Tears of the forest

Overview

The race for land has long since begun: huge areas of rainforest are burning in the Brazilian Amazon. Originally species-rich forests make way for cattle pastures and agricultural monocultures. Indigenous tribes are driven out by force, environmentalists are killed. Illegal logging, corruption and murder rule life in this lawless area. To learn more about the dirty business, reporter David Beriain travels to the wild west of Brazil. Here he accompanies officers from the IBAMA environmental police, speaks to dubious gunslingers and visits indigenous people whose habitats have been literally erased.