until the 1970s, belém was accessible to the rest of brazil only by water.ame a wave of road building. so farthe major investmes theaerenof theasure coenatedg analong e sout then came a wave of road building. withoaou have cheaper cesso th, so farthe major investmes theaerenof theasure coenatedg and with cheaper access, a lot of economic activities become profitable. narrator: two of the biggest activities are cattle ranching and farming. ( chain saw buzzing ) buthe one at clears the land everything else isogging. so whole newowns sprang up herlocated in pará state.nas, this is a boomtown, home to more than 80 sawmills. this is brazil's frontier, a land of opportunity chnortama's oners bumany othe most importantt sos new roads intohe intiorresents e still dirt and not paved. paving greatly accelerates the change. nepstad: and what we're going to do is just look a little bit into the fute, imagining th these roads, which are still dirt roads, are all paved, as is slated by the federal government of brazil. narrator: in this simulation, the growing red area re