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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), a part in the heart of the Amazon Basin. 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.
Map of BR-163, Brazil
The highway runs past the Nascentes da Serra do Cachimbo Biological Reserve in the south of Pará, among the ten most deforested federal conservation units in the Amazon Legal. Several invasions of squatters in the park followed rumours that the highway would be paved in 2000. 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.
As of May 2016, the entire road is paved save for 200 km and a similar length of potholed road.