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Commentary

Nature 448, 409-410 (26 July 2007) | doi:10.1038/448409a; Published online 25 July 2007

Driving a wedge into the Amazon

William F. Laurance1 & Regina C. C. Luizão2

  1. William F. Laurance is at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama.
  2. Regina C. C. Luizão is in the Department of Ecology, National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), C.P. 478, Manaus, Amazonas 69011-970, Brazil.
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Things are heating up in the Amazon as the burning season begins. In Brazil, a 30-year-old study of forest fragments is itself threatened by farming, logging and hunting, say William Laurance and Regina Luizão.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are a pervasive threat to Earth's biodiversity. For those who study such things, the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) in central Amazonia has, since 1979, been a scientific Mecca.

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