Functional planning units for the management of an endangered Brazilian titi monkey

Abstract

Conservation practices in the tropics often rely on the data available for a few, better-known species and the adoption of an appropriate spatial scale. By defining a set of landscape units that account for critical aspects of the focal species, the information available on these conservation targets can support regional conservation policies. Here, we define and classify adjacent landscapes, termed planning units, to orientate management decisions within and among these landscapes, which are occupied by an endangered flagship primate species (Coimbra-Filho's titi monkey, Callicebus coimbrai) from eastern Brazil. We use landscape boundaries (highways and river systems), and a high-resolution map of forest remnants to identify continuous and manageable landscapes. We employed functional landscape metrics based on the species' dispersal ability and home range size to characterize and classify these landscapes. We classified planning units by scoring them according to a suite of selected metrics through a Principal Component Analysis. We propose 31 planning units, containing one to six C. coimbrai populations, most with low values of habitat availability, functional connectivity and carrying capacity, and a high degree of degradation. Due to this poor landscape configuration, basic management practices are recommendable. However, additional aspects of the landscapes and the populations they contain (e.g., matrix type and genetic variability) should improve the scheme, which will require a closer integration of research aims with socio-political strategies. Even so, our scheme should prove useful for the combination of information on conservation targets (i.e., focal species) with management strategies on an administrative scale.

Primates facing climate crisis in a tropical forest hotspot will lose climatic suitable geographical range

“…Additional measures to benefit population maintenance and dispersal are political and economic subsidies to more friendly agroecosystems 69 , monitoring infrastructure projects, and implementing measures to facilitate individual displacement (such as canopy bridges 70 ). Species with a drastic reduction in their distributions may be supported with specific conservation decisions, such as forest restoration and animal translocation, called Reactive Approaches 71 . The same authors also indicate Proactive Approaches, such as establishing protected areas.…”

Primates in peril: the significance of Brazil, Madagascar, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for global primate conservation

“…Regrettably, the distribution of protected areas in each of the four countries is extremely patchy, and in many cases subpopulations of the same species are isolated from each other and inhabit areas that are experiencing considerable deforestation and fragmentation as they are increasingly impacted by agricultural expansion, logging, and illegal hunting as well as an ever-growing urban footprint ( Figs. 3 and 9 ) ( Gouveia et al, 2017 ; Mascia et al, 2014 ; Rovero et al, 2015 ; Spracklen et al, 2015 ; Waeber et al, 2016 ). Due to illegal activity in the Brazilian Amazon, natural resource reduction is pervasive.…”