Potential Impact of Road Projects on Habitat Loss and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Guyana from 2012 to 2022

Date
Jan 2014
Deforestation as one of the potential indirect impacts of infrastructure development has increasingly become an important issue in the development community. While questions concerning the drivers and effects of deforestation and how to manage them have been on the minds of project officers and environmental specialists in development banks for many years, the issue of deforestation has gained prominence globally because of the realization that it leads to the potential release of carbon into the atmosphere in addition to being a threat to biodiversity and to ecosystem services. This publication reports the results of a study using the methodology already applied in a previous ex post analysis of five case studies across Latin America. Apart from delivering concrete results that are useful for ongoing IDB projects in Guyana, the study further explores the possibility of using this methodology as a basis for land-use management and in the development of infrastructure projects. The VPS/ESG intends to build on the work presented in this report by reviewing the options available for modeling land-use and land-cover change in Latin America.