2 September 2010
Without a logical sequence of strategic investments that take into account issues before and during road construction, road expansion can become a devastating process for forest areas in the social, environmental, economic and institutional context.
Overview
Currently it appears that the level of transport infrastructure is closely correlated with the level of 'development' of the society which inhabits it. It is even more important to note that roads are a necessary but not sufficient component for such development. There are other factors needed to ensure sustainable development. Included in those are formal processes of participation, transparency, governance, institutional capacity, and social control mechanisms within the planning process and decision making. Without a logical sequence of strategic investments that take into account these aspects before and during road construction, road expansion can become a devastating process for forest areas in a social, environmental, economic and institutional context.
To achieve good governance in the Amazon through the construction of roads it is necessary to reconcile the paradigm that encompasses social development, environmental sustainability and economic sustainability through clear processes that serve as basic criteria and standards in all road projects. These basic criteria and processes are what the STI is based upon and on which investments should be as well.
An STI is characterized by the fact that after all studies and analyses of feasibility have been made, the first option to be considered is of not going through with the project. In this context, it is emphasized that the basic criteria of an STI represent the measures to be taken in accordance to a coherent investment plan that guarantees fluid communication and cumulative levels of progress. This can be viewed as processes that depend on one another sequentially and progressively based on a process of consultation, participation and planning within a strong institutional framework that involves a constant inter-sectoral coordination, ongoing training undertaken at communities for effective participation in all stages of road project including the stage of assessment and monitoring through mechanisms of social control.
The mapping, economic valuation and land organization are the three most important components within a sequential process of regional development planning through the concept of STI and a strategy articulated in the context of REDD. The creation of specific indicators for establishing a baseline for comparison in order to measure the impact of the implementation / construction / operation of a road in social, environmental and economic terms within the scope of each project should be a product of the three components of the strategy mentioned above. These indicators are critical for monitoring and evaluating sustainable infrastructure projects within a results framework for socioeconomic development, having one of the main components of the monitoring be data on emissions due to deforestation and forest degradation in the area that the road impacts.
Through this analysis it is important to consider REDD as a variable that depends on STI due to the strong correlation, impact and multiplier effect of roads on forests. For this reason, the design of a sustainable transport infrastructure should be comprehensible and multisectorial. In other words, the goal is to articulate the road infrastructure project in other initiatives that make up the integration process, local and regional development including the REDD strategy within a context of governance.
Country Study