Burning down the Amazon

In 2013, clearing practices were intensified again in Brazil’s rainforest. At the World Climate Summit in Warsaw, Brazil’s environment minister Izabella Teixeira admitted that by November this year, some 5,843 square kilometers of forest had been cut down. 2012 saw a loss of 4,571 square kilometers. In 2004, some 27,000 square kilometers went up in flames – a global negative record.

Intensified soy and wheat cultivation are partly to blame for the destruction of the rainforest. Brazil’s Para state saw the heaviest clearing. Destruction there rose by 136 percent between August 2012 and June 2013, according to the Imazon Institute. Near the city of Novo Progresso alone, some 400 hectares of forest were torched.

Even though only about five percent of Brazil’s 200 million inhabitants live in the Amazon region, dam construction is on the rise there. The Teles Pires hydropower plant on the Amazon tributary of the same name is due to start operation in 2015. So far, only one percent of the region’s hydropower potential is being used. Brazil’s national energy plan foresees a considerable rise by 2030.

Once it is cleared, the timber is sold. The illegally cleared areas in the Amazon region are often used by cattle breeders as pasture land. According to Brazilian law, they can become the rightful owners if they use the area ‘productively’ for five years in a row. The costs of clearing a forested area are estimated at around 3,000 euros (4,040 US dollars) per hectare.

This settler has been caught red-handed by the police. He illegally cut down trees in Jamanxim National Park. Brazil’s environment agency, Ibama, regularly patrols the Amazon’s national parks and nature reserves. In 2012, the agency issued fines of roughly half a billion euros. This year, the figure is likely to be even higher.

Last year, the Brazilian government announced it would limit the destruction of the rainforest until 2020 to less than 4,000 square kilometers per year by increasing patrols. But an ever-growing number of trees is lost to lumberjacks, gold diggers and agricultural companies. The illegally felled jungle giant pictured here was discovered near the city of Novo Progresso in Jamanxim National Park.

The 3,000-kilometer ‘Transamazonica’ highway was supposed to connect Brazil with its Latin American neighbors, Peru and Bolivia. But forty years after the ground was broken on Brazil’s famous federal highway BR 230, the gigantic project is still not finished. And environmental groups don’t want that to change.

Humble bars along the 'Transamazonica,' like this one, are the first port of call for truck drivers and those seeking their luck in the jungle. In the rainy season, the highway often turns into an impassable mud track. Small farmers and gold prospectors have settled along the gash cut through the jungle, pushing out the original inhabitants from their traditional areas of settlement.

The gold rush is threatening their lives. Hundreds of Yanomami have died from diseases brought into their areas by prospectors. Settlers invade the area regularly because the Yanomami’s reservation hosts big gold reserves. In June this year, the Brazilian army destroyed illegal airstrips in the nearly 9.5 million hectare reservation on the border with Venezuela.

Black gold: In the middle of the 'Alto Rio Guama' reservation, jungle giants like these disappear in round ovens. The illegally felled trees are turned into charcoal. This aerial image was taken from a police helicopter during a patrol in September 2013. The reservation belongs to the 'Nova Esperanca do Piria' community in Brazil's Para state.