BR-163
BR-163 is a highway in Brazil, going from Tenente Portela, at Rio Grande do Sul state, to Santarém in the state of Pará (the stretch between Santarem and Brazil-Suriname border has some deployed stretches, but all dirt paved, and there is no direct link due to the lack of a bridge over the Amazon River, only going by ferry crossing). The total length of the road is 4,476 km (2,781 mi),[1] a part in the heart of the Amazon Basin.[2] The road has almost 1,000 km, all in the state of Pará (at Amazon rainforest), not asphalted. As part of the Avança Brasil project, it has been proposed to pave the road in its entirety.
Conservationists worry that paving the road will lead to deforestation in the Amazon through greater access to pristine areas, cheaper transportation costs for soybeans and other agricultural commodities, and land speculation along the highway.
It's estimated that up to 80% of the road is currently re-paved.[3]
References
- Christian Science Monitor
- Philip Fearnside. 2001. "Soybean Cultivation as a Threat to the Environment in Brazil". Environmental Conservation 28 (1):23-28.
- Maria del Carmen Vera-Diaz, Robert K. Kaufmann and Daniel C. Nepstad. 2005. "The Environmental Impacts of Soybean Expansion and Infrastructure Development in
Brazil’s Amazon Basin. Global Development and Environment Institute Working Paper NO. 09-05"
External links
- (English) Al Jazeera video report on the BR-163
- http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/earth/habitats/last-of-amazon.html
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As of March 2013, the road is about 80% paved.