She is 36 years old, lives in Brazil and she is currently working on her post-doc. Fernanda Abra is the absolute expert when talking about road mortality and how to mitigate it to promote wildlife conservation and today she tells us all about it. What is she working on right now? How did she get to this point in her career? And how could we implement the knowledge from her research anywhere else?

 

Can you tell us something about your research background?

I started to become interested in road ecology in 2010, when doing an internship. Even though I had a broad interest in different topics – such as fungi and tropical forests – road ecology attracted me the most. I instantly knew I wanted to find out more about this field of conservation. In 2011 I first started my research on how to mitigate the impact of roads on wildlife. That was during my masters. It took me until my PhD before I found out approximately 39.000 wild mammals were killed on roads, per year, only in São Paulo state, Brazil. It was and still is a shocking fact for me. In my PhD I therefore focused on road mortality in combination with the effects on human safety and economic effects. Now, I’m working as a Postdoc in the Amazon, where I do research as well as implement the knowledge I gathered in previous research I did.

 

What are you doing in your postdoc?

The biggest project I’m currently working on is my project in the Amazon, which is called Reconecta. Here I work with indigenous community Waimiri-Atroari on decreasing roadkills on a specific Federal highway, BR-174, that run through their forest and their homelands. It’s evident that our human made highways have a very large impact on wildlife and indigenous people. It’s not just the loss of many individuals, but also the negative effect on the tropical ecology that highlights the importance of what we are trying to do.

The project is still in the beginning phase. It will be separated into three phases in the coming years. In phase 1 we will monitor road mortality in the area. By doing this, we will find out exactly what the threats are for wildlife and how they behave naturally. With this knowledge, we can better adapt our approach for phase 2, where we will install 30 canopy bridges. During this phase, the local community helps us with weaving the materials and connecting the canopies above the roads. We will use two different designs, so we can test which ones work the best. At almost the same time phase 3 starts, because now we need to monitor these canopy bridges. Which animals use them, how frequently, when, etc. This needs to happen for at least 2 years for good results.

 

How are the indigenous people involved in your project?

They are incredibly important for our research. Without them, we would never be able to start this project. First of all, they are the ones that have been asking for methods and solutions to mitigate roadkill in the first place. The animals that live alongside them, have a special meaning in their life. Some of them are sacred, such as specific types of monkeys. Seeing these animals and species die through roadkill, is heartbreaking for them.

The past years, even before we connected with them, they started connecting canopies together for wildlife to use. For many locations this has turned out to be successful. However, some canopies are simply too far away from each other to connect naturally. That is exactly why we are now building artificial canopy bridges to create these connections between areas.

During phase 2 and 3 of our project, we need to work with the indigenous people very closely. We need to learn from them how to weave the materials, to build the canopy bridges the right way. After that, we need to train them how to collect the data from the camera traps. Downloading the data, looking at the videos and defining which animals can be seen is crucial in this part of the research. As locals, they have a ton of knowledge on the species that live there. Even Fernanda, who is Brazilian herself, has never seen many of these species in real life. Indigenous people therefore play a vital role in this project.

 

Are you working alone or with a team?

I never truly work alone, as you need other people to support you both with knowledge as well as with finances to run a project. In the company ViaFauna, which I run with my fellow colleague Paula, we work on several projects across Brazil. This is the place where we implement our knowledge that we gained from our research. As she and I are both working on our postdocs at the same time, it’s always a mixture of projects coming together and a mixture of people that you’re working with.

For example, in my Amazonian research and project, I am working with two students and a Professor from Federal University of Amazonas. They help me conduct the research, to communicate with the indigenous people and to gather the right data. Alongside that, I’m a postdoc fellow fromthe Center of Conservation and Sustainability, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute from the US and I’m contacting many national and international funds for financial support. Running such a project is often way more complex than simply conducting the research itself.

 

How do you share your knowledge with other conservationists?

Future for Nature is a Dutch competition in which conservationists can win a sum of money to develop their research and conservation projects. As I won this competition in 2019, I am now part of the Future for Nature Family. This ‘Family’ is one of their latest projects, in which they connect previous winners with each other, to share knowledge and skills. I’m now connected with Els and José, who work in Suriname and Colombia. This year I will visit them, and they will visit me in the Amazon, to further implement canopy bridges in their countries. It’s a great start to make this happen. In the future I hope to also implement it in other countries, specially tropical areas with high arboreal species diversity. Even though nobody is working on these problems there yet, I’m sure it would be great to further extend our research and project to these countries.

 

What roadblocks do you encounter in your research?

There are plenty, way too many to tell actually. People always think that conducting the research itself is causing the greatest roadblocks, but in the end, it is always way more than that. For example: we need many many funds to build the canopy bridges here in the Amazon forest and to pay all the people working on the project. Even though we are currently funded by 7 different parties – including the Future for Nature Award – we are still trying to gather more funds.

This also comes back when we look at similar research projects in Europe and Northern America. Here, they also work on canopy bridges and similar problems. However, the funds are way bigger and the materials used way more expensive. Living in Brazil we therefore have to be innovative and creative in how to set up a new project. Especially here in the Amazon, where all the materials are far away and more expensive. The logistics is insane!

We always say: “Every month we have a different problem to solve.” Yet somehow it always works out again.

Living in Brazil – or at least in South America – is therefore sometimes a roadblock while researching and helping wildlife. However, to me it’s all worth it to put in the time, money and effort.

 

What advice would you have for future ecologists/ conservationists?

Try many different things before you choose a career path. By experimenting with different topics, locations and research fields, you will find out what you really love doing. There will be one thing that you are willing to spend your life on doing. As a conservationist you have to be ready to give your full 100% at any time of the day, so only if you’re completely committed to your project or research, you will be able to make it.