Forty percent of primate species are endangered in Brazil, with fragmentation and road accidents among their main threats.
In a bid to protect the tree-dwelling mammals, conservationists are building low-cost canopy bridges over parts of Highway BR-174, a 2,000-mile federal road than cuts through the Amazon rainforest.
The work is being spearheaded by Brazil's Fernanda Abra, who has been presented with a Whitley Award – an honour that recognises and celebrates grassroots conservation leaders – for her contribution to the pioneering project.
What's the issue?
Brazil has the fourth-largest road network in the world. Last year, President Lula unveiled a spending programme worth 1 trillion reais (£156 billion) to boost infrastructure, with the development of new highways among the expected plans.
Fragmentation and road accidents are among the main threats to the nation's most endangered primates.
Reconecta Project
Recognising the issue, Abra, an associate researcher at Brazilian NGO Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas, and her team are constructing low-cost canopy bridges across one of Brazil's longest roads, Highway BR-174. The project has been named 'Reconecta Project'.
The bridges consist of steel cables, ropes and nylon nets and are anchored by concrete posts. Abra's team use two designs: a rope lattice and a single cable encased in braided rope attached to trees. The materials for each bridge cost about £1,500.
Following construction, each canopy bridge is monitored with two camera traps, recording the numbers of animals approaching, crossing or avoiding the bridges.
Since Abra and her team built 30 artificial canopy bridges to restore forest connectivity for wildlife in 2022, they have been used by eight arboreal species, with the golden-handed tamarin – an important cultural symbol for the Indigenous people – the most frequent user.
The researchers observed the bridges being used within just 30 days of installation with some species showing a preference for specific canopy bridge designs. In all, 500 crossing have been recorded over an 11-month period, a number that’s expected to rise as mammals get used to them.
The team plan to use the science-based initiative to address a scarcity of research surrounding wildlife bridges in the Amazon rainforest. This includes loss of connectivity in the canopy and road mortality caused by vehicle collisions.
Waimiri-Atroari support
Key to the success of Reconecta Project was the support of the Waimiri-Atroari Indigenous people. The 2.3 million-hectare territory – considered one of the best preserved in the Amazon – is bisected by the federal highway.
The Waimiri-Atroari people have been lobbying for artificial canopy bridges for decades after Highway BR-174 became a source of wildlife mortality following its construction in the 1970s.
As part of Reconecta Project, more than 150 Waimiri-Atroari people participated in the construction and installation of the canopy bridges along a 125 km section of the highway.
Abra also collaborated with Brazil’s federal transport and environment agencies – the National Transport Infrastructure Department (DNIT) and the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) – as well as with the Federal Amazonas University, or UFAM.
What's next?
Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) has presented Fernanda Abra with a Whitley Award for her work with Reconecta Project.
With the funding received from the award, Abra plans to continue to measure the success of the bridges in increasing habitat connectivity for tree-dwelling species and reducing road mortality on BR-174. The team plan to expand the project to Alta Floresta, a frontier town located in the state of Mato Grosso.
Eight primate species can be found in Alta Floresta, of which five are endangered specifically because of loss of natural habitat, fragmentation and road collisions: Groves’ titi, black-faced black spider monkey, Schneider’s marmoset, Spix’s red-handed howler monkey, and Purús red howler monkey.
Abra has identified five locations where canopy bridges are imperative for reconnection. She plans to train more than 200 people from the federal transport and environmental agencies that work with environmental licensing for roads in nine states in the Brazilian Amazon as part of her goal of establishing a culture of sustainable infrastructure.
Find out more about Fernanda Abra and the 2024 Whitley Awards.
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