Rainforest roads and the future of forest-dependent wildlife: a case study of understory birds

[Extract] In frontier tropical regions, road construction is widespread and escalating, and is among the most important causes of rainforest destruction. Roads are the first step leading to many of the existing and emerging threats to tropical forests, such as deforestation, habitat fragmentation, edge effects, selective logging, surface fires, illegal mining, and overhunting (Fearnside 1990a; Chomitz and Gray 1996; W. F. Laurance 1998; Cochrane et al. 1999; Nepstad et al. 1999b, 2001). Today, large intact areas of tropical rainforest occur only in areas where there is little or no present-day human access. Once physical access is provided, rapid ecosystem change can occur at both a local and landscape level. Most economists see road building on the frontier as crucial for social and economic development (Chomitz and Gray 1996). Roads provide the means for humans to access natural resources such as timber, land, and minerals, and for the movement of these resources to markets. The end result may be income-earning industries such as logging, farming, and mining, yet for the ecosystem there is widespread habitat disturbance and fragmentation (W. F. Laurance et al. 200lb, 2006a; Peres 2001a)