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The paper discusses the socio-economic challenges associated with road projects promoted in French Guiana, where seven out of a total of twenty-two municipalities are only accessible by air or river. On the basis of an analysis of the documents overseeing land planning in French Guiana two main issues are highlighted: regional territorial continuity on one hand and land control and management on the other one. In a second step, based on fieldwork, the article discusses two case studies one in the Eastern part (National Road 2 between Régina and Saint-Georges) and the other in the Western part (road Saint-Jean/Apatou) of French Guiana, in order to assess the effects of the projects in relation to their initial objectives. The measured gap between them feeds the deconstruction of a causal link “road = development” which seems nevertheless to be assumed without question in the policy documents of French Guiana.