Photo credit: Science Daily

Road planning ‘trade off’ could boost food production while helping protect tropical forests

Date:

December 15, 2016

Source:

University of Cambridge

Summary:

Scientists hope a new approach to planning road infrastructure that could increase crop yield in the Greater Mekong region while limiting environmental destruction will open dialogues between developers and the conservation community.

Conservation scientists have used layers of data on biodiversity, climate, transport and crop yields to construct a colour-coded mapping system that shows where new road-building projects should go to be most beneficial for food production at the same time as being least destructive to the environment.