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Tropical wildlife impacted by highways report scientists Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology July 23, 2005 Below is a sampling of some of the highway-related papers submitted for the conference. All descriptions are excepts from the official "Book of Abstracts" from the meeting. More abstracts. SOUZA, ANA PAULA SANTOS. Fundacao Viver, Produzir, Preservar, Altamira, Para, Brazil. The Transamazon Highway is an incomplete colonization project, abandoned by the military government. A development and conservation plan began in mid-1980s as the reaction of organized civil society to this abandonment. The regional social movement that is leading this plan is comprised of smallholders, folk populations, rural and urban worker unions, researchers, religious organizations, associations, and cooperatives; it also engages government. The goal is to join forces for the strengthening of the smallholder culture in the region. The plan involves proposals for infra-structure investments and for land tenure security - a key issue for protecting family farms against disappropriation and land conflict. Natural resource utilization planning goes beyond extrac-XIX Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology ABSTRACTS tivism to propose the integrated management of farm resources, including the needs of future generations. It is integrated with similar regional development processes, such as those along the BR- 163 highway and in the Xingu headwaters, and was constructed through local and regional seminars, workshops, research, and political activism. It has prioritized the dissemination of information and the training of rural youth. The plan has yielded several agreements with governments, the creation of new protected areas, and the strengthening of social movements in the formulation of public policies THE ROAD TO THE PACIFIC: THE MADRE DE- DIOS, ACRE, PANDO (MAP) REGIONAL PLANNING PROCESS. MENDOZA, ELSA R. H; Brown, Foster; Nepstad, Daniel; Muñante, Armando; Nacarato, Paola. Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia, Av. Nazaré 669 Nazare, 66035- 170 Belém - PA, Brasil, elsa_mendoza((AT))uol.com.br (ERHM, DCN). Setor de uso da Terra e Mudanças Globais, Parque Zoobotanico, Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, AC, 69.915 Brazil (ERHM, FB), Woods Hole Research Center P. G. Bo Woods Hole, MA-USA (FIB, DCN), SENASA, Av. Tres de octubro 324 Puerto Maldonado, MD, Peru (AM). Ministerio de Transportes, Av. 28 de Julio No 800 Lima 1, Peru.(PN). The rapid and recent paving of highways in the Madre de Dios, Peru - Acre, Brazil - Pando, Bolivia or MAP Region (300,000 km2 and 700,000 population) has resulted in accelerating land use change in one of the most biologically and culturally diverse areas of the planet. The MAP Initiative began as a means to find solutions to adverse impacts associated with rapid infrastructure expansion and to maximize the benefits for regional society of such investments. Research with local communities is a key step in this initiative. We visited 13 municipalities (6 Brazilian, 7 Peruvian; >350 persons) along the highway in eastern Acre and eastern Madre de Dios to learn the perceptions and expectations of local societies to contribute to regional planning. Results include: 1) Helping five Brazilian municipalities organize geographic inf ormation of citizens' aspirations for a regional development plan; 2) Atlas of perceptions of land use in 13 municipalities now available; 3) Generation of secondary road maps, using motorcycles and GPS; 4) Discovering significant municipal boundary discrepancies between official sources; 5) Incorporation of the methods used into the second phase of Acre State Zoning; 6) Effective collaboration between a Brazilian NGO and Peruvian government agencies CRIPTIC EFFECT OF THE ROADS IN THE AMAZON: QUANTIFICATION OF THE FAUNA MORTALITY FOR RUNNING OVER IN THE HIGHWAY BR174. GORDO, MARCELO; Venticinque, Eduardo M. Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, AM, 69077 Brazil, mgordo((AT))ufam.edu.br (MG). Wildlife Conservation Society - Andes Amazon Conservation Program, Rua dos Jatobá Manaus, AM, 69085-380, Brazil, (EMV). The roads have an important role in the mortality of animals in the Brazilian Amazon. Due to a population and economical growth of the region, the tendency is that the roads will increase the mortality of the wild fauna in the future. In this work we analyzed the number of running over along of 120 km in BR 174 in the states of Amazon and Roraima inside of the Indigenous Land Waimiri-Atroari between 1997-2003. The data collection of dead animals was accomplished daily in the highway by the fiscalization team of the Projeto Waimiri Atroari. The total of 2460 running over was registered along this period. The group with larger number of running over was the snakes (N=739), Marsupialia (N=661), Saguinus midas (N=354), birds (N=253), Agouti paca (N=120), Dasyprocta agoutti (N=92), alligators (N=69), Eira barbara (N=29) and Tamadua tetradactyla (N=28), totalizing 95,1% of the running overs. There were running overs of some species of low density and with medium and big size as Felis pardalis (N=10), Panthera onca (N=6), Puma concolor (N=2), Tapirus terrestris (N=1), Harpia harpyja (N=1), and others. Those numbers take into account a low flow of vehicles and the night closing of the highway by indigenous THE CUIABÁ-SANTARÉM HIGHWAY REGIONAL PLANNING PROCESS. ALENCAR, ANE; Pena, Socorro; Costa, Rosana; Nepstad, Daniel; Mcgrath, David. Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia - IPAM. Avenida Nazaré 669, Belem, PA 66035-170, Brazil (AA, SP, RC, DN, DM)Woods Hole Research Center - WHRC. 149Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, MA, 02540 USA (DN, DM). The pavement of Cuiabá-Santarém represents an opportunity for soybean producers and Manaus industrial enterprises to decrease their transport costs to the international and national markets. However, the asphalt announcement is already bringing profound implications for the region's land-cover, biogeochemistry, and for its people. The chances to diminish the impacts of this infrastructure investment lay on the development of a regional participatory planning process and a comprehensive zoning tool. We present an approach to regional planning for BR-163 Highway which includes systematic local and regional meetings and sectors demand's mapping in addition to the development of a zoning tool based upon the spatial distribution of agricultural and forestry aptitudes along the highway. In this zoning approach, spatial variables were used to indicate the potential areas for cattle ranching, soybean production, small holder agriculture and logging activities along this road. The variables were selected according to local stakeholder's indication of the most important needs for each activity. Potential areas for each activity were overlapped to derive a map where the potential areas of conflicts for negotiation were pointed out. This technique may be powerful for regional planning processes because it incorporates the real demands of the economic actors and shows the future conflicts of interest. WILDLIFE ROAD MORTALITY IN TRIÂNGULO MINEIRO, SOUTHEASTERN BRAZIL. BUENO, ADRIANA A.; Belentani, Sonia C. S.; Ribeiro, Milton C. Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil, 05508-900, abueno((AT))ib.usp.br (AAB). Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, 05508-900, Brazil (SCSB, MCR). Few empirical studies on wildlife road mortality impact were developed in Brazil. So, the aims of this study were to describe the wildlife species susceptible to road-kills and to assess the in- fluence of different landscape attributes on wildlife road mortality. Surveys were conducted along two major roads, located in Triângulo Mineiro, west Minas Gerais State. Quantitative survey involved driving along the road and recording dead animals from March to December 2004. The landscape analysis was conducted using only mammal data from Prata municipality (19°18'S; 48°55'W). A total of 82 carcasses were recorded, mammals accounted for 81.71%, birds 12.20% and reptiles 6.10%. In relation to landscape attributes, two zones were distinguishable: one with more road-kills and higher proportion of forest physiognomies (cerrado 6.0%, gallery forest 12.5% and pine plantation 14.7%) and other with lower number of road-kills (cultivation 28.7% and pasture 57%). The data suggest that areas with higher proportion of forest and lower human disturbance may harbour more biodiversity. However, the maintenance of such areas with no management may not be enough for the persistence of these species. Surely, the employment of signs and driver education are useful to reduce the losses in these priority road zones VERTEBRATE ROAD-KILLS IN TWO HIGHWAYS CROSSING THE MATA ATLANTICA BIOSPHERE RESERVE IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL. COELHO, IGOR P.; Kindel, Andreas; Coelho, Artur V. P. PPG-Ecologia UFRGS, Porto Alegre, RS, 91501-170, Brazil, ipfeifercoelho((AT))yahoo.com (IPC); Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, 91501-170, Brazil (AK); Laboratório de Microeletrônica, Instituto de Física, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, RS, 91501-170, Brazil (AVPC). Animal mortality due to vehicle collisions is one of the main impacts posed by road networks to ecosystems and only recently this impact is receiving more attention. In this work, we describe the composition, spatial and temporal patterns of vertebrate (except amphibians) road kills at the two largest highways (BR-101 and RS-389) crossing the northern coastal plain of Rio Grande do Sul. Between jan/2003 and jan/2004, once a month, a section of 90 km in each of those highways was monitored. Modified K and STAC statistics were used to evaluate spatial clustering of the events. A total of 877 vertebrates was registered (3,4 ind/10km), without significant variation of mortality between seasons. Vertebrate mortality was non-randomly distributed and presented greater aggregation intensity in scales of 10 km (BR-101) and 20 km (RS- 389). The hotspots of road-kills in each highway had been located. These information, associated with analyses involving the species composition, will be used for recommending the establishment of wildlife passages and/or speed reducers. Relating these data with information about vehicle traffic, highways trace and adjacent landscape composition and structure will be important for supporting future regional road planning policies THE IMPACT OF TRAFFIC FATALITIES ON LAVA LIZARD POPULATIONS (Microlophus albemarlensis) IN SANTA CRUZ, GALÁPAGOS. TANNER, DAWN; Perry, James A. Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Minnesota, 200 Hodson Hall, 1980 Folwell Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108-6124, USA, tann0042((AT))umn.edu. Vehicle collisions with wildlife impact species everywhere roads divide and transect natural habitats. This study addresses the impact of traffic fatalities on lava lizards, Microlophus albemarlensis, on the island of Santa Cruz, Galápagos. The main road bisecting the island north to south was a new addition to the island, begun in 1974 but not completed with asphalt until 2000. We assessed impacts occurring due to an increase in traffic and speed of travel on the island. Using Poisson Regression to analyze transect data at incremental positions from the road, we found a 30% increase in lizard abundance per 100 meters distant from the road, with significant results also between natural vegetation zones with little human impact and highly impacted areas with invasive species. By traveling the length of the 40-kilometer road, we were able to identify hot spots for fatalities, which will be used to target areas for future management efforts. We used incidence of tail loss to quantify additional energetic costs. The results of this were striking: 29% on the road, 10% adjacent to the road, with numbers quickly reduced, arriving at 1% at 400 meters distant. These results will be used to direct and focus future management efforts Society for Conservation Biology - Brasilia 2005 News index | RSS | News Feed Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing |
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