That roads cause deforestation has been known for decades, documented in scholarly and anecdotal accounts. But this outstanding video from roadfree.org may be the most effective telling of this roads-and-forests story yet! Watch it. If you care about nature and have a sense of humor you'll want to laugh and cry at the same time.

Roadlessness was at the center of policy battles over US public lands in the 1990s.  Now it's gaining some traction in the tropics, where the advance of roads has fragmented nature into smaller and smaller bits, condemning certain species, especially large predators, as well as indigenous cultures that depend on not having contact with the modern world. 

The economics of paving the last bits of wilderness are clear and hilariously illustrated in the video.  The severely diminishing returns to obliterating nature have kicked in in most parts of the world - i.e., the marginal gains to the economy of building driveways to the remaining wildlands are slight, not least because of the miniscule demand for transportation in the places that the roads would "integrate."