Road Building

The building of new roads, has led to a massive expansion in the road network in the humid zones of Latin America over the last few decades. Roads have been built by government, either as links between existing population centres, or expressly to open up forest areas, or for security purposes. Roads have also been built by private sector operators such as timber and mining companies. Road building has been the single most clearly determinant factor in deforestation in Latin America, as demonstrated by statistical analyses in various countries, and has continued to cause deforestation after the end of overt subsidies and the decline of beef exports. Livestock-related deforestation has resulted from road building both directly, through increased ease of transporting livestock products to markets, and indirectly through fuelling land speculation (click here for discussion of land titling issues). It should be noted that attempts by direct regulation to prevent settlement and forest clearance along new roads have invariably been unsuccessful.

Research/Appraisal Methods

The probability of deforestation based on patterns of deforestation in relation to existing roads should ideally be established for the country/region concerned. The use and management of forest resources need to be based on the mapping and inventory of the forestry environment. In addition to these static data, the changing state of the forest, as a result of natural or human-induced causes (felling, clearing, fire, reforestation, decline, regeneration, etc.), also needs to be monitored. Remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS)2 provide for the continuous monitoring of forest developments by detecting changes and for the integration of the results into existing databases. For example, recent estimates of deforestation by the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) based on satellite imagery reveal that about 8.5 percent of Amazonia's primary forest had been cleared by 1991. (see the References for further information)

Policy Options

Given the multiple importance of road building to governments, the major policy option of discouraging road building is controversial but critical appraisal of road building programmes must be carried out by government and donors.

References

Kaimowitz, D. 1995. Livestock and Deforestation in Central America in the 1980s and 1990s: A Policy Perspective. EPTD Discussion Paper, IFPRI, Washington DC, 1995. Click to view as Word document . (further information including copies of the report can be obtained from IFPRI at http://www.iimi.org/ifpri)

Smithsonian, National Air and Space Museum. Center for Earth and Planetary Studies. Deforestation and Development in Amazonia. http://www.nasm.edu/ceps/research/AMAZON/amazon.html

Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE). http://www.inpe.br/

Remote Sensing for Decision-makers. Forest management Pilot study in Morocco. http://www.fao.org/sd/eidirect/EIre0069.htm

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