Wildlife crossings and road impact on mammals

Abstract

Highways are essential for countries’ economic growth; therefore, the provision of road infrastructure services is undergoing rapid and permanent expansion.  In current strategies, these communication routes are considered a fundamental element in economic reactivation, fostering many ambitious road modernization and expansion projects worldwide (CEPAL2021).  Despite their usefulness, roads are also a threat with significant environmental consequences.   In recent decades,they have been considered one of the main threats to wildlife globally (van der Ree et al. 2015), mainly due to their impact by favoring habitat fragmentation and causing the mortality of multiple species of fauna due to collisions with vehicles.  In this issue, it is recognized that landscape connectivity is essential for maintaining the flow of mammalian individuals, their genetic variability, and allowing access to resources.  An irruption of the connectivity brings, as a consequence, threats at the species and population level.  However, despite the topic's relevance, there is little legislation on the maintenance of ecological connectivity.  As indicated by Fernández-Buces et al. (2022), no laws, regulations, or agreements require means to maintain the connectivity of the landscape on the roads in a planned manner.  As an example, there is an absence of specific laws to design wildlife crossings as a strategy to maintain said connectivity.  It is necessary to understand that when building this type of communication routes, it is necessary to avoid or mitigate to a minimum the impacts that may be generated due to the construction activities and their subsequent operation.