"The WWF released a report, “Nature in Peril: The risk of forests and wildlife from the Dawei-Htee Khee road” on Thursday. Construction began on the 138-kilometre, two-lane Htee Khee road to link the Dawei Special Economic Zone with Thailand in 2018. It runs through the vast forests of the Dawna Tenasserim Landscape, which spans the mountains on the Thai-Myanmar border. The DTL is one of the most intact natural landscapes in the entire Greater Mekong region and a stronghold for tigers, elephants, and other endangered wildlife. This forest ecosystem provides freshwater for the area and is critical for mitigating climate change. It is home to 168 species of mammal, 568 species of bird, and thousands of reptile, amphibian, insect, fish and plant species, the WWF said. “The road would bring economic growth to Tanintharyi. However, we are not looking at the cost to forest and wildlife. Just as people need roads, nature needs wild highways allowing species to move,” said Nick Cox, conservation director of WWF-Myanmar. Needing wild highways is one of several issues ignored by the project, he added. Following the Dawei SEZ Memorandum of Intent signed by Myanmar, Thailand and Japan in 2015, Italian-Thailand Development (ITD) signed an agreement with the government to build the two-lane road. In May 2018, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation approved the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) with some comments. However, the assessment is inadequate in mitigating any impact on biodiversity because it fails to address key challenges, such as the loss of habitat connectivity for threatened species, and an increase in deforestation and illegal hunting, the WWF said. For example, the impact on forests and wildlife identified in the assessment include increases in vehicle pollution, vehicle-wildlife accidents, and deterioration of habitat, but it lacks a comprehensive assessment of the impact of increased traffic and vehicle speeds on wildlife..."