Human activities can overload the environment's finite capacity to absorb waste, physically modify or destroy habitats, and use resources more rapidly than they can be regenerated or replaced. Efforts must be made to develop transportation systems that minimize physical and biological stress, staying within the assimilative and regenerative capacities of ecosystems, and respecting the habitat requirements of other species.

Pollution Prevention :Transportation needs must be met without generating emissions that threaten public health, global climate, biological diversity or the integrity of essential ecological processes.

Land and Resource Use :Transportation systems must make efficient use of land and other natural resources while ensuring the preservation of vital habitats and other requirements for maintaining biodiversity

Slash and burn cultivation has destroyed habitats and ecosystems. It  reducing the variety of species. The removal of trees also speeds up soil erosion, which adds sediment to rivers and increases the severity of seasonal flooding