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Study Calls for Wider Amazon Corridors

Posted on: Monday, 18 February 2008, 15:00 CST

British conservationists say Brazilian law requiring a 200-foot protected forest strip along rivers and streams needs to be revised.

University of East Anglia researchers in England said their study is the first wildlife study in remnant riparian tropical forest corridors.

Brazilian law requires all forest strips alongside rivers and streams on private land be maintained as permanent reserves and sets a minimum legal width of nearly 200 feet. But after investigating the effects of corridor width on the number of bird and mammal species, Alexander Lees and Carlos Peres said they determined a minimum critical width of approximately 1,300 feet is necessary.

There are proposals on the table to actually weaken the minimum legal requirements, when they need to be strengthened, said Peres. This is a huge wildlife conservation issue &133; with global implications &133;

Forest corridors act as strips of habitat connecting wildlife populations that are otherwise widely separated by hostile cattle pastures and permit an exchange of individuals between populations, the study said. That helps prevent inbreeding within populations and facilitates re-establishment of populations that might have already become locally extinct.

The study is to appear in the March 21 issue of the journal Conservation Biology.

Source: United Press International

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