deviations from the input data based on semantic data could be better portrayed through a debate on sustainability involving local managers, field technicians, community representatives, among others, who work in the management of each of these spaces. Thank you for your comment. [the basis for this comment can be found in the manuscript on... – page 6,7, 15, paragraph 24, 52, lines 230 – 234; 496 – 452].

“[In the Fuzzification stage, the inputs of the linguistic variables were defined with their respective terms, numerical reference intervals (metrics) and linguistic values, as well as the pertinence functions responsible for gradually mapping the degree of adhe-rence into sets of rules, ranging from 0 (total exclusion) to 1 (total inclusion), with the per-tinence factor assuming any value of this interval in the set.”]

“[This methodology can also make the sustainability assessment process more democratic, in which decision rules can be drawn up and reflect the knowledge of specialists involved in the management of these areas such as local managers, community representatives, fi-eld technicians and others, making it possible to include new variables and parameters in addition to those used in this study, thus promoting realistic sustainability scenarios in these spaces.]”

 Comments 3: [it is desirable to describe in more detail the methodology for drawing up so called “rules” of the approach in question]

Response 3: [The development of the decision rule in the fuzzy logic method is a particularly important stage. It is based on the concept of linguistic variables in "IF and THEN" rules, which are analysed in parallel by a specialist algorithm. These rules will be easy to understand by specialists involved in the management of Extractive Reserves such as local managers, community representatives, field technicians and others, and express the knowledge of these specialists in modelling sustainability under uncertainty in Extractive Reserves] Thanks for the note. [the respective comment can be found in the manuscript at.... – page 6, 10 paragraph 23, 38, lines 224 – 227; 337 – 341, Figure 4].

“[who eight years later introduced fuzzy control, based on the concept of linguistic variables and IF–THEN rules, based on the formulation of human knowledge inference [52]. Logical reasoning or Fuzzy Inference follows three distinct and interconnected stages (Figure 2), which are Fuzzification, Inference and Defuzzification.]”

“[260 propositions were defined using "IF and THEN" rules (Figure 4). These rules were examined in parallel using an algorithm responsible for the computational treatment of sets of rules, which reflect the knowledge of the experts and the representation of a scenario capable of leading to the determination of the degree of sustainability in RESEX in the state of Amazonas.]”