International | The rule of saw

The biggest obstacle to saving rainforests is lawlessness

Until that is tackled, nothing else will work

An illegal logging truck is destroyed during an operation by the Specialized Inspection Group, a part of Brazil's environmental protection agency called Ibama, in the Alto Rio Guama Indigenous Territory in Brazil, March 24, 2017. The elite fighting unit, on the front lines of Brazil's struggle to curb the destruction of the Amazon, battles illegal logging, mining, hunting and animal smuggling. (Lalo de Almeida/The New York Times)Credit: New York Times / Redux / eyevineFor further information please contact eyevinetel: +44 (0) 20 8709 8709e-mail: info@eyevine.comwww.eyevine.com
Image: Eyevine
|ITAITUBA, SINGAPORE AND VIRUNGA

The pickup trucks left before dawn. Their occupants—six military police and nine agents from Brazil’s national parks service—wore bulletproof vests. Their target was an illegal gold mine deep in the Amazon. To save the rainforest, Brazil’s new government is trying to catch the criminals who cut it down.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “The rule of saw”

From the March 4th 2023 edition

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