While Nepal has been hailed in recent weeks as a success story for recovery of the tiger, the country’s road developments will bisect strongholds for the species and threaten to reverse incredible progress made in saving the last 4,500 wild tigers from extinction.Īpex predators are particularly vulnerable to vehicle collisions due to their extensive home ranges requiring travel across roadways and the species’ small population size. Similarly, development financiers are encouraged to further integrate road threat mitigation into their funding agreements, ensuring that the ultimate objective of no net biodiversity loss is maintained throughout the development process.ĭevelopment planned in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park in particular is expected to devastate one of the world’s greatest animal migrations, causing a domino effect on healthy apex predator populations. Scientists maintain the significance of road planning committees incorporating the voices of all stakeholders, including local communities, conservation scientists and government officials. To protect some of the planet’s most critical keystone species and overall biodiversity, scientists are calling for meticulous road development planning with wildlife in mind, the use of effective threat mitigation measures, including crossings and roadside fencing serving as wildlife funnels, and the avoidance of road construction in protected areas and predator strongholds. The study reveals how current transportation infrastructure and planned global expansion of road networks, including 25 million kilometers of roadways to be constructed worldwide by 2050, in regions of rich biodiversity have and will continue to significantly sever connections and severely impact apex predators. Big cats in particular bear an overwhelming burden of road risk, demonstrating the species’ need for increased conservation attention and dollars.”ĭunnink continued, “While roads can often lead to positive social and economic outcomes, future road developments need to be strategically planned and adopt effective mitigation measures like safe-crossing zones to ensure they do not severely impact wildlife and, ultimately, the functioning of our planet’s ecosystems that determine the health and survival of so many human communities.”
Panthera Furs for Life Project Coordinator Jeffrey Dunnink, one of the study’s authors, stated, “From wildlife-vehicle collisions to unintentionally creating new pathways for poachers to target our planet’s most cherished wildlife, roads are a major threat to apex predators, and our research confirms this threat will only intensify over the next 30 years.
Findings estimated roughly 500 protected areas will be severed by such projects, threatening the survival of apex predators, their habitats and the ecosystem services provided to human communities.
Scientists additionally developed a replicable method to assess the impact of unprecedented proposed road developments in the Brazilian Amazon, along Nepal’s Postal Highway and throughout the African continent. Collisions, habitat loss and fragmentation, reduced genetic connectivity caused by physical barriers and increased poaching facilitated by access to wildlife habitat represent the greatest roadway threats to apex predators. The study confirmed eight of the ten species with the highest road risk are found in Asia, with other high-risk species located in the Americas, Africa and Europe. With wild cats bearing a substantial burden of road risk, scientists found the sloth bear faces the highest risk of all apex predators, followed by the tiger and dhole. New York, NY – Tigers and clouded leopards in Asia, leopards in Asia and Africa and Iberian lynx in Spain are among 36 apex predators most threatened by the current global road network, according to a new study published in Nature’s Scientific Reports from Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, and partners. Media Contact: Susie Weller Sheppard, (347) 446-9904, images. New Panthera study ranks top 36 apex predators threatened by roads, with highest risk in Asiaĥ00 protected areas estimated to be severed by future road developments in Brazil, Nepal and African continent
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