A better Amazon road network for people and the environment

Abstract

The rapidly expanding network of roads into the Amazon is permanently altering the world’s largest tropical forest. Most proposed road projects lack rigorous impact assessments or even basic economic justification. This study analyzes the expected environmental, social and economic impacts of 75 road projects, totaling 12 thousand kilometers of planned roads, in the region. We find that all projects, although in different magnitudes, will negatively impact the environment. Forty-five percent will also generate economic losses, even without accounting for social and environmental externalities. Canceling economically unjustified projects would avoid 1.1 million hectares of deforestation and US$ 7.6 billion in wasted funding for development projects. For projects that exceed a basic economic viability threshold, we identify the ones that are comparatively better not only in terms of economic return but also have lower social and environmental impacts. We find that a smaller set of carefully chosen projects could deliver 77% of the economic benefit at 10% of the environmental and social damage, showing that it is possible to have efficient tradeoff decisions informed by legitimately determined national priorities.

Severe Conservation Risks of Roads on Apex Predators

“…3A). Of these, 24 projects are considered national priorities, totalling 6,032 km and mainly consisting of upgrading dirt roads 13 .…”

“…Over 25 million km of newly paved roads will be constructed by 2050 11 . Around 90% will occur in developing nations that host critical ecosystems and rich biodiversity areas 12 important for apex predators, such as the Amazon 13 , Africa 14 and Southern Asia 15 . It is essential to establish a deeper understanding of the impact of current and proposed roads on apex predators.…”

Priorities for governing large-scale infrastructure in the tropics

“…Assessing infrastructure's impacts demands robust and comparative analysis of environmental, social, and human rights risks and benefits (13), calculated within models of socio-ecological systems that comprehensively capture proximate and cumulative interaction effects between infrastructure, societies, climate, and environment. At the same time, sustainability science must create space for more diverse forms of knowledge and ideas about development, be explicit in recognizing the political factors that drive the forms of infrastructural investment that compromise climate change mitigation and community rights, explore existential and ethical dimensions of socio-natural well-being, and link science with profoundly novel ideas about what neo-tropical forests could be in the future (14).…”

Ambiente, Antropoceno E Enfermidades: (Re)abrindo a Caixa De Pandora

“…Nesse contexto, regiões tropicais com ritmo de desmatamento mais recente, por apresentarem elevada biodiversidade, ainda desconhecida, e estarem passando por mudanças intensas no uso do solo, estão sobre elevado desequilíbrio, e é onde o risco de zoonoses é mais elevado e estão diretamente relacionadas às doenças emergentes, como é o caso da Amazônia, como vem alertando diversos cientistas (KEESING et al, 2010;ALLEN et al, 2017;NAVA et al, 2017). Vilela et al (2020) preveem que mais de 10 mil quilômetros de estradas serão construídas ou melhoradas em toda Amazônia, a partir da realização de 75 projetos rodoviários na América do Sul, nos próximos cinco anos. Ao mesmo tempo que isso poderá aumentar as oportunidades de emprego, reduzir os custos de transporte e apoiar o desenvolvimento regional, também acarretará, direta e indiretamente, a elevação do desmatamento, provocando mudanças intensas na cobertura vegetal.…”