Why is the interior of French Guiana sparsely populated?

The interior of French Guiana is sparsely populated primarily due to its challenging physical geography and the concentration of human activity along the coast. More than nine-tenths of the territory is covered by dense tropical forests, which create a difficult environment for settlement and development.

Furthermore, the region's infrastructure is significantly underdeveloped in the interior, with the road system largely focused on coastal areas. Consequently, the population is heavily concentrated in and around Cayenne and other coastal regions, leaving the vast interior largely uninhabited.12