Roads, road planning and roadless areas: Challenge for wildlife conservation and connectivity

Summary:

With roads increasingly threatening wildlife populations and ecosystem functionality, this session will explore how we can improve current research, policy and management of roads and the conservation of roadless areas.

Interactive Session

Part of the Concurrent sessions

2:00:00 PM to 5:00:00 PM

Ms. Lucila Belen Castro Pacific Biodiversity Institute, Argentina

Stefan Kreft

Evi A.D. Paemelaere

Max Capacity: 50

Minimum Required: 10

Details:

Landscape and population connectivity are central themes in the conservation of wildlife populations, with fragmentation leading to disruption of gene flow and accelerated extinction rates. These wildlife populations form part of ecosystems, whose functionality and resilience, and thus reliable delivery of ecosystem services, are influenced by their size and shape. One of the largest threats to connectivity and ecosystem functionality is the network of roads, which is currently expanding at an increasing pace in Latin America and elsewhere. This session will organice semi-structured discussions on how to improve current research, policy and management of roads and the conservation of roadless areas on approaches. This includes exploring possible more concrete outcomes and outputs, such as a handbook-type document on wildlife-friendly roads and road planning for dialogue with policy-makers and engineers, or the creation of an ‘early-alert’ system for new (transboundary) infrastructure programmes. Discussions will be complemented by expert inputs mitigation of road impacts and roads and roadless areas in Latin America and globally.