China’s new Eurasian ambitions: the environmental risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt

Tracy, Elena F.; Shvarts, Evgeny A.; Simonov, Eugene; Babenko, Mikhail

doi:10.1080/15387216.2017.1295876

Cited by 170 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…; Tracy et al. ); raw material extraction for building roads or supplying resources for new human population centers (e.g., power supply) (Zapata & Gambatese ); increased access to natural resources (and wildlife) due to greater accessibility along the route (Espinosa et al. ); habitat fragmentation due to road construction (Hughes ); increased roadkill (Coffin ); and increased wildlife trafficking due to increased regional connectivity (Bush et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, infrastructure expansion must be considered carefully to ensure minimal negative impacts on biodiversity (Tracy et al. ). Trade‐offs exist between economic and ecological values.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, development necessarily entrains significant risks for biodiversity. Mechanisms of impact fall into 5 main classes: direct or resource destruction to build roads and associated infrastructure (Laurance et al 2009;Tracy et al 2017); raw material extraction for building roads or supplying resources for new human population centers (e.g., power supply) (Zapata & Gambatese 2005); increased access to natural resources (and wildlife) due to greater accessibility along the route (Espinosa et al 2014); habitat fragmentation due to road construction (Hughes 2018); increased roadkill (Coffin 2007); and increased wildlife trafficking due to increased regional connectivity (Bush et al 2014). Thus, infrastructure expansion must be considered carefully to ensure minimal negative impacts on biodiversity (Tracy et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding and minimizing environmental impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative

Hughes

2019

Conservation Biology

128

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China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) sets to create connections and build infrastructure across Eurasia, Asia, and parts of the African continent in its initial phase and is the largest infrastructure project of all time. Any infrastructure project on this scale will necessarily pass through ecofragile regions and key biodiversity areas (KBAs). This creates an imperative to identify possible areas of impact and probable effects on conservation values to facilitate adaptive planning and to mitigate, minimize, or avoid impacts. Using the highest resolution route maps of the BRI available, I overlaid the proposed road and rail routes on KBAs, protected areas, and predicted biodiversity hotspots for over 4138 animal and 7371 plant species. I also assessed the relationship between the proposed route with the distribution of mines across BRI countries and the proportion of deforestation and forest near routes. Infrastructure, especially mining, was clustered near the proposed route; thus, construction and development along the route may increase the size and number of mines. Up to 15% of KBAs were within 1 km of proposed railways. Thus, planned and probable development along the routes may pose a significant risk to biodiversity, especially because the majority of KBAs are unprotected. Many biodiversity hotspots for different taxa were near the route. These hotspots varied between taxa, making systematic management and environmental impact assessments an effective strategy for at least some taxa. A combination of planning and mitigation strategies will likely be necessary to protect the most important areas for biodiversity proximal to development, especially in currently unprotected KBAs and other regions that need protection. A fuller assessment of trade‐offs between conservation and other values will be necessary to make good decisions for each project and site being developed, including potentially modifying parts of the route to minimize impacts. Modification or foregoing of infrastructure may be needed if stakeholders consider the conservation costs too high.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, infrastructure expansion must be considered carefully to ensure minimal negative impacts on biodiversity (Tracy et al. ). Trade‐offs exist between economic and ecological values.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding and minimizing environmental impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative

Hughes

2019

Conservation Biology

128

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“…China is promoting an infrastructure development agenda actively in the Silk Road Economic Belt, with the goal of promoting regional and subregional economic development (Tracy, Shvarts, Simonov, & Babenko, ). The Silk Road Economic Belt stretches across Asia, Europe, and Africa (Li, Qian, Ken, Howard, & Wu, ), including 65 core countries, and accounts for 41.3% of the total area of the world (Li et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The desertification process in the Silk Road Economic Belt in the past 15 years: A study using MODIS data and GIS analysis

et al. 2017

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The arid region in the northern part of China is a bridge between China and neighbouring countries in the Silk Road Economic Belt, and the severe desertification in this region restricts its sustainable development. In this paper, MODIS data, including albedo, reflectance, normalized vegetation index, and land surface temperature, were selected in 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 to construct a decision tree to extract spatio‐temporal information of the desertified land in the arid area. The trend in desertification and transfer directions was analysed by the GIS method, and the dynamic characteristics of the desertification at different units (provincial administrative unit and typical sandy land) and with different topographic factors (slope and aspect) are discussed. Our conclusions include (a) desertification in the arid region in the northern part of China showed improvement overall and local deterioration. The deteriorating areas were located primarily in the western region of the Hunshandake Sandy Land, the tectonic zone of the Taklimakan Desert, and the Qaidam Basin; (b) the degree of desertification transfer occurred primarily at adjacent levels; (c) the desertified area in each province showed a different trend in fluctuation, and Maowusu Sandy Land recovered better among the 4 large sands; and (d) the desertified area was distributed primarily along 0o–3o slopes and showed a rapid decline at increased slopes. The change in the degree of desertification in each aspect largely was a general reversal, and the area of the north aspect was larger than that of other areas of aspects. This study provides some theoretical support for the control of desertification in the Silk Road Economic Belt.

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“…After then it's an international team of about 20 countries guided by the group from the Alpen-Adria University in Vienna (Haberl et al, 2016). And the last but not least the Chinese global project titled the New Silky Road (variants the Belt Road Initiative and the One Belt One Road, see, for example, Tracy et al, 2017). In the last decade some international teams of the same character have emerged in the South Hemisphere.…”

Section: Role Of Scientific Research In Making Global Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Globalization and the New Silky Road Project

Yanitsky

2018

ASSRJ

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China’s new Eurasian ambitions: the environmental risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt

Cited by 170 publications

References 43 publications

Understanding and minimizing environmental impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative

Understanding and minimizing environmental impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative

The desertification process in the Silk Road Economic Belt in the past 15 years: A study using MODIS data and GIS analysis

Globalization and the New Silky Road Project

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