The makeshift road tears through the emerald canopy, splintering one of the Amazon’s most pristine corridors of rainforest. Along the edges of the road, running through the heart of the Terra do Meio Ecological Station, swaths of jungle have been razed and turned into pasture. Under federal protection since 2005, Terra do Meio spans 3.37 […]
XINGU RIVER, Brazil Deep in the Brazilian Amazon, our motorboat slides past an emerald canopy of rainforest, cascading down to the banks of the Xingu River. Beyond, in the Terra do Meio Ecological Station, hundreds of plant and animal species thrive in one of the best-preserved slices of the Amazon. Under federal protection since […]
TRIUNFO DO XINGU, Brazil Lenice Divina Ramos weaves through knee-high weeds and scorched shrubs before halting abruptly near the slice of jungle where, not long ago, she found the charred carcass of her pet monkey. “The little fellow had no way to escape,” she says wistfully, waving toward the burnt-orange patch of vegetation that […]
The Americas have a long history of occupation based on the destruction of nature and the violent massacre of native peoples, all in the name of a particular idea of “progress.” Brazil’s military dictatorship, which ran from 1964 to 1985, embraced this ideology to the point it had a specific motto “integrate to not […]
Satellites have detected forest clearing within Triunfo do Xingu this year, an area that’s supposed to be a legally protected swath of Amazon rainforest in Brazil’s northern state of Pará. Home to jaguars, howler monkeys, rare margays, and a wellspring of other diversity, the protected area was created in 2006 as a sustainable use reserve, […]