<
https://theconversation.com/roads-of-destruction-we-found-vast-numbers-of-illegal-ghost-roads-used-to-crack-open-pristine-rainforest-227222>
"One of Brazil’s top scientists, Eneas Salati, once said, “The best thing you
could do for the Amazon rainforest is to blow up all the roads.” He wasn’t
joking. And he had a point.
In an article published today in
Nature, my colleagues and I show that
illicit, often out-of-control road building is imperilling forests in
Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. The roads we’re studying do not
appear on legitimate maps. We call them “ghost roads”.
What’s so bad about a road? A road means access. Once roads are bulldozed into
rainforests, illegal loggers, miners, poachers and landgrabbers arrive. Once
they get access, they can destroy forests, harm native ecosystems and even
drive out or kill indigenous peoples. This looting of the natural world robs
cash-strapped nations of valuable natural resources. Indonesia, for instance,
loses around A$1.5 billion each year solely to timber theft.
All nations have some unmapped or unofficial roads, but the situation is
especially bad in biodiversity-rich developing nations, where roads are
proliferating at the fastest pace in human history."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
