The MAPnet project was initiated in 2005 to examine roadpaving infrastructure impacts on forest structure and biodiversity in the trinational border of the southwestern Amazon. The network includes plots along the road from Puerto Maldonado to Inapare in Peru, from Assis Brasil to Rio Branco in Brazil, and from Cobija to La Sena in Bolivia. In total there are now 78 plots. Plot locations are shown in pink in the adjacent map which shows a LANDSAT composite image of the region from 2005, with national borders in green.

Collaborators in the network include Stephen Perz of the University of Florida (UF), who manages the NSF project; Cara Rockwell and Allie Shenkin (UF) who contribute to field work and data analyses; Hugo Duenas Linares from El Herbario Alwyn Gentry de la Universidad Nacional Amazónica de Madre de Dios in Puerto Maldonado, Peru; Marcos Silveira and Iracema de Souza Moll from the Universidad Federal do Acre (UFAC) in Rio Branco, Brazil; and Guido Vasquez from the Centro de Investigación y Preservación de la Amazonía (CIPA) and the Universidad Amazonica del Pando (UAP) in Cobija, Bolivia.