Logging in the Amazon. Hundreds of illegal mahogany logs hidden under the forest canopy exposed by Greenpeace and Brazilian government officials.
With the depletion of forests in Southeast Asia and central Africa, the Amazon is being targeted by domestic and transnational corporations as a key source for tropical timber products. Huge majestic trees like the Samauma, also known as the "Queen of the Forest", are being exploitedto make cheap plywood for construction industries in the US, Japan and Europe. Working in remote forest areas, the loggers often use false permits, ignore limitations of legal permits, cut species protected by law and steal from protected areas and indigenous lands. These are often small or medium scale operations that are able to avoid detection because of the remoteness of the logging locations, the weak presence of the federal environmental agency IBAMA, and a complex chain-of-custody in the cutting, hauling and transporting of the logs. Logging in the Amazon.
Brazil's Army Moves To Protect Indigenous Awá Tribe By Halting Illegal Logging (PHOTOS) They're known by some as Earth's Most Threatened Tribe, but now Brazil's indigenous Awá population is getting help from a powerful force -- the national army.
According to Survival International, a U.K. -based tribal rights group, Brazil's military has deployed tanks, helicopters, and hundreds of soldiers in the Amazon as part of a major ground operation to combat illegal logging. Since the mission began in late June, security forces have shut down at least eight saw mills, with machinery and other equipment seized and destroyed.
Photo credit: Exército Brasileiro "Brazil has taken a promising first step towards saving the world's most threatened tribe," Survival International director Stephen Corry said.