Costa Rica Virtual Corridor Project: Forest Connectivity

Professor Felipe Montoya has presented York University’s Las Nubes ecological corridor forest fragmentation as an problem that must be solved. Roads have fragmented the ecological corridor, with a potential for hydrodams also being installed for production of electricity. Professor Montoya would like to prevent fragmentation by determining which parcels of land are most important for its uninterrupted connectivity. Sufficient connectivity would prevent habitat fragmentation, which is deadly for the ecosystem. Such connectivity could be analyzed by using GIS software. Previous studies have already proven that GIS could be efficient on providing information of land use and land cover (Weng, 2002), as such, we will use GIS to study forest connectivity. Our group will set out to analyze and quantify which parts of the Las Nubes ecological corridor is most important to the connectivity of the forest. Our group hopes to present data, which can be used to further enhance connectivity of the forest to promote the health of the ecosystem.