Road Construction in the AmazonWhen you think of the Amazon rainforest, it is very unlikely that paved roads and highways come to mind. Unfortunately, road construction has been the primary cause of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon basin for the past 35 years. In an attempt to expand its borders and economically develop the country's inaccessible areas, the Brazilian government has launched a series of projects aimed at improving the infrastructure of the Amazon region. This primarily included building major transportation arteries such as the Trans-Amazon Highway and subsidizing small-scale agriculture along those arteries. The National Development Plans (NDPs) did not achieve their initial goals as few people settled in the newly expanded areas and those who did settle still suffered from low income, lack of educational opportunities and low life expectancy.1 The negative impact on 'environment of the planned plans human expansion is enormous. It has been estimated that 10 million hectares of Amazon forest have been destroyed due to logging, fires, agricultural clearing and burning, and conversion to pasture. Deforestation is mainly caused by road construction as 74% of redeveloped areas are within 50 km of roads.1 This clearly demonstrates that border expansion and colonization for economic and social reasons have a devastating effect on the environment. The Brazilian Amazon is the largest portion of undisturbed rainforest and, unfortunately, this natural treasure is being damaged very carelessly and at an extremely high rate. Despite the grim conclusions above, the Brazilian government persists in its effort to expand infrastructure by appropriating more and more land from the heart of the Amazon basin. In 1999, the government initiated a new program, called Avança Brazil (Forward Brazil), which intends to add 6,245 km of paved highways and 1,600 km of railways to the existing transportation network. Highlights of the project include the construction of the Santarem-Cuiaba and Porto Velho-Manaus highways, which would pass through pristine forest areas.1 There is ongoing heated debate about the environmental effects of the new construction project. Researchers and environmentalists predict that “Avança Brazil” will cause deforestation at a rate of between 269,000 and 506,000 hectares per year. They also accuse the Brazilian government of negligence and corruption, because "Avança Brazil" was approved without the necessary environmental assessment reports from the Ministry of the Environment.2 Government officials say measures have been taken to minimize the impact negative about the environment, but do not present facts and examples of how this is done.