Project: Priority areas for conservation and restoration of Amazonian forest-frugivorous fish interactions and associated fisheries

Acronym	ForestFisher (Reference Number: BiodivRestore-802)
Duration	01/04/2022 - 01/04/2025
Project Topic	Deforestation, climate change and dams are major drivers of ecosystem degradation in the Amazon and important threats to freshwater biodiversity. There is a gap in Amazon landscape planning for predicting the degree to which anthropogenic transformations of the landscape and climate are affecting biodiversity and related ecosystem services. Filling this gap is essential for decision-makers to prioritize the investment of limited resources for conservation and restoration in Amazonian riverine landscapes, as well as to develop more efficient conservation policies and practices. Frugivorous fishes play a fundamental role in animal-plant interaction and the maintenance of biological and functional diversity of Amazonian ecosystems because they help establishing riparian vegetation by spreading seeds along river channels and also play a fundamental socio-economic role for the traditional Amazonian human communities as key sources of food and income. The project goal is to identify suitable areas for conservation and restoration of Amazonian forest-frugivore fish interactions and related ecosystem services. We will integrate the climatically suitable areas for frugivore fish species, riparian vegetation, connectivity within the hydrographic network and the current location of fishing grounds to define conserved and future climatic refugia. The project will deliver as final products i) a quantitative assessment of the influence of landscape-structure change driven by deforestation on frugivorous fish diversity in areas subjected to different degrees of deforestation; ii) a novel land cover model to project future scenarios, filling a knowledge gap for the Amazon Basin; iii) a high-resolution map of the priority areas for conservation and restoration of Amazonian riparian forests to maintain frugivorous fish diversity and fish-forest interactions; iv) a participatory strategic protocol involving stakeholders for the conservation of identified refugia areas ensuring a minimum socioeconomic impact; v) the transfer of the results to inform and prepare local communities to face current and future hazards, which will subsidize mitigation planning, increase auto protection capacity and improve policies. The integration of multiple conservation targets will be achieved by combining new approaches to conservation planning tools designed for multi-purpose spatial prioritization. Prioritization tools will balance (sometimes conflicting) conservation needs in terms of habitat quality and connectivity for different species under distinct climate and land-use future scenarios, and local stakeholder expectations. That is why a focus on the Fish-Forest-Fishers relationship for participatory land-use planning is a novel approach integrating these diverse components of the socio-ecological landscape. In fine, this will enable spatial planning prioritization to protect and restore natural forests, while safeguarding fish dispersal, seed dispersal, and human livelihoods.
Network	BiodivRestore
Call	BiodivRestore Transnational Cofund Call 2020-2021

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	Institut de Recherche pour le Développement	Coordinator	France
2	AÇÃO ECOLÓGICA GUAPORÉ	Partner	Brazil
3	Instituto Politécnico de Bragança	Partner	Portugal
4	Technical University of Munich	Partner	Germany
5	Federal University of Amazonas	Partner	Brazil
6	Universidade Estadual de Mato Grosso do Sul	Partner	Brazil
7	Mississippi State University	Partner	United States
8	Federal University of Rondônia	Partner	Brazil
9	State University of Maringá	Partner	Brazil
10	Universidade Federal de Goiás	Partner	Brazil
11	Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovações	Partner	Brazil