How Restoring Forest Corridors Helps GLTs
Jennifer Mickelberg, a friend and colleague in GLT conservation who passed away in 2023, admires golden lion tamarins in a small privately-owned forest fragment in Brazil in 2015. Photo credit: AMLD
The Save the Golden Lion Tamarin (SGLT) organization and its Brazilian sister organization Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado (AMLD) are pleased to announce that the Grow Trees for GLTs campaign has raised enough funds — US$260,305 — to restore forest on the entire 21 hectares (52 acres) of Jennifer’s Corridor, a former cattle pasture between two fragments of remaining GLT habitat in the Atlantic Coastal Forest of Southeast Brazil.
Jennifer’s Corridor is named for Jennifer Mickelberg, our dear friend and colleague in GLT conservation who passed away unexpectedly in October 2023. When GLTs use this forest corridor in about seven years to safely cross between isolated forest islands to establish territories with unrelated mates, it will mark the achievement of a viable population of GLTs — our goal that Jennifer helped to develop.
The funds raised for Jennifer’s Corridor are being used to purchase, plant and care for 35,000 native tree seedlings until they can survive on their own, or in about three years. The goal is that when the trees become mature, this forested corridor will connect the GLT populations.
The 4,800 GLTs are divided into six forest fragments isolated by towns and cattle pastures. None of these forest fragments can support a GLT population large enough and with enough genetic diversity to be able adapt to future threats. SGLT and AMLD are working together with local and international partners to increase efforts to grow forest corridors to connect all 4,800 GLTs in one big population by 2035.
Forest fragmentation is one of the main threats to GLTs today because the small populations of these endangered monkeys isolated in these forest islands could succumb to inbreeding, disease and other threats such as climate change.
Jennifer’s Corridor and the Grow Trees for GLTs campaign are working to prevent that. Already, AMLD has prepared the soil for planting trees, repaired 560 meters of fencing to keep out cattle from adjoining properties, and planted over 7,000 seedlings since planting season began in October 2024. As an environmental education activity, AMLD has welcomed groups of volunteers and local school kids to plant trees in Jennifer’s Corridor.
Jennifer’s Corridor is located in the community of Gaviões in the municipality of Silva Jardim. Students from the Gaviões school are monitoring growth of Jennifer’s Corridor as a part of their school curriculum. They helped plant trees on GLT Day 2024.
Photo Credit: Luiz Thiago de Jesus/AMLD
The work that remains
The planting of the seedlings continues in Jennifer’s Corridor. Carlos Alvarenga, AMLD’s forest engineer who coordinates the restoration, says he hopes AMLD will be able to plant the remaining area before the end of the current rainy season. Planting is currently on pause as workers wait for tree seedlings being produced by partner nurseries.
“The good news is that the climate in the region of Jennifer’s Corridor is milder and wetter than in other regions where we work,” Alvarenga said. “Once we get the seedlings, we may be able to plant them in June and even July.”
The weather in January and February in the area has been uncharacteristically hot and dry and not ideal conditions for planting. However, rain is in the forecast.
The Grow Trees for GLTs campaign is ongoing and the next priority in this effort is to restore the entire 150 hectares (371 acres) of cattle pasture in the Fazenda Perdida area. The goal is to raise enough funds to allow the growing of about 12,000 trees in seven hectares (17 acres) in the next planting season that begins in October.
This map shows the remaining forest and GLT populations in the São João River Basin in the Atlantic Coastal Forest of Southeast Brazil. When the planted trees grow tall enough, Jennifer's Corridor will connect a population of 2,200 GLTs and the Forested Overpass over highway BR101 will connect a population of 2,400 GLTs. Restoration of the Fazenda Perdida area will reinforce the connection over the highway. Map credit - AMLD
Reforestation will help SGLT and AMLD meet their 10-year goal to have more than 4,000 GLTs living in one large, uninterrupted forested area of about 50,000 hectares (123,550 acres). Connecting isolated forest fragments benefits GLTs, as well as other forest inhabitants. Additionally, the new tree growth protects the regional watershed, which provides water to local communities, and mitigates climate change.
Jennifer Mickelberg was an SGLT board member and vice president of Collections and Conservation at Zoo Atlanta.
“Jennifer’s Celebration of Life at Zoo Atlanta was memorable indeed,” said James Dietz, vice president and founding director of SGLT. “I knew about the many things that she did so well for GLT conservation because we talked about those every day for two decades. What I didn’t know is that she had a vibrant life beyond GLT conservation. She taught exotic dancing, babysat, hiked, scuba dived, canoed and camped. She had a partner and a dog, and she was a mentor and dear friend to many. What an amazing person she was.”