The Wildlife Corridors Programme

WeForest and its partner IPE are supporting the restoration of forest corridors in the Atlantic Forest, in Pontal. The areas are critical for the survival of the black lion tamarin, as forest corridors will increase their habitat and improve landscape connectivity. Protecting and restoring the Atlantic Forest would mean conserving this species last remaining habitat and securing its long-term survival.

Around 800 of the remaining black lion tamarins live in the Morro Do Diabo State Park. In April 2017, a new group of black lion tamarins was captured in the North of the Morro do Diabo State Park. This is the second group that will be monitored through GPS tracking devices. The black lion tamarins get a collar with GPS tracking function, and the data gathered from these collars will be integrated in a study on the use of space, movement patterns, habitat preference and energy expenditure by the black lion tamarins in different fragments. The GPS technology is widely used for larger species, but it is the first time we are using this on small primates (<1kg). The first wild group with a GPS collar is being monitored since July 2016 and we will soon retrieve the data for the first results. With this technology, we can monitor a greater number of groups simultaneously, and increase the amount of information gathered from the field. "Our plan is to expand our monitoring work to even more populations and get a great amount of useful information to support the species conservation planning", explains the project coordinator Gabriela Rezende. The information gathered from wildlife movement allows us to further expand the forest restoration project and smartly decide where the next corridors will be located to enlarge the habitat of endangered species. A new area that we are discovering is a corridor in the North of the Morro do Diabo State Park, where isolated populations of the Black lion tamarins are still present.

It is the perfect timing to start working here and reduce the extinction risk of these tiny black lion tamarin populations!

While winter storms are blazing in the planet's northern hemisphere, it is summertime in Pontal do Paranapanema, Brazil. Summertime equals rainy season, which is good news for the newly planted seedlings. For the planting teams in the field the heavy showers bring challenges. Luckily, rain showers generally don't last that long in the Pontal.

While the rains may cause difficulties for the field teams, at the tree nurseries it spells good news. It is an extremely busy time for the nursery workers, who are making the most of the rains to grow seedlings like pau-viola, jatobá, copaíba and jacaranda. These species are indigenous for the Atlantic Forest and thrive under the hot and humid conditions. By the time the nursery workers are done, they'll have planted more than four thousand seedlings of each species ready for planting in the field in a matter of months.

The results of all the hard work are worth every effort. Our team in Brazil has just been back from a visit to recently restored sites. During the visit they checked on the survival of the seedlings and took aerial drone photographs so that in the future we can compare restored forest with the original. "The planting was done at the right time, taking advantage of the rainy season. The seedlings enjoy the advantage of this natural irrigation and develop very well", explains Nivaldo Campos, coordinator of the agroforestry nurseries in Pontal.

We are very excited to see that the seedlings look healthy and growing well. We look forward to watching them flourish into a dense, biodiverse forest.