The importance of restoration areas to conserve bird species in a highly fragmented Atlantic forest landscape

Abstract

In this study, we tested the potential of restored areas to maintain biodiversity in the scope of a recently proposed category of protected area called “Restoration Reserves”. To accomplish this, we compared bird richness and functional group structure of two small forest fragments (<250ha) with adjacent recently reforested areas (9 and 7 years of reforestation). Reforested areas had equal or higher bird richness and similar functional group structure. These results indicate that reforested areas are capable of maintaining current levels of biodiversity and reducing species extinction debt in small forest fragments, which is the main purpose of “Restoration Reserves”. However, when we compared a large forest fragment with an old adjacent reforested area (20 years of reforestation), we found that it was of limited value for certain functional groups. Therefore, “Restoration Reserves” could provide essential additional habitat in highly fragmented landscapes that consists mainly of small forest fragments.