Brazil Rainforest Defenders

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Eýy Cy, 31, holds his son in the main square of Governador village, where he is chief, in Governador Indigenous Territory in Maranhão State in June 2018. The Pyhcop Catiji people who live there have set up a group of “Forest Guardians,” who patrol the forest to detect illegal logging. © 2018 Brent Stirton/Getty Images for Human Rights Watch
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Scenes of the Pindaré river, which marks the limit between the mostly deforested areas around the Caru Indigenous Territory, in Maranhão, and the lush rainforest inside, in June 2018. Loggers cross the river into the territory to extract timber illegally, Indigenous people say. © 2018 Brent Stirton/Getty Images for Human Rights Watch
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Cláudio José da Silva, the coordinator of the “Forest Guardians” of Caru Indigenous Territory, Maranhão State, at the bank of the Pindaré river in June 2018. The Guardians are Tenetehara Indigenous people who patrol the land to detect illegal logging and report it to the authorities. © 2018 Brent Stirton/Getty Images for Human Rights Watch
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Jaciane Guajajara (left) and Graça Guajajara remember their father Tomé Guajajara, who was killed in 2007 by loggers who invaded their village to recover a logging truck apprehended by Indigenous people inside the Araribóia Indigenous territory. Twelve years on, there has been no trial.   © 2018 Brent Stirton/Getty Images for Human Rights Watch
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Cattle near Governador Indigenous territory, Maranhão State, in June 2018. The Pyhcop Catiji Indigenous people protect a remnant of Amazon rainforest surrounded by cattle ranches, mostly devoid of trees. © 2018 Brent Stirton/Getty Images for Human Rights Watch
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One of two illegal sawmills found by Human Rights Watch about five kilometers outside Governador Indigenous territory, in the outskirts of Amarante do Maranhão in June 2018. This sawmill was in the open, unobscured by any fences or trees, a few hundred meters from a main road, and hooked to the town´s power grid. © 2018 Brent Stirton/Getty Images for Human Rights Watch

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is driven largely by criminal networks that use violence and intimidation against those who try to stop them, and the government is failing to protect both the defenders and the rainforest itself.

Indigenous communities and other local residents have long played an important role in Brazil’s efforts to curb deforestation by alerting authorities to illegal logging activities that might otherwise go undetected. Scaling back environmental enforcement encourages illegal logging and results in greater pressure on local people to take a more active role in defending their forests. In so doing, they put themselves at risk of reprisals.  

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Cláudio José da Silva at the bank of the Pindaré river, in the Brazilian Amazon.

September 17, 2019

News Release
Brazil: Criminal Networks Target Rainforest Defenders