ROADS are among the most visible symbols of progress. They connect remote communities to schools, hospitals and markets. They shorten travel, stimulate commerce and bring government services closer to people.
But a road becomes a poor bargain when the progress it delivers comes at the cost of something that cannot be replaced. This is the challenge confronting the Central Panay Mountain Range, where the Pandan-Ibajay, Laua-an-Capiz and Valderrama-Lambunao road networks cross an ecosystem that is both Panay Island’s ecological backbone and the last major refuge of the critically endangered endemic fauna such as the Visayan spotted dear, Visayan warty pig and the Dulungan or Rufous-headed Hornbill, among others. This should compel government to look at every road cutting through the mountain range with extraordinary care.
The issue is not whether communities deserve roads. They unquestionably do.
The concern is whether planners continue treating forests as empty spaces on maps through which highways can simply be carved.
They are not empty.
The Central Panay Mountain Range stretches across Aklan, Antique, Capiz and Iloilo and serves as the island’s main watershed. Its forests sustain wildlife, store water and perform ecological functions that communities themselves depend upon. And roads can fundamentally change those forests.
Environmental conservation watchdog Haribon Foundation acknowledges the benefits of roads in connecting communities to schools, markets and other services. But it also warns that opening routes through forests can damage watersheds and fragment wildlife habitat. Its proposed response is sensible: find a “middle ground” by identifying low-impact routes that provide connectivity without unnecessarily endangering surrounding forests.
That principle should become standard government policy. Before another road is driven through an ecologically critical portion of Central Panay, planners should be required to demonstrate that lower-impact alternatives have been seriously considered. Environmental assessments should influence routes and even the decision on whether particular sections should proceed at all.
The environmental impact of a mountain road does not necessarily end at the pavement’s edge. Opening previously intact forests can fragment habitats and place greater pressure on wildlife. And for a species already surviving in extremely small numbers and within a limited geographic range, further habitat disruption carries consequences far beyond the immediate construction site. Lose the forest and we dismantle an ecosystem piece by piece.
This is why infrastructure planning in Central Panay requires a higher standard. Where roads are genuinely necessary, government must identify the least destructive routes and impose stringent safeguards. Critical habitats and mature forests should be avoided wherever feasible. Watersheds must be protected. Construction footprints must be minimized. And environmental compliance must be monitored on the ground, not merely certified on paper.
This is not a choice between people and nature. Communities need connectivity, livelihoods and access to public services. But those same communities also need water, forests, protection from environmental degradation and an ecosystem capable of sustaining future generations.
A road that improves life today while helping destroy the natural systems needed tomorrow is not sustainable progress. Roads should take Panay toward a better future – not toward the extinction of something found nowhere else on Earth.
