The landscape might be dotted with some patches of forest and rivers, but the inner part of the eastern region actually has quite poor soil. It is hard to get any crops to grow here, which is why it is perhaps a good thing that so much of the population lives along the coast and survives on fish. All the meat and greenery that serves to add variety to the diets of the Veronique table is grown in this region, and what doesn't get sold to the nobles finds its way to small markets in the handful of port cities that have sprung up along the coast. The roads are ill-maintained for the most part, not through want of neglect but instead simply because so much energy has been turned towards fishing and boating that it proves easier to simply make use of the rivers for transportation than anything else.
