Severe conservation risks of roads on apex predators

Abstract

The global expansion of road networks threatens apex predator conservation and ecosystem functioning. This occurs through wildlife-vehicle collisions, habitat loss and fragmentation, reduced genetic connectivity and increased poaching. We reviewed road impacts on 36 apex predator species and assessed their risk from current roads based on road exposure and species vulnerability. Our findings reveal all apex predators are exposed to road impacts. Eight of the ten species with the highest risk occur in Asia, although other high-risk species are present in the Americas, Africa and Europe. The sloth bear suffers the highest risk of all apex predators, followed by the tiger and dhole. Based on species risk from roads, we propose a widely applicable method to assess the potential impact of future roads on apex predators. We applied this method to proposed road developments in three areas: the Brazilian Amazon, Africa, and Nepal, to locate high-impact road segments. Roughly 500 protected areas will be intersected by these roads, threatening core apex predator habitats. We advocate the need for rigorous road development planning to apply effective mitigation measures as an urgent priority and to avoid construction in wilderness areas and predator strongholds.

A multi‐methods approach for assessing how conserving biodiversity interacts with other sustainable development goals in Nepal

“…As for trade‐offs, all three methods detected trade‐offs between SDG 15 and SDGs 7 and 9. Infrastructure projects in Nepal, particularly road expansion, is one of the leading causes of habitat degradation, fragmentation, spread of invasive species, and consequently biodiversity loss (Adhikari et al, 2020; Adhikari et al, 2022; Quintana et al, 2022). Infrastructure development has also been found to be the biggest source of trade‐off for SDG 15 in another global study (Mantlana & Maoela, 2020).…”

“…Progress toward SDG 15 in Nepal is influenced by the achievement of other goals. Road development (SDG 9), in particular, is a significant threat to future conservation efforts in Nepal, as the country aims to expand its road infrastructure significantly over the next decade, including through protected areas (Quintana et al, 2022). Similarly, despite examples of the negative impacts of hydropower projects (SDG 7) on biodiversity and the environment (Anderson et al, 2018; Jumani et al, 2017), more than half of all future hydropower projects lie within Nepal's highly biodiverse areas (Ghimire & Phuyal, 2022).…”

Restoring Asia’s roar: Opportunities for tiger recovery across the historic range

“…We found similar patterns across our expansion areas many of which are impacted by infrastructure and extractive industries (SI Table 7). Roads are known to impact large carnivores (Quintana et al, 2022) due to wildlife-vehicle collisions, habitat loss and fragmentation, and increased access leading to increased poaching of tiger and prey including through snaring (Gray et al, 2018). As such road expansion has been identified as a threat to tiger conservation (Carter et al, 2020).…”

Scientists' warning to humanity on tree extinctions

“…It is also important to note that threats often interact with each other, rather than acting independently. For example, fires may be used to expand the area of agricultural land, which may lead to increased colonisation of nonnative species and development of infrastructure such as roads can open forest areas to other human activities such as logging and livestock husbandry, as well as hunting of wildlife (Quintana et al, 2022).…”