Saving Brazil’s golden monkey, one green corridor at a time

Dozens of young people kneeled under the scorching sun this week in Rio de Janeiro’s rural interior, planting a green corridor that will be a future safe passageway for the region’s most emblematic and endangered species, the golden lion tamarin. Rampant deforestation over centuries has decimated this part of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, the only place in the world where the small, copper-colored monkey whose face is framed by a silken mane can be found. With fewer than 5,000 individuals, it is considered an endangered species.