The first comprehensive mapping of Brazil’s remaining road- and railroad-less areas
Written By Fernanda Z. Teixeira, Trevor R. Tisler and Rodrigo A. A. Nóbrega
14th November 2022
Do you know what road- and railroad-less areas are?
Road- and railroad-less areas are regions of land that are located at least 1 km or more from the nearest road or railway and are therefore potentially free from the negative impacts they cause to ecosystems and biodiversity. These areas are biodiversity reservoirs, as they are far from impacts of terrestrial transport infrastructure such as road mortality, habitat degradation and connectivity loss. Although road and railroad-less areas are key to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, these areas are rarely considered in national and international legislation.
Mapping of road- and railroad-less areas in Brazil
We have recently published the first comprehensive and detailed mapping of Brazil’s road- and railroad-less areas. We mapped these areas in each of Brazil’s six biogeographical biomes at distances of 1 and 5 km from all roads and railroads. Moreover, we analyzed their overlap with: (a) remaining patches of native vegetation identified by Project MapBiomas; (b) Brazil’s legally protected areas which include Conservation Units, and Titled Indigenous Lands and Maroon Territories; and (c) Priority Areas for Biodiversity Conservation identified by Brazil’s Federal Ministry of the Environment (MMA). Our study won the Mapbiomas Award due to the use of data from this initiative.
Our findings demonstrate that only 39% of Brazil’s territorial extent is more than 5 km away from any transportation infrastructure and 71% is more than 1 km away from any roadway, railway or minor road. Many of these areas are not legally protected for any conservation purposes but they still hold large extents of native vegetation. They are part of MMA’s Priority Areas for Biodiversity Conservation which the ministry developed as a critical tool for federal level efforts to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets (especially targets 2, 7, 11, 14 and 15) and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (especially SDG 15).
More native vegetation is found far away from roads
We found that there is less native vegetation near transportation infrastructure than further away. We also found more native vegetation close to roads and railways when inside legally protected areas (including indigenous territories and maroon lands) than outside such areas. This indicates that creating new legally protected areas can counter some of the impacts induced by roads and railroads, such as increased deforestation. It also demonstrates the importance of keeping these areas free from roads and railroads and keeping them legally protected (i.e. avoiding Protected Area Downgrading, Downsizing, and Degazettement - PADDD).
Road- and railroad-less areas are high priorities for conservation and restoration
By mapping road- and railroad-less areas that are not legally protected but that are priority areas, and identifying which areas still hold native vegetation or have been deforested, our work maps priorities both for conservation and restoration. Although road- and railroad-less areas contain more than 80% of the country’s remaining native vegetation, only 38% of this amount is legally protected for conservation purposes.
The characteristics of these areas vary among the six biomes. Two of the Brazilian biomes, the Amazon and the Pantanal, still contain extensive road- and railroad-less areas with ample native vegetation coverage. Protecting these biomes would contribute substantially to progress towards reaching conservation goals that Brazil has committed to via ratification of international environmental agreements. On the other hand, the Atlantic Forest and Pampa biomes have fewer and smaller road- and railroad-less areas with native vegetation. In these areas, protecting what little remains as well as restoring other regions of the biomes is of great importance. The two other biomes, the Cerrado and Caatinga, are in an intermediate situation. These biomes have few road and railroad-less areas, but some of which are still large enough that if protected can still contribute greatly to national conservation goals and protect important biodiversity and ecosystem services.
More recently, road and railroad-less areas have gained attention worldwide. Mapping those areas, as well as their conservation status, is an important conservation strategy and a priority consideration for transport corridor planning. Due to the high ecological integrity of many road- and railroad-less areas, legally protecting them and avoiding any new transportation development within them are critical actions for securing biodiversity and ecosystem services conservation gains.
We identified areas for prompt ecological conservation consideration and areas for restoration that could significantly improve Brazil’s environment and ecosystems. These areas include options that are synergistic with and pose no threats to rural private land tenure. Prompt action on these opportunities would result in substantive and faster progress in achieving conservation goals than the policies currently proposed by Brazil’s federal government. With this mapping of road- and railroad-less areas, we hope to contribute to the conservation planning of these areas. We also provide baseline to the planning of the expansion and improvement of Brazil’s transportation network, which must prioritize both the balance between the economic demands of construction and expansion of highways and railways with the minimization of the social and environmental impacts stimulated by the transportation network.
Author information:
By Fernanda Z. Teixeira¹, Trevor R. Tisler² and Rodrigo A. A. Nóbrega³
¹Biologist, MSc and Ph.D. in Ecology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Graduate Program in Ecology (UFRGS) and the Center for Road- and Railroad Ecology (Núcleo de Ecologia de Rodovias e Ferrovias - NERF)
² B.A. in Geography and International Affairs, George Washington University; MSc in Environmental Systems Analysis and Modeling, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Currently a Ph.D. Candidate (cotutelle) at the Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, and at the School of Engineering (UFMG).
³ B.S. Cartographic Engineering, State University of São Paulo (UNESP), MSc and Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering, São Paulo University (USP). Currently, Professor at the Department of Cartography, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG).
Source:
Tisler TR, Teixeira FZ, Nóbrega RAA. 2022. Conservation opportunities and challenges in Brazil’s roadless and railroad-less areas. Sci Adv [Internet]. 8(9):1–14. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abi5548
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Editor:
Rodney van der Ree
Cite this summary:
Teixeira FZ, Tisler TR, Nóbrega RAA.(2022). The first comprehensive mapping of Brazil’s remaining road- and railroad-less areas. Edited by Van der Ree, R. TransportEcology.info, Accessed at: https://transportecology.info/research/brazil-roadless-areas [Date accessed].