From: Cool Earth
Once roads are created in rainforest areas, deforestation is sure to follow, one writer has warned.
Writing for UTV, Tony Juniper said that the installation of most strategic roads through rainforests leads to the area eventually being used by loggers, miners and plantation firms.
"Species are driven to extinction, people's land rights are abused and carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere," he noted.
For those who may not have knowledge of the effects of these roads on endangered rainforest, he urged viewing the Amazon basin on Google Earth to witness the "herringbone patterns" made by roads that veer off from the original track and into the surrounding rainforest.
His comments followed an announcement which revealed that a new bridge will open in the Guyana Shield on the border of Brazil and Guyana, an area which he noted is home to some of the most undisturbed rainforest in Brazil.
The majority of the Amazon rainforest (60 per cent) is situated in Brazil, with the area home to nearly half of all known species.