Road expansion and the fate of Africa's tropical forests
Laurance, William F., Campbell, Mason J., Alamgir, Mohammed, and Mahmoud, Mahmoud I. (2017) Road expansion and the fate of Africa's tropical forests. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 5. 75. pp. 1-7.
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Abstract
The tropical forests of Africa are experiencing unprecedented changes as a result of a rapid proliferation of roads and other infrastructure. These projects are dramatically increasing access to relatively unexploited regions, particularly in the greater Congo Basin. We highlight some of the most important new projects and describe in detail an ongoing debate about a particular proposed development, the Cross River Superhighway in Nigeria. The scale and pace of new transportation projects, and the profound environmental changes they could bring, underscore a dire need for proactive land-use planning, capacity building, and environmental assessment in the nations of Equatorial Africa. It is no exaggeration to suggest that, unless carefully managed to ensure sustainability, the spate of planned and ongoing projects could irreparably diminish the forests and wildlife populations of Africa's most biologically diverse regions.
| Item ID: | 49542 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 2296-701X |
| Keywords: | deforestation, development corridors, equatorial Africa, infrastructure-tsunami, logging, wildlife |
| Additional Information: | © 2017 Laurance, Campbell, Alamgir and Mahmoud. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Funders: | Arcus Foundation (AF), James Cook University (JCU) |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Jul 2017 22:14 |
| FoR Codes: | 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4102 Ecological applications > 410206 Landscape ecology @ 50% 37 EARTH SCIENCES > 3709 Physical geography and environmental geoscience > 370999 Physical geography and environmental geoscience not elsewhere classified @ 25% 33 BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND DESIGN > 3304 Urban and regional planning > 330499 Urban and regional planning not elsewhere classified @ 25% |
| SEO Codes: | 88 TRANSPORT > 8898 Environmentally Sustainable Transport > 889899 Environmentally Sustainable Transport not elsewhere classified @ 100% |
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