Understanding the link between population dynamics and biodiversity conservation through remote sensing and gridded population data integration

While some progress has been made in stemming forest loss in the tropics, deforestation continues to threaten tropical biodiversity. Many tropical protected areas exist as “islands” surrounded by continuing land use change and development. To understand the interconnections between land cover, biodiversity, and population growth, we use a unique dataset from the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network together with Landsat derived land cover products, population data from the Gridded Population of the World (GPW), and roads data from the Global Roads Open Access Dataset (gROADS). We find significant relationships between road network length and forest loss and between road network length and agricultural development, but no clear links between population growth and land use change. This reaffirms the importance of planning future road extensions to limit their effects on tropical protected areas.