Use of CONEFOR software to create modelling of ecological corridors between two conservations units in Brazil

• Grant number: 25/07024-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Forestry Resources and Forestry Engineering - Nature Conservation
• Principal Investigator: Matheus Pinheiro Ferreira
• Grantee: Eduardo Oliveira Toledo
• Supervisor: Santiago Saura Martinez de Toda
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/16062-0 - Integrating Environmental Compensations and LPVN Deficits in the Modeling of Ecological Corridors Between Conservation Units, BP.IC

Abstract

The fragmentation of native vegetation due to human activities occurs when deforestation is carried out to make way for other land uses, such as agriculture or urbanization. This process leads to the formation of "islands" of habitats, where species in these areas are unable to move through regions that were once part of their habitat. This isolation of populations prevents gene flow and disrupts the ecological cycle of the local ecosystem. In landscape ecology studies, this issue can be quantified using metrics that analyze spatial patterns, connectivity, and habitat matrices within a heterogeneous landscape mosaic. Through such studies, it's possible to identify the most crucial points for fragment connectivity and the importance of creating ecological corridors to establish these links. Ecological restoration is crucial for recovering degraded areas and reestablishing connections between previously connected habitats. When this issue is considered in the context of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, it becomes a key element in combating the fragmentation of native vegetation, of which only 7.2% of the original cover remains, with the majority (about 80%) found in fragments smaller than 50 hectares. However, ecological restoration faces challenges due to high costs and low investment. Environmental compensation is a solution to make restoration viable in critical areas, using legal mechanisms to restore native vegetation. Geoprocessing and remote sensing techniques are used to diagnose restoration areas and map ecological corridors, forming a recovery plan for native vegetation focused on connectivity between forest fragments. This approach is essential to ensure the effectiveness of conservation strategies, particularly when the focus is on reconnecting large, disconnected habitat patches that were once linked. Conservation Units (CUs) play an essential role in preserving ecosystems and biodiversity, as many of them, as large habitat patches, can act as main nodes in a connectivity network, serving as starting points or destinations for ecological corridors. This facilitates species movement between different fragments, promoting gene flow and dispersal. Thus, proposing ecological corridors between CUs is vital for maintaining biodiversity and the resilience of native ecosystems. (AU)