The fires turned into a major diplomatic crisis for president Bolsonaro, putting him against a global backlash. He mobilized the military to tackle the flames and banned fires for 60 days. Here, the army interview a man after being surprised setting fire to an environmental protected area in Assis.
Ixa Txana poses for a portrait with the burned rainforest behind her home. The Huni Kuins, an indigenous tribe in the state of Acre, lost almost 80% of their territory because their neighbors set fire to use the land for animal agriculture.
The army together with IBAMA, The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, visit a family who lives inside a protected area in Acre that has previous reports for land burning.
Chickens hang upside down into metal shackles in a slaughterhouse near Acre. In 2019, more than 5.8 billion broilers were slaughtered for domestic market.
A worker shove the chicken's legs upside down into metal shackles that carries them to the slaughter process. The birds many times have their legs or wings broken as they are shackled, and many of them are scalded alive.
Topics
Agriculture, Amazon, Animals, Climate Change, Deforestation, Documentary, Environment, Forest, Journalism, Landscape, Latin America, Nature, Photography, Photojournalism, Portrait, Portraiture, Reportage, Still life
2019 was the highest loss in the Brazilian rainforest in a decade. Deforestation surpassed 10,000 square kilometers, and is now pushing into indigenous lands, national parks and one of the most preserved parts of the jungle. Experts have blamed the Bolsonaro administration for the sharp increase in Amazon deforestation since last year. They cite the president’s heated rhetoric against environmental regulations and strip protected areas of their status, and decision to reduce environmental law enforcement. Bolsonaro has openly called for agricultural expansion across the region that today support ranches with more than 50 million cattle. The Agribusiness is a massive contributor to the Brazilian economy, and has gained even more economic and political power. Scientists fear that continued deforestation, combined with the effects of climate change, could trigger the Amazon rainforest to “tip” toward a drier, savanna-like ecosystem. Such a shift would have a profound implications for the region’s biodiversity and forest-dependent peoples.
