This study describes the 35-year progression of activities in the Pontal do Paranapanema region of São Paulo State, Brazil. These activities began as a research project on the conservation ecology of the highly endangered Black Lion Tamarin and broadened into a landscape-scale restoration and conservation project involving the active participation of hundreds of landless families that colonized the region. Rather than viewing these colonists as a threat, a non-governmental organization arose to address their needs, providing training and support livelihoods. Local communities were engaged in conservation and restoration activities focused on studying the movement patterns of endangered species, environmental education programmes, planting native trees along riparian corridors, establishing coffee agroforestry plantings and initiating community-managed nurseries for the production of local native seedlings and non-native fruit trees. Farmers gained knowledge, income and food security, and developed a sense of ownership and shared responsibility for protecting wildlife, conserving forest fragments and restoring forests. Land sharing and restoring forest functions within an agricultural landscape matrix created new opportunities for people and endangered wildlife. We explore how key factors and partnerships critically influenced the landscape trajectory and conclude with lessons learned that may be relevant to sustainable landscape initiatives in other contexts.
The articles in this book are based on a symposium held at the Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology of the University of Pittsburgh in May, 1981. The symposium was designed to review past and current mammal research in South America, and to identify areas of future interest. In addition, the meeting was to provide researchers from North and South America with an opportunity to meet and exchange information. Unfortunately, owing to a lack of funds, most of the mammalogists from South America who had planned to come were unable to attend (only 5 of the 25 contributors are from South America). However, despite the absence of many South American researchers, the quality of the symposium was such that the proceedings are a useful addition to any zoologist's library.For the purposes of this review I have divided the book into five sections that cover different aspects of mammal research in South America: the status of biological research, the history and biogeography of South American mammals, behavior and physiology, conservation strategies, and specific mammalian groups.The two initial chapters, one written by Pine and the other by Mares, are complementary. The article by Pine analyzes the current state of knowledge about recent nonmarine South American mammals, order by order, concluding that much more work needs to be done. Mares examines the amount of biological research that has been conducted in South America, and compares it to what has been done in North America. This is one of the best articles in the book and makes an important recommendation for increased cooperation between research institutions in Europe, North America, and South America. Institutional cooperation would, in a short time, greatly increase our knowledge of South American mammals. Excellent programs, like the one at the University of Florida, have already had a beneficial effect on the training of South American mammalogists.The second group of papers covers the history and biogeography of South American mammals. The one by Webb and Marshall outlines the history of land mammals in South America during the late Cenozoic, placing the three faunal strata of G.G. Simpson in a current chronostratigraphic framework. Such an analysis allows
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