Forest loss and fragmentation in the Amazon: implications for wildlife conservation

Amazonian forests are experiencing rapid, unprecedented changes that are ha ving major impacts on wildlife, regional hydrology and the global climate. Rates of deforestation and logging have accelerated in recent years and pat terns of forest loss are changing, with extensive new highways providing co nduits for settlers and loggers into the heart of the Amazon basin. These m yriad changes are causing widespread fragmentation of forests. Fragmented l andscapes in the Amazon experience diverse changes in forest dynamics, stru cture, composition and microclimate, and are highly vulnerable to droughts and fires-alterations that negatively affect a wide variety of animal speci es. Ln human-dominated lands intensive hunting may interact synergistically with fragmentation to further threaten wildlife populations.