Protected areas in Guatemala provide habitat for diverse tropical ecosystems, contain ancient archeological sites, sequester carbon, and support economic activity through eco‐tourism. However, many of the forests in these protected areas have been converted to other uses or degraded by human activity, and therefore are considered “paper parks”. In this study, we analyzed time series of satellite data to monitor deforestation, degradation, and natural disturbance throughout Guatemala from 2000 to 2017. A recently developed methodology, Continuous Degradation Detection (CODED), was used to detect forest disturbances of varying size and magnitude. Through sample‐based statistical inference, we estimated that 854 137 ha (± 83 133 ha) were deforested and 1 012 947 ha (±139 512 ha) of forest was disturbed but not converted during our study period. Forest disturbance in protected areas ranged from under 1% of a park's area to over 95%. Our estimate of the extent of deforestation is similar to previous studies, however, degradation and natural disturbance affect a larger area. These results suggest that the total amount of forest disturbance can be significantly underestimated if degradation and natural disturbance are not taken into account. As a consequence, we found that the protected areas of Guatemala are more affected by disturbance than previously realized.

中文翻译：

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危地马拉保护区的持续森林干扰。

危地马拉的保护区为各种热带生态系统提供了栖息地，拥有古老的考古遗址，固碳，并通过生态旅游支持经济活动。但是，这些保护区中的许多森林已被人类利用转化为其他用途或退化，因此被认为是“纸公园”。在这项研究中，我们分析了卫星数据的时间序列，以监测2000年至2017年整个危地马拉的森林砍伐，退化和自然干扰。最近开发的一种方法，连续退化检测（CODED），用于检测大小和大小各异的森林干扰。通过基于样本的统计推断，我们估计在我们的研究期间，有854137公顷（±83133公顷）的森林被砍伐，而1012947公顷（±139 512公顷）的森林受到干扰但未转化。保护区的森林干扰范围从公园面积的不足1％到95％以上。我们对森林砍伐程度的估计与以前的研究相似，但是退化和自然干扰会影响更大的面积。这些结果表明，如果不考虑退化和自然干扰，就可以大大低估森林干扰的总量。结果，我们发现危地马拉的保护区受到干扰的程度比以前意识到的要大。这些结果表明，如果不考虑退化和自然干扰，就可以大大低估森林干扰的总量。结果，我们发现危地马拉的保护区受到干扰的程度比以前意识到的要大。这些结果表明，如果不考虑退化和自然干扰，就可以大大低估森林干扰的总量。结果，我们发现危地马拉的保护区受到干扰的程度比以前意识到的要大。