Tropical mammals living in protected areas still face the effects of deforestation, largely caused by agriculture and logging. That’s the conclusion of researchers from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Rice University, and Wageningen University and Research. For example, we are talking about gorillas and jaguars.
“Living in protected areas does not automatically protect tropical mammals from the effects of human activity,” said Asuncion Semper-Pascual, NMBU researcher and lead author of the study. Guard. “We have evidence that animals are affected by what happens both inside and outside protected areas,” the researcher added.
The results of one of the largest long-term, standardized camera trap studies to date were used for the scientific study. Millions of footage were analyzed. Scientists have determined how human activity has affected 159 mammal species in 16 protected areas in the tropics on three continents. Capture cameras at 1,000 sites collected images in the rainforest for 10 years.
Cameras have been placed in protected areas, including Africa’s rugged Bwindi National Park, South America’s Yasuni National Park, and Southeast Asia’s Pasoh Forest Reserve.
Researchers have discovered that some animals are particularly hard hit by habitat fragmentation caused by deforestation. Specialized species using only certain habitats live deep in the middle of the reserve.
Generalist species thrive in more diverse habitats where they have different types of food and shelter. “The habitat is more diverse at the edge of the protected area,” Semper-Pascual explained.
The edge of the habitat changes from dense rainforest to open farmland, and this can produce a more diverse habitat than deep in the forest. The downside is that animals that are close to the edge of their habitat, to humans, are more vulnerable to predation.
“We found that when population density in these areas is high, these species no longer benefit from being close to the border, probably because they were hunted,” said scientist Semper-Pascual.
Currently, world leaders are trying to preserve much of the world’s landscape for wildlife. In December 2022, the UN Conference on Biodiversity agreed to create 30% of the Earth’s land and ocean protected areas by 2030. By mid-2021, 16.64% of the world’s land mass and 7.74% of its oceans are in protected areas.
Earlier, it was reported that the planet lost tropical forests year-round with an area of European country.