Brazil

Marcio Pimenta captures aerial photos of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil as fires burn through the area. Locals are still struggling to put out the fires in the world's biodiverse ecosystem.

Pablo Albarenga and Francesc Badia I Dalmases’s project “Seeds of Resistance” highlights the plight of indigenous land defenders in Brazil. Albarenga’s ambitious project presents photo composites of land defenders as a way to bring attention to their work.

In the Amazon rainforest, record-breaking forest fires and ongoing deforestation threaten the survival of thousands of plant and animal species that call the ecosystem home. Scientists seeking to save them are carefully evaluating which areas of the vibrant Amazon biome to preserve—knowing many are already lost.

The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest and a critical line of defense against climate change. But it’s been steadily deforested since the 1970s, with nearly 20 percent of its land area wiped out.

Rainforest Journalism Fund grantee Pablo Albarenga's photography from Brazil was featured in The Washington Post's In Sight photography blog.

In the Amazon rainforest, historic levels of deforestation and fire have prompted global outcry. But what’s driving the devastation?

The Amazon is in need of action and defending.

“The people in the big cities of Sao Paulo and Rio, they want us to live on picking Brazil nuts,” a farmer says. “That doesn’t put anyone’s kid in college.”

Some indigenous communities are pushing back against the Bolsonaro government by carrying out occupations, known as “retomadas,” of traditional lands that they say the government has been too slow to recognize as rightfully theirs.

Researchers are looking at whether global warming will lessen rainfall and dry out the Amazon rainforest. To do so, they climb up in an enormous tower and examine clouds.

The Bolsonaro administration made dramatic changes to a program that brought doctors to Brazil's Indigenous communities, depriving them of much-needed medical care. 

To avoid greenhouse gas emissions and preserve oxygenation of rivers, vegetation must be completely removed from dam areas before being flooded. But these guidelines are not always followed and many fish have already died.