{"id":293723,"date":"2024-11-13T21:28:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T21:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/13\/amid-a-vanishing-savanna-new-corridor-a-big-win-for-wildlife\/"},"modified":"2024-11-13T21:28:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T21:28:29","slug":"amid-a-vanishing-savanna-new-corridor-a-big-win-for-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/13\/amid-a-vanishing-savanna-new-corridor-a-big-win-for-wildlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid a vanishing savanna, new corridor a \u2018big win\u2019 for wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Brazil is home to a vast, but overlooked, tropical savanna called the Cerrado.<\/p>\n

This sprawling patchwork of open grassland and scattered woodlands covers almost a quarter of the country \u2014 an area about the size of Greenland \u2014 providing habitat<\/a> for 1,200 mammals, birds and reptiles and 6,000 plant species. Among its remarkable wildlife are giant anteaters, maned wolves, armadillos and brilliantly colored macaws.<\/p>\n

But today, more than half of the original Cerrado<\/a> has been cleared for cattle ranching and soy farming, making it one of the fastest disappearing ecosystems on Earth. And only a fraction of the remaining Cerrado is fully protected
\n by the Brazilian government \u2014 around 3 percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In one corner of southwestern Brazil, a project designed by a sustainable timber operator, BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (TIG)<\/a>, and supported by Conservation
\n International, is breathing new life into the savanna.<\/p>\n

What was once a vast stretch of degraded pastureland just a year ago is being rapidly transformed into tree farms and 2,500 hectares (6,000 acres) of newly restored natural forest. While the project\u2019s primary purpose is to store climate-warming
\n carbon, it is also designed to protect biodiversity.<\/p>\n

As the natural woodland has returned, so has the wildlife.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\u00a9 BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group (TIG)<\/span><\/p>\n

A giant anteater strolls along the forest edge.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal was always to have the restoration area follow the watershed,\u201d said Mark Wishnie, chief sustainability officer at TIG. \u201cWe envisioned it as a wildlife corridor connecting existing patches of protected Cerrado forest.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even Wishnie, who had high hopes for the corridor, was astonished by the wide array of species returning to the property in droves. Through careful monitoring and camera traps, TIG has documented a total of 319 animal species and 65 plant species
\n on the property \u2014 17 of those species are listed as endangered, threatened or near-threatened by the IUCN Red List<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first started this partnership, many of the species we\u2019re seeing lived in a small patch of remaining forest on the property,\u201d said Miguel Calmon, a scientist at Conservation International. \u201cNow they\u2019re starting
\n to move into the restored areas, too. That\u2019s a big win.\u201d<\/p>\n

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