Os atropelamentos de vertebrados silvestres no Brasil: como essa problemática de conservação é percebida pela sociedade

Abstract

It is a great challenge to reconcile economic and social development with environmental conservation issues, such as the running over of wild fauna on highways. Road Ecology is the branch of study that investigates the impacts of roads on the environment and aims to propose mitigation measures, with an emphasis on problems arising from running over wild fauna. In this thesis, Road Ecology was approached on three fronts: the bibliographical review of works involving records of running over of vertebrate fauna on highways in Brazil; the case study of the Estrada Parque (RJ-165) in the Serra da Bocaina National Park (RJ), involving the spatial record of accidents and the analysis of the perception of users of this highway in relation to the collision of fauna. The search on the web for publications on road ecology and roadkill resulted in 89 articles published between 1988 and 2018. A survey was carried out on the adopted methodology and on roadkill. The analysis indicates that there was a greater number of roadkills recorded on highways that passes through the Atlantic Forest, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Information was compiled on 27,459 road killed individuals, belonging to 40 Orders, 121 families and 650 species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the last one being the most affected (54%). Records on wild vertebrate fauna run over on the RJ-165 highway between 2013 and 2016 were extracted from reports prepared by a technical team that monitored, in accordance with the legal requirements set out in the Environmental Licensing documents, the run over fauna before and during the execution of the paving work. In the monitoring period, 314 specimens were found. Each run over specimen was georeferenced using the Siriema software. Along the highway, critical pedestrian collision points were identified, which differed among taxonomic groups. A species accumulation curve was generated and showed no stability. 111 semi-structured interviews were applied in Paraty (RJ) and Cunha (SP). Of those interviewed, 98% stated that there were benefits after paving the highway. The observation of run over fauna (41% of respondents) focused on opossums, snakes and dogs. As for the locomotor habit, run over land animals were more related to being more impacted than arboreal and flying animals. Half of the interviewees related the garbage on the highway with the run over fauna. The running overs are not intentional, but a consequence of drivers' recklessness, coupled with the lack of local mitigation efforts. This study showed that publications on road ecology are increasing, including when referring to specific taxa. The pedestrian collisions on the RJ-165 highway indicated the existence of critical points between the vertebrate classes, related to the landscape. Knowledge of the fauna of areas close to highways, the implementation of more effective mitigation measures in conjunction with the development of interdisciplinary activities with the local community, showing the importance of ecosystem services, may lead to a better understanding of the importance of conservation of the environment associated with social well-being