Mitigating the Impacts of Development Corridors on Biodiversity: A Global Review

Abstract

Development corridors are extensive, often transnational and linear, geographical areas targeted for investment to help achieve sustainable development. They often comprise the creation of hard infrastructure (i.e., physical structures) and soft infrastructure (i.e., policies, plans, and programmes) involving a variety of actors. They are globally widespread, and likely to be a significant driver of habitat loss. Here, we describe the development corridors phenomenon from a biodiversity perspective and identify the elements of best practice in biodiversity impact mitigation. We use these to carry out a review of the peer reviewed literature on corridors to respond to three questions: (i) how impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services are assessed; (ii) what mitigation measures are discussed to manage these impacts; and (iii) to what extent do these measures approximate to best practice. We found that of 271 publications on development corridors across all continents (except for Antarctica) mentioning biodiversity or ecosystem services, only 100 (37%) assessed impacts on biodiversity and 7 (3%) on ecosystem services. Importantly, only half of these (52, 19% of the total 271 articles) discussed mitigation measures to manage these impacts. These measures focused on avoidance and minimisation and there was scant mention of restoration or ecological compensation illustrating a deficient application of the mitigation hierarchy. We conclude that the academic literature on corridors does not give sufficient consideration to comprehensive mitigation of biodiversity impacts. To change this, impact assessment research needs to acknowledge the complexity of such multi-project and multi-stakeholder initiatives, quantify biodiversity losses due to the full suite of their potential direct, indirect and cumulative impacts, and follow all the steps of the mitigation hierarchy impact framework. We suggest a series of research avenues and policy recommendations to improve impact assessments of corridors towards achieving better biodiversity outcomes.

Reconsidering priorities for forest conservation when considering the threats of mining and armed conflict

“…firewood, bushmeat) on a daily basis. Given this is the extent of our knowledge pertaining to diffuse ASM hunting impacts within the region, we are limited to assuming a commonly used linear relationship between the activity and its relative impact on biodiversity (Juffe-Bignoli et al 2021 ). A full list of data included in the analysis is presented in Table 1 .…”

The African Development Corridors Database: a new tool to assess the impacts of infrastructure investments

“…11 – 13 ), infrastructure corridors generally deliver services such as energy, water, waste management, transport, and telecommunications; and often lead to spatial development between rural peripheries and urban growth poles 1 , 14 , 15 . Infrastructure corridors become development corridors when larger, often transnational, and linear, geographical areas are targeted for domestic and international investment 16 . Development corridors typically go beyond individual investments, have political-economic weighting, are attached to Master Planning processes, are positioned as flagship initiatives 17 , and ideally, underpinned by Strategic Environmental Assessments 16 , 18 .…”

“…Infrastructure corridors become development corridors when larger, often transnational, and linear, geographical areas are targeted for domestic and international investment 16 . Development corridors typically go beyond individual investments, have political-economic weighting, are attached to Master Planning processes, are positioned as flagship initiatives 17 , and ideally, underpinned by Strategic Environmental Assessments 16 , 18 .…”

Tree species composition in Ilha Grande, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“…Knowing and evaluating the biological diversity present in different ecosystems is an important tool for the conservation of natural environments (Ashton 1992). In this sense, the study of natural areas impacted by human activities is of crucial importance for understanding the damage caused (Coelho et al 2020), as well as for taking adequate measures for their conservation, restoration, management and impact mitigation (Juffe-Bignoli et al 2021).…”