Reduce forest impacts from infrastructure and extractive industries

Infrastructure and extractive industries act as catalysts for deforestation by opening access to intact forests. Despite representing a smaller share of direct forest loss than agriculture, their indirect impacts are vast, driven by massive planned investments in roads and economic corridors. While some high-level policy alignments and financial safeguards have emerged, the document argues that a fundamental realignment of economic incentives and stronger enforcement of IPLC rights and environmental regulations are required to achieve forest protection goals.

• Infrastructure and extractive industries act as "drivers of drivers" by providing access to forest areas, which makes other deforesting activities more economically viable. While they directly cause less deforestation than agriculture—accounting for 10% and 7% of tropical forest loss respectively, compared to over 70% for agriculture—their indirect impacts on forest degradation and deforestation can be vast.
• Large-scale infrastructure development and natural resource extraction are increasing in tropical forest regions, with an expected USD 78.8 trillion investment in infrastructure by 2040 and the potential construction of 25 million kilometers of new roads by 2050. These "economic corridors" link energy generation and mines to ports, highways, railways, and expanded waterways, threatening to accelerate deforestation and fragment intact forests.
• Several systemic barriers hinder the protection of forests from infrastructure and extractive industries, including power imbalances that exclude civil society and Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) from decision-making, a lack of transparency, and weak enforcement of regulations due to corruption, corporate influence, or underfunding. Additionally, finance continues to flow into destructive activities without sufficient forest safeguards.
• Various international and multisector initiatives have emerged to address these impacts, though they do not yet provide robust protection. These include a May 2021 G7 Climate and Environment Ministers Communiqué, the Green Investment Principles, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, a November 2018 UN Biodiversity Conference strategy to mainstream biodiversity management, and World Bank initiatives including Forest-Smart Mining and the May 2019 Climate-Smart Mining Facility.

APA

Forest Declaration Assessment (2022). Reduce forest impacts from infrastructure and extractive industries. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Extractive-industries-and-infrastructure-Progress-since-2014.pdf

Chicago

Forest Declaration Assessment. Reduce forest impacts from infrastructure and extractive industries. 2022. https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Extractive-industries-and-infrastructure-Progress-since-2014.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Forest Declaration Assessment |title=Reduce forest impacts from infrastructure and extractive industries |date=February 2022 |url=https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Extractive-industries-and-infrastructure-Progress-since-2014.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{forestdeclarationassessment2022reduce, author = {{Forest Declaration Assessment}}, title = {{Reduce forest impacts from infrastructure and extractive industries}}, institution = {Forest Declaration Assessment}, year = {2022}, month = feb, url = {https://forestdeclaration.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Extractive-industries-and-infrastructure-Progress-since-2014.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }