Road and highway construction in the rainforest opens up large areas for development and deforestation. Roads facilitate the export of agricultural products, and incentives land conversion and new settlements. Large plantations are only possible where there are roads passable by heavy vehicles.
In Brazil, the Trans-Amazonian highway resulted in the destruction of huge areas of forest by poor colonists, loggers, and land speculators. In Africa, logging roads give access to poachers who hunt endangered wildlife as "bushmeat" or meat sold to city dwellers.
Addition, long stretches without trees in the forest canopy allows the sun to reach the soil and dry soil, which becomes the major vehicle for the propagation of forest fires.
The construction of large dams has been threatened or destroyed entire forests in Brazil, Burma, Borneo. In the heart of the Amazon are being built at least 18 iron plants. Drilling for oil continues Philippine, in Ecuador, Peru, and Costa Rica, in the mangrove forests of the mouth of the Niger. The gold rush of mercury pollutes the rivers of New Guinea and the Amazon.