Brazil's jungle blackboard: A test for conservation deep in Amazonas

This report discusses an Amazonian conservation project called the Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems project, which is the brainchild of Tom Lovejoy. This project examines an island biogeography ? the fragmentation of ecosystems into patches that resemble islands that are insulated from the original ecosystem. This project seeks the answers to such questions as "What is the numerical relationship between insularization and doom?" "How big must a rain forest be to remain a rain forest?" "If one hectare of this ecosystem is too small to sustain itself, if ten hectares is also too small, then how much is enough?" and "What is the minimum critical size of a piece of Amazon jungle?"