GreenCorridor Optimization Framework for Designing Wildlife Movement Pathways in Fragmented Habitats

Abstract

Habitat fragmentation still creates barriers for the natural movement of wildlife, leaving the animals isolated on their own patches of habitat and minimizing chances for foraging, dispersal, and mating. Wildlife corridors seem like a biologically informed way to combat these issues; however, there is a prevalence of current designs, which focus on spatial considerations rather than on the needs of the target species in terms of movement ecology. This paper outlines the Green Corridor Optimization Framework (GCOF), which represents an animal behaviour-informed approach to designing the corridors for the movement of wildlife across the fragmented landscapes. This framework considers the species' habitat preferences, tolerance to gap crossing, sensitivity to edges and activity patterns in selecting corridor location and width. This framework was applied to a mixed forest-agriculture fragmented landscape in order to examine its effectiveness for four target species, belonging to different movement guilds. It was found that behaviourally informed approach to corridor design significantly increases the success of animal movement when compared to standard geometric designs, especially for the most fragmentation sensitive species.