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WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Golden lion tamarins (GLTs) are tiny endangered monkeys found only in the Atlantic Coastal Forest of Southeast Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. At Save the Golden Lion Tamarin, we work with our partners in Brazil to protect these monkeys for generations to come.
Why do GLTs face extinction?
Capture for the pet trade beginning in the 1500’s by the European explorers reduced the GLT population to an estimated 200 individuals in the wild by the 1970s.
Centuries of deforestation reduced the forest habitat of GLTs to only two percent of its original area, all in patches too small to support a healthy population.
Today, cattle pastures, roads, and human development prevent GLTs from crossing between the remaining forest patches to find unrelated mates.
In 2018, an unprecedented yellow fever epidemic in Southeast Brazil killed many people and reduced the GLT population from 3,600 to 2,500.
Who are we, and what is our goal?
Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado (AMLD) is a Brazilian nonprofit established in 1992 that coordinates efforts to save GLTs in their native forest and protect the benefits that the forest provides to local people.
Save the Golden Lion Tamarin (SGLT) is a U.S.-based public nonprofit organization that provides technical and financial support to help Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado achieve our shared vision of saving GLTs and the habitat they depend upon for survival.
Our goal is to achieve and maintain at least one viable population of golden lion tamarins living in their native Atlantic Coastal Forest habitat in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Scientists tell us that a viable population is 2,000 golden lion tamarins living in 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) of connected and protected forest.
Today enough forest and enough GLTs still remain, but to reach our goal, more forest must be connected in one large block.
What are we doing to meet these challenges?
AMLD restores forest corridors connecting isolated patches of forest. From 1997 to June 2024 AMLD has restored 449 hectares (1,110 acres) of degraded pastureland to native Atlantic Forest.
AMLD works with the Brazilian government at all levels to ensure forest protection. All 50,000 hectares (123,550 acres) in AMLD’s geographic scope are effectively protected against deforestation by federal and state legislation.
AMLD engages the local community in forest protection through education and building capacity for forest-friendly income.
AMLD is vaccinating GLTs against yellow fever. As of 1-Dec-2023, 448 wild individuals have been vaccinated.
AMLD monitors the GLT populations. A 2023 census revealed that GLT numbers are recovering from losses to yellow fever and GLTs have colonized previously unoccupied forest. Today (2023):
The total number of GLTs in AMLD’s scope is estimated at 4,800.
The largest population of GLTs in reconnected forest is 1,662 - 83% of the 2,000 needed for long-term viability.