Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science (TESS) and College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD 4878, Australia.
Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science (TESS) and College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD 4878, Australia.
Curr Biol. 2015 Dec 21;25(24):3202-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.10.046. Epub 2015 Nov 27.
In sub-Saharan Africa, dozens of major "development corridors" have been proposed or are being created to increase agricultural production [1-4], mineral exports [5-7], and economic integration. The corridors involve large-scale expansion of infrastructure such as roads, railroads, pipelines, and port facilities and will open up extensive areas of land to new environmental pressures [1, 4, 8]. We assessed the potential environmental impacts of 33 planned or existing corridors that, if completed, would total over 53,000 km in length and crisscross much of the African continent. We mapped each corridor and estimated human occupancy (using the distribution of persistent night-lights) and environmental values (endangered and endemic vertebrates, plant diversity, critical habitats, carbon storage, and climate-regulation services) inside a 50-km-wide band overlaid onto each corridor. We also assessed the potential for each corridor to facilitate increases in agricultural production. The corridors varied considerably in their environmental values, and many were only sparsely populated. Because of marginal soils or climates, some corridors appear to have only modest agricultural potential. Collectively, the corridors would bisect over 400 existing protected areas and could degrade a further ~1,800 by promoting habitat disruption near or inside the reserves. We conclude that many of the development corridors will promote serious and largely irreversible environmental changes and should proceed only if rigorous mitigation and protection measures can be employed. Some planned corridors with high environmental values and limited agricultural benefits should possibly be cancelled altogether. VIDEO ABSTRACT.
在撒哈拉以南非洲，已经提出或正在创建数十个主要的“发展走廊”，以增加农业生产[1-4]、矿产出口[5-7]和经济一体化。这些走廊涉及道路、铁路、管道和港口设施等基础设施的大规模扩张，将使大片土地面临新的环境压力[1、4、8]。我们评估了 33 条规划或现有走廊的潜在环境影响，如果这些走廊全部建成，总长度将超过 53000 公里，纵横交错贯穿非洲大陆大部分地区。我们绘制了每条走廊的地图，并估算了 50 公里宽的带内每条走廊的人类居住（使用持久夜光的分布）和环境价值（濒危和特有脊椎动物、植物多样性、关键生境、碳储存和气候调节服务）。我们还评估了每条走廊促进农业生产增长的潜力。这些走廊的环境价值差异很大，许多地区人口稀少。由于土壤或气候条件较差，一些走廊的农业潜力似乎相对较小。这些走廊加起来将把 400 多个现有保护区分割开来，并可能通过在保护区附近或内部促进生境破坏，进一步破坏约 1800 个保护区。我们的结论是，许多发展走廊将促进严重且在很大程度上不可逆转的环境变化，只有在能够采取严格的缓解和保护措施的情况下才能推进。一些具有高环境价值和有限农业效益的规划走廊可能应该完全取消。视频摘要。
