Title: Assessment and Scoping of Infrastructure and Extractive Industries in Relation to Deforestation – Part 2
Principal Investigators: Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Anthony Bebbington, and John Rogan
Funding Agency: Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA)

Large-scale infrastructure and extractive industry projects have attracted significant private and public investment, with direct and indirect synergies between them. However, while the effect of roads on deforestation has been widely studied, the extent to which extractive industry affects forest cover and forest-dependent livelihoods is less clear. Although the actual footprint of operations is modest in absolute terms, the footprint of pollutant-based externalities can be far larger. In addition, the drivers of these different processes are multiple and complex. With a focus on three regions (Brazil, Mexico/Central America, and Indonesia), this project: (1) describes the recent geography of infrastructural and extractive industry investments; (2) assesses the current state of knowledge regarding the impacts of these investments on forest cover and quality, and the rights, organizations and livelihoods of forest-dependent communities; (3) examines the work different organizations are already doing on the relationships among infrastructure, extractives and forests, including what their successes and failures have been with different types of strategy; and (4) identifies feasible strategies for CLUA.