Corredores ecológicos em centros urbanos como estratégia para incremento e conservação da biodiversidade

Abstract

In the urbanization of large cities occurs green areas fragmentation and isolation after the habitat destruction. Only a few patches of native vegetation remains, more or less isolated from each other. In such case, the connectivity among habitat patches could be re-establish or improved by ecological corridors, in order to minimize the isolation and improving the organisms dispersing among patches. In the cities, habitat patches are isolated by the urban matrix and many researches analyzes the obstacle caused by this matrix for the biodiversity conservation, promoting the creation of ecological corridors. The objective of this work is to study and propose the construction of ecological corridors in the city of Fortaleza on Ceará, which should be the basis for many other cities. The methods consist in define the study area, analyze the city green patches with geoprocessing tools, delineate ecological corridors, consult literature about the selected green patches and list the main problems and possible solutions related to the construction of these corridors. Finally, it was proposed two ecological corridors for Fortaleza: (1) Stepping Stones corridor, and. (2) corridor with nodes, enabling connectivity among isolated patches. To increase the chances of success, the lagoons on corridor (1) should have a sewage and solid waste pollution reduction, an exotic species removal in the APP’s areas, the elaboration of an environmental education projects for local communities and the corridor legalization. For the corridor (2) it is important the creation of interconnected treetops on the sidewalks. The ecological corridors construction is a strategy to increase the biodiversity in urban cities. It should be a future approach for Fortaleza and other urban areas where is relevant to reduce the effects of on native flora and fauna populations isolation.