We live in an era of unprecedented road and highway expansion into many of the world’s last tropical wildernesses, from the Amazon to Borneo to the Congo Basin, reports William Laurance at Environment 360. Brazil is currently building 7,500 kilometers of new paved highways that crisscross the Amazon basin, And in the Congo basin, a recent satellite study found more than 50,000 kilometers of new logging roads, for example. This surge in road building is being driven not only by national plans for infrastructure expansion, but by industrial timber, oil, gas, and mineral projects in the tropics. But “Roads,” said the eminent ecologist Thomas Lovejoy, “are the seeds of tropical forest destruction.” In forested areas of western North America, one of the best predictors of wildfire frequency is the density of roads. What to do? A vital step is to legally establish parks or reserves along road routes in advance of construction. Relocate road routes so they do not slice deeply into forests. Carefully manage and limit road expansion by educating policymakers worldwide on the true environmental costs of roads on their forest resources.
Source
As Roads Spread in Rainforests, The Environmental Toll Grows From Brazil to Borneo, new roads are being built into tropical forests at a dizzying pace, putting previously intact wilderness at risk. If we hope to preserve rainforests, a leading researcher says, new strategies must be adopted to limit the number of roads and reduce their impacts.
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We live in an era of unprecedented road and highway expansion into many of the world’s last tropical wildernesses, from the Amazon to Borneo to the Congo Basin, reports William Laurance at Environment 360. Brazil is currently building 7,500 kilometers of new paved highways that crisscross the Amazon basin, And in the Congo basin, a recent satellite study found more than 50,000 kilometers of new logging roads, for example. This surge in road building is being driven not only by national plans for infrastructure expansion, but by industrial timber, oil, gas, and mineral projects in the tropics. But “Roads,” said the eminent ecologist Thomas Lovejoy, “are the seeds of tropical forest destruction.” In forested areas of western North America, one of the best predictors of wildfire frequency is the density of roads. What to do? A vital step is to legally establish parks or reserves along road routes in advance of construction. Relocate road routes so they do not slice deeply into forests. Carefully manage and limit road expansion by educating policymakers worldwide on the true environmental costs of roads on their forest resources.
Source
