Building Roads Through Environmental Hotspots Doesn't Have to Be Devastating

To extract natural wealth, developing economies have to build the infrastructure—highways, railways, and so on—that make remote operations possible. And therein lies a major conundrum: How do you address development needs when it involves building highways across some of the most pristine lands on Earth?

In a new paper in Cell Biology, a team of researchers led by Tim Caro of UC Davis look at the little-discussed topic of road ecology, which focuses on the effects of infrastructure development in wild lands.

The tropics and subtropics are home to the vast majority of Earth's biodiversity, and as such are of huge importance to conservation interest. While it's clear that laying down a highway across the Amazon will be a detriment to the local environment—along with fragmentation, pollution and roadkill are key issues—it's also clear that exploitation of natural resources, from minerals to hydroelectric power, is a key driver of developing economies.

"Unquestionably, most developing nations need to deploy adequate transportation infrastructure to develop mineral and energy resources, yet conservation biologists are acutely aware that new road networks are often established at the expense of seasonal movement patterns, migration routes, and dispersal corridors of wildlife," the authors write.

What's the solution? Caro's team argues that while infrastructure is necessary, the adversarial relationship between environmental and industrial concerns often prevents proper dialogue and assessment of development plans.

"Battle lines are being drawn across the tropics, provoking a wellspring of international concern from prominent conservationists who understand that pristine areas hold the key to biodiversity protection," they write. "These conservationists are typically at odds with multi-national oil, mining and road construction companies and as a result rarely engage in constructive dialogues with them."

For example, development of South America's transoceanic highway once involved multiple competing routes thanks to various political and economic interests, as outlined in a 2003 National Geographic report. Such efforts do little to minimize the impact of such construction.

Caro and team therefore lay out best practices for development, which puts extra emphasis on opening up transparent communication early in the process. "Consultations between infrastructure engineers and natural resource managers should begin early, permitting identification of less controversial and more economically viable alternative routes, minimizing detrimental impacts on parks, and respecting their zoning," the authors write.

The authors also stress the importance of conducting case-by-case environmental impact assessments (EIAs), as simply laying the straightest road possible may be both environmentally and economically disastrous in the long term. For example, Tanzania's "Katavi National Park is marketed as a wilderness area free from modern influence: a tarmac road will devalue it as a remote tourist attraction."

Of course, the best laid plans don't mean much if they're not also enforced effectively.

For one, countries should be firm about policing the roads themselves and taking steps to mitigate the impact of traffic through speed limits, scheduling, and avoiding migration routes to minimize potential road kills, which can have a major impact.

The authors cite one case in Morro do Diabo State Park in Brazil, in which road kills along a 14-km stretch of paved road represent "an annual population loss of 8–20% for mid-sized to large mammals within the park, including ungulates, carnivores and the highly endangered black-lion-tamarin."

From a larger perspective, the authors argue that nations, aid organizations, and the international community at large should require that "rigorous" EIAs be conducted before any construction starts, especially as it's easy to ignore long-term impacts for short-term benefits.

Such decision making is typified by Tanzania's gold mining industry, in which foreign corporations used infrastructure development as leverage to control mineral rights, leaving locals with a little wealth and plenty of environmental impact.

The situation is fairly dire, but it doesn't have to remain that way, Caro's team argues:

Conservation biologists recognize that infrastructure development is key to regional scale development, poverty alleviation and empowerment of rural poor who either depend upon or are driven to overexploit natural resources, but they also recognize that roadless areas are not an impediment to poverty alleviation. Additionally, they are concerned that protected areas covering just 12% of the world's terrestrial biomes are becoming fragmented, degraded killing grounds for tropical charismatic fauna that governments in habitat countries do not always appreciate.

By emphasizing long-term value of keeping wild lands protected, incorporating that cost assessment into development plans, and emphasizing local economic growth, developing nations can utilize their natural wealth as effectively as possible. With forests rapidly disappearing, it's an important finding to take to heart.