Madre de Dios state in southeastern Peru holds one of the largest
expanses of pristine Amazon rainforest. This unique ecosystem is
threatened by the construction of a paved road linking Brazil to
Peruvian ports on the Pacific Ocean. CSF is carrying out a study to
prioritize conservation investments to mitigate the Interoceanica Sur’s
roads impacts, from the tree line in the Andean foothills to the
Brazilian border. To do this we will analyze the road’s effects on
land-use profits, and then lay that data over a map of the conservation
values identified for the area. This information will then be fed into
a matrix to prioritize investment strategies that maximize conservation
and sustainability outcomes.
read more
In this analysis, we assess the effect of Madeira River energy and
transportation infrastructure projects on soybean expansion.
Precarious transportation networks and natural barriers have kept the
region of the Upper Madeira River geographically and economically
isolated and have contributed to the low population densities,
particularly in the Bolivian States of Beni and Pando. The development
potential of this area, where Brazil, Peru and Bolivia meet, lies in
the possibilities of accessing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by river
or through the construction and pavement of roads.
read more
Roads and protected areas in northern Bolivian Amazon (Bolivia : 2005-2007)
New road projects
in the Amazon Basin present one of the greatest
challenges for accomplishing goals of environmental sustainability and social
justice in the region. On the one hand, roads are seen as required elements for
economic development, but they can come with a host of social and environmental
disadvantages. These include the
destruction of forests and other natural habitats, the loss of biodiversity,
the spread of human diseases, displacement of indigenous and non-indigenous
communities and the concentration of landholdings. Studies that consider and
integrate the varied effects of road projects can point to those investments
that best achieve, and, to the extent possible, reconcile economic,
environmental and social goals.
read more
Economic Analysis of a Proposed Road Through Madidi National Park (Bolivia : 2005-2006)
Rural roads are frequently associated with economic
development, but they are often implemented without consideration for
their economic feasibility or efficiency. The terms feasibility and
efficiency describe investments whose benefits are, at a minimum,
greater than their costs. When such criteria are ignored, road projects
are funded by governments with no clear expectations of increasing the
overall wealth of the country. In fact, they often bring considerable
economic losses when accrued benefits do not offset large costs
involved with road improvement or construction.
read more
Beni River Watershed (Bolivia : 1999)
The region of Northwest Bolivia where the Andes meet the
Amazon plain is alternately considered a rich natural treasure and an
under-developed green void. In 1995, the Bolivian government officially
protected 1.8 million hectares of rain forest, cloud forest, rare
deciduous forest and an array of plant and animal species nearly
unsurpassed in the world's nature reserves.
read more
Paraguai-Paraná Waterway (Brazil : 2002-2003)
Considering the potential extension of the Paraguay-Paraná waterway
and its social, environmental and economic implications, this study
presents an analysis of the influence of the waterway on the logistic
structure of Mato Grosso State soybean transportation. Social
cost-benefit analyses were carried out for 4 distinct scenarios, and
the results indicated feasibility problems, most of them related to
environmental externalities and to limitations on load transferring to
the waterway route.
read more
Belo Monte Dam (Brazil : 2004-2006)
In this study, we analyze the costs and benefits of the Belo
Monte project on the Xingu River in the Southern Amazon. For our
analysis, we create three scenarios. The first examines only the
“internal” costs and benefits of Belo Monte as an energy project,
excluding the costs of its impacts on competing economic activities and
the environment. In the second scenario we included some external
costs: tourism losses, impacts on water supply and fisheries and
declines in water quality during construction. The third scenario also
includes these external costs, and estimated energy benefits based on
an alternative model, called HydroSim, developed at the Campinas State
University (UNICAMP) in São Paulo.
read more
Jalapão Water Diversion (Brazil : 2001-2002)
Three Brazil 2000 course participants not previously
acquainted are now working together to analyze potential impacts of
water diversion from the Tocantins River in central Brazil. The project
would divert water from the Tocantins in the Jalapáo region, a unique
transition zone between Cerrado woodland and caatinga. The water would
be pumped into Brazil's arid Northeast for irrigation and hydroelectric
power. Fani Mamede, formerly of IBAMA, Brazil's environmental agency,
Paulo Garcia, a conservationist working with the municipality of
Mateiros and Wilson Cabral, an engineer at the Sáo Paulo-based
Technology and Aeronautics Institute, are performing an analysis of the
projects potentially extensive environmental and economic impacts.
read more
Roads in the Selva Maya (Mesoamerica Regional : 2005-2006)
This project consists of cost-benefit analysis
and deforestation modelling of road projects in the Selva Maya, in
Guatemala, Mexico and Belize.
read more
Infrastructure Integration and Biodiversity Conservation (Mesoamerica Regional : 2004-2007)
This Project consists of gathering information and analyzing
infrastructure projects, mainly roads and hydropower plants; in Panamá,
Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Belice, Guatemala and the nine south
east states of México (Campeche, Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Puebla,
Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Vera Cruz and Yucatán). As part of this project,
specific studies on the economic and environmental viability of some
infrastructure projects that might be potential threats to biodiversity
will be undertaken.
read more
Chalillo Dam (Belize : 1999-2002)
In 2000 CSF worked with the Belize Alliance of Conservation
Non-Government Organizations to provide Belizeans with an independent
analysis of a proposed dam on the Macal River. The upper Macal and its
tributaries provide habitat for rare scarlet macaws, Morelet's
crocodiles, river otters, tapirs and jaguars. But it also has potential
to supply electricity to consumers throughout Belize.
read more
Roads in the Selva Maya Biosphere Reserve (Guatemala : 2005-2006)
This project consists of environmental valuation, cost-benefit analysis
and deforestation modelling of road projects in the Selva Maya
Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala.
read more
Usumacinta Dam (Mexico : 2006-2007)
In this study we analyze a dam proposed on the Usumacinta River in
Mexico. Our objective is to stimulate discussion on the costs and
benefits of such projects in the largest watershed in the Maya Forest
and in Mesoamerica as a whole. We chose to analyze the Tenosique
project (formerly known as Boca del Cerro), given that it is apparently
the Usumacinta dam being given the most serious consideration by
planners.
read more
Changuinola Dams in Panama (Panama : 2005-2006)
We analyzed four hydroelectric projects planed in Panama’s Bocas del Toro Province.
All four projects would be located in the Changuinola-Teribe watershed, within
the limits of the Palo Seco Protected Forest (known by the Spanish acronym
BPPS). Three of these projects would be built on the Changuinola River, with
the fourth on the Bonyic River. Both rivers have their headwaters within the
Amistad International Park (PILA). The dams’ combined installed capacity would
be 446 megawatts, equivalent to 30 percent of Panama’s total capacity at the
end of 2004. Our analysis suggests that the projects would most likely be both
economically and financially feasible. Nonetheless, they would cause
environmental damage in an area of global conservation interest and impose
serious hardship on indigenous communities living along these rivers.
read more
Roads in Volcán Baru Park (Panama : 2002-2003)
Three road investments have been proposed in the vicinity of
the Barú Volcano National Park in the province of Chiriquí: (1) a
one-lane road from Cerro Punta to Boquete, via the Park; (2) the
so-called “southern route” from Cuesta de Piedra to Boquete via
Palmira; and (3) paving the access roads as far as the guard stations
at the Park’s Eastern and Western entrances (see figure 2). This paper
provides an economic analysis of the proposals, conducted by
Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF) and The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
between February and April, 2003. We employed the “Roads Economic
Decision Model,” developed by the World Bank in 1999. The research was
jointly funded by the Nature Conservancy and Conservation International
(CI).
read more
Canal Project (Panama : 2000-2002)
CSF is assisting the Centro de Asistencia Legal Popular (CEALP) in
analyzing new dams proposed to provide water needed to expand the
Panama Canal. After participating in a CSF training, CEALP lawyer Erya
Harbar proposed to undertake a legal and economic analysis of dams that
would effect both natural ecosystems and campesino communities. The
study aims to determine the economic efficiency and equity of the
proposed $8 billion expansion of the Panama Canal, including new
reservoirs to supply water and electricity. Expanding the canal would
require three new dams, aqueducts, transmission lines and roads in a
remote 500,000-acre area of forest and small towns. The goal of our
work with CEALP has been to inform affected rural communities of their
rights and force consideration of the financial and environmental
tradeoffs of the bigger canal into the national policy debate on the
issue.
read more
