Several countries have signed petition drawn up by Biosciences students
Photo: Ana Alice B. de Marques – Livro Vermelho
Biological Sciences students, from the School of Biosciences of PUCRS have been called into action by Professor Júlio César Bicca-Marques to reduce the number of wild animals’ roadkills in the south side of Porto Alegre, as a petition warning the population of the hazardous conditions of the road in the southernmost part of the city has been drawn up. Brown howlers, pampas foxes, skunks, wild cats, armadillos, to name a few, are among the animals that have been affected by the increasing number of roadkills in the area.
The petition aimed to collect 10,000 signatures. Almost three weeks after it was presented, in September, as many as 25,000 signatures had been collected. Today, there are more than 44,000 signatures in several parts of the world – USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan have been collected. The petition was part of the Campanha Cidadã (Civic Campaign), as a complementary activity in the course on Conservation Biology, and has resulted in a partnership between the Laboratory of Primatology and the Autonomous Department of Highways (DAER), which seeks to take concrete actions to reduce the number of roadkills.
The action developers handed DAER a list containing ten critical points including what should be done to the roads. The proponents have suggested the implementation of speed bumps, traffic signs and rope bridges, to be used by the animals to cross over the road.
In Bicca-Marques’s view, species preservation is of utmost importance for the maintenance of the ecosystem. The forests in the south side of Porto Alegre are naturally fragmented, especially because the urban space has taken over and because of intense road building. When animals try to get to the other side, they get run over, and this brings about a significant reduction in their population. “Brown howlers, for instance, are severely affected by roadkills. And they are the most important dispersers of seeds of many native species of trees in the region. If it were not for them, the forest and its species would be impoverished”, explains he. He is hoping the results from this action serve as a model for other programs, both from PUCRS and other institutions, to implement similar activities.
Civic Campaign
The project headed by Bicca-Marques consists of the creation of petitions that raise awareness of the population to the dramatic reality our biodiversity is being confronted with. The idea is to encourage the groups’ integration and active civic consciousness and raise awareness of the population. “Our students need this in order to become good citizens and take real actions. Then, they’ll conceive their own actions in the future”, says Bicca-Marques. The initial steps taken under the Civic Campaign, in the first semester of 2017, focused on the exceeding quantity of plastic used in shaving blades packages.
