extinction

Dr. Stuart Pimm, Founder and President of SavingSpecies, provides the following report on the progress for the golden lion tamarin restoration project after his December 2012 visit there: At the end of November, I was invited to attend and present at the 20th Anniversary of the Golden Lion Tamarin Association. It was a wonderful event, celebrating 20 years of a programme that rescued the tamarins from the very brink of extinction — a couple of hundred individuals — to the 1700 in the wild now. And, of course, SavingSpecies played a vital role on this with our raising money for a key land purchase — Fazenda Dourado. This was a hugely significant purchase. First of all, it connects the largest remaining block of lowland forest, Reserva União to forests elsewhere and uphill. Second, the management of the Reserva now wants to include all the connected forests into one huge protected area and are making plans to do so. This will create 72 square kilometres of protected forest — a huge area for this part of the Mata Atlântica, which is so badly fragmented. The new director of the Reserva was hugely excited as he told me this — and very grateful indeed for our purchase making it possible. Third, in a way I did not anticipate, our efforts have inspired and motivated our Brazilian colleagues to find ways to create other corridors. This was a very exciting meeting. What was even more exciting was the visit to the land itself. […]