Environment

Here is the study: Ghost roads and the destruction of Asia-Pacific tropical forests

Researcher have shown that illicit, often out-of-control road building is imperilling forests in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. The roads do not appear on legitimate maps why they call them “ghost roads”.

Once these roads are bulldozed into rainforests, illegal loggers, miners, poachers and landgrabbers arrive. Once they get access, they can destroy forests, harm native ecosystems and even drive out or kill indigenous peoples. This looting of the natural world robs cash-strapped nations of valuable natural resources. Indonesia, for instance, loses around A$1.5 billion each year solely to timber theft.

All nations have some unmapped or unofficial roads, but the situation is especially bad in biodiversity-rich developing nations, where roads are proliferating at the fastest pace in human history.

"Ghost roads, it seems, are an epidemic," writes Bill Laurance, Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook University.

"Worse, these roads can be actively encouraged by aggressive infrastructure-expansion schemes — most notably China’s Belt and Road Initiative, now active in more than 150 natiions."