Seed-dispersing animals 'at risk from deforestation'

Fruit-eating animals that disperse the seeds of rainforest plants are threatened by a number of factors, including deforestation, hunting, mining and road construction, according to an activist.

Speaking to mongabay.com, French tropical ecologist Pierre-Michel Forget commented that a decline in wildlife abundance and local extinction should be the main focuses for ecologists, rather than extinction on a global scale.

"Some natural parks and reserves now lack the large ungulates, primates and birds that disperse seeds," he said.

Mr Forget added: "If spider monkeys are protected in a remote forest of the Peruvian Amazon, it won’t help much those trees of French Guiana."

Instead, he said, conservation programmes that are region-specific are likely to be the best course of action to promote natural diversity.

A new EU green paper was recently released, detailing the challenges impacting forests in Europe.

This publication follows a white paper which was released last year and adopted by the European Commission in April 2009.

Written by Kimberley Homer

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