680000 acres of Amazon rainforest may be lost to Perus new roads

[Judi Lynn]

by Morgan Erickson-Davis on 18 January 2018

Late last year, the Peruvian government gave the go-ahead for the construction of new roads along its border with Brazil in the Ucayali and Madre de Dios regions. The main road would span 172 miles, connecting the towns of Puerto Esperanza and Iñapari.

But such development has a cost. A new analysis finds around 680,000 acres (2,750 square kilometers) of primary rainforest will be put at risk from the road construction – including forest in protected areas and indigenous reserves.

The analysis was conducted by Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), a research program of Amazon Conservation Association and Conservación Amazónica. The MAAP team examined satellite data compiled by the University of Maryland to determine the extent of primary forest in the region and used the deforestation along the Interoceanic Highway as a proxy to estimate how much may be lost if these new roads are built.

They found that the Interoceanic Highway has an area of “substantial deforestation” (80 percent forest loss) 10 kilometers wide along its route. If this pattern holds true for the new batch of proposed roads, the analysts write that at least 680,000 acres – an area the size of the country of Samoa – may be lost due to associated deforestation activities.

More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/680000-acres-of-amazon-rainforest-may-be-lost-to-perus-new-roads/