Road Improvement and Deforestation in the Congo Basin Countries

Road construction has often been viewed
as the precursor to deforestation, especially in tropical
forests. Traditional responses to such threats have been
reactive, with attempts to mitigate impacts through physical
measures, or the establishment of protected areas. These
approaches often have not been entirely successful,
especially in areas where economic potential is significant.
This paper seeks to mitigate such conflicts by proposing a
proactive approach to development planning and environmental
policy. It develops a high-resolution spatial model of road
improvement impacts that includes ecological risks and the
economics of forest clearing. The approach is implemented by
estimating the potential impact of road upgrading on forest
clearing and biodiversity in eight Congo Basin countries.
The paper demonstrates how the detailed analysis can
identify areas of high ecological priority as well as areas
at high risk of forest loss. The paper contributes to
several aspects of the literature. First, it provides the
most recent and reliable estimates of the drivers of
deforestation in the Congo Basin, with the latest
high-resolution satellite data on forest cover changes.
Second, it presents novel estimates of biodiversity threats
by creating an index that combines and synthesizes several
measures of biodiversity loss and impacts. It then develops
an empirical framework for estimating the ecological impacts
of road improvement. Finally, the paper illustrates how the
empirical framework can be used to preempt impacts and avoid
potential ecological damage.