♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ carlos nobre: the amazon holds the largest biodiversity on the planet. so the amazon is the home of hundreds of thousands of species, plant and animal species. sophie mcneill: the amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest. it plays a vital role regulating the global climate. carlos: in the amazon, estimates are that between 100

and 120 billion tons of carbon are stored in the forest today. sophie: but the amazon is being destroyed at alarming new rates. cristiane mazetti: enforcement has been drastically reduced on the ground in brazil for illegal logging, for deforestation, for land grabbing, for all the environmental crimes. tasso azevdeo: we were never thinking that we will ever come back again to levels of deforestation close to 10,000 square kilometers. sophie: so if deforestation continues at the current rate, we could reach this tipping point within 15 years? carlos: fifteen to thirty years. sophie: those trying to save the amazon are risking their lives. cesar munoz: people who stand up to illegal networks that are destroying the forest are being threatened, intimidated,

attacked, and even killed. sophie: tonight on "four corners" we take you to the heart of the amazon, where you'll meet the people risking their lives to save the rainforest, as we investigate what can be done to stop the rapid destruction of one of the world's most important eco systems. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ sophie: we're on our way into arariboia territory in maranhao state in northeastern brazil. this patch of the amazon rainforest is an indigenous reserve.

it's an oasis. all the surrounding land has been cleared by farmers and loggers over the last few decades. franciel de souza guajajara: [speaking foreign language] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ sophie: nearly 20% of the brazilian amazon has now been destroyed. indigenous tribes are on the frontline of trying to save what's left.

the guajajara people live here among the rainforest. in order to stop illegal loggers and farmers from entering their reserve they formed a patrol unit called the forest guardians. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ sophie: the guardians patrol for days and sometimes weeks on end. franciel: [speaking foreign language] sophie: the hardwood trees stolen from this protected reserve sell for up to $2000 each. franciel: [speaking foreign language]

sophie: the forest guardians are not just protecting the rainforest. this reserve is home to the world's most threatened uncontacted tribe. the awa people are one of only two nomadic hunter-gathering tribes left in the amazon. this video filmed last year, not far from where we are now, captures the moment an awa man was spotted in the forest. franciel: [speaking foreign language]

♪♪♪ sophie: there are believed to be about 80 awa people living within the guajajara reserve. these are the remains of an awa camp the guardians stumbled upon while on patrol. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ franciel: [speaking foreign language] cesar: their survival is threatened terribly by loggers 'cause they live in the most pristine areas on the amazon in

maranhao and that's where the loggers want to get to. and if there is contact, you know, the consequences will be, you know, horrendous. ♪♪♪ sophie: last year, the world watched in horror as large swathes of the amazon went up in flames. fires here happen every dry season when farmers clear land. but in august 2019 more than 30,000 fires burned across the brazilian amazon, a 200% increase from thprevious year; the vast majority of them deliberately lit. tasso: in the amazon, fire is a manmade fire. it's a part of the deforestation process. cristiane: first, the illegal loggers start entering the territory. they remove the trees that have more value in the market,

which are not all the trees. and then it's time to remove the rest of the forest. so this process of removing the forest that's left there, it's a process that use the fire usually, because it's cheaper. and then after the fires, then you can start a new activity, which is gonna be probably cattle ranching. and after some years it could be also turning to some agriculture land with soy, or any other grain. ♪♪♪ sophie: a decade ago, brazil was being praised for its efforts to preserve the amazon. then in late 2018, the country elected a new right-wing government under president jair bolsonaro. a climate change skeptic, bolsonaro campaigned on a platform of developing the amazon and getting rid of environmental protections.

by january 2020, deforestation in the brazilian amazon had soared 85%, with more than 9000 square kilometers of rainforest destroyed: the highest rate in at least ten years. tasso: we were never thinking that we will ever come back again to levels of deforestation close to 10,000 square kilometers. it's really a sign of losing control and it's more disturbing because the reaction of the government to this increase has not been like fighting the deforestatn itself, but actually fighting with numbers and fighting with the people that are actually trying to help to control the deforestation. sophie: ricardo galvao was the head of brazil's national space research institute. ricardo galvao: the president did not like that the data

was available. sophie: in june last year, the institute's data began to show that the amazon was being cleared at rapid new rates. president bolsonaro accused mr. galvao of falsifying the records. ricardo: i almost fainted when i heard that. i tell you why because, you know, in the scientific community to say that a scientist is lying about his research is very serious. sophie: the minister of science and technology told mr. galvao he should resign, but he refused. ricardo: he said, "you know that the president wants your head. you cannot stay in the government anymore. bui know that you are not going to resign so i will take the charge to dismiss you myself." that's what he did. sophie: how did it feel to have them just fire you like that? ricardo: that's a hard question because maybe you have to ask them. i feel, i myself as a brazilian, i felt very sad actually because

i never expect the president to say so openly and so bluntly against science actually. sophie: brazilian scientist carlos nobre was a lead author of the groundbreaking ipcc report into climate chan which helped win the organization the 2007 nobel peace prize. carlos: i mean, i would never have predicted in my scientific career, even five years ago, that the anti-science movement would be growing in the world, in the world. i mean, this is something hard to believe. cesar: president bolsonaro has slashed the budget of environmental agencies, reduced the number of field agents that are on the field. ibama, which is brazil's main environmental agency, had 1800 field agents a decade ago.

these are agents that do everything, any environmental crime. and now it has fewer than 800, for the whole country. sophie: the loggers around guajajara territory operate with impunity. sophie: we've just stopped at this location, just 30 kilometers from guajajara land. now they've told us that just over this fence there's an illegal timber mill. sophie: in fact, human rights watch reported this facility to local police nearly two years ago. it's too dangerous for us to go closer and film but as we can see from the drone, it is still operating. cesar: the destruction of the rainforest is big business. it is done by criminal networks that usually have armed

militias, armed men to protect their business, that often involve corrupt officials. being a defender of the amazon is really dangerous. people who stand up to illegal networks that are destroying the forest are being threatened, intimidated, attacked, and even killed. sophie: one month before we visited the guajajara, 26-year-old forest guardian paulo paulino came across illegal loggers in the forest. they shot him dead. we find his father jose in a nearby town. jose guajarara: [speaking foreign language]

sophie: no one has been arrested over paulo's death. jose: [speaking foreign language] sophie: a logger was also killed when paulo's fellow forest guardians returned fire and the guajajara villagers now live in fear of revenge. franciel: [speaking foreign language]

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ sophie: as we leave guajajara land, we hear that a convoy of indigenous leaders has been ambushed by gunmen, not far from the area we had just been. two members of the tribe are killed. fires on nearby farms continue to burn. ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ sophie: we're now traveling into para state, which has the highest rates of illegal land clearing in the amazon. ♪♪♪ sophie: it's very remote out here. the roads are unsealed and there's no phone signal. we're told that the logging trucks that keep passing us are controlled by criminal networks. sophie: we've now driven more than two hours out of town and we've seen more than eight logging trucks piled up with freshly cut trees. they've driven past us but where we are in this really isolated spot, it's just not safe for us to be seen filming them as they drive past. ♪♪♪

sophie: traveling with us is francisca silva de quadros. she's taking us to the home of her late sister, dilma ferreira silva, a well-known environmental campaigner who was killed last year. francisca silva de quadros: [speaking foreign language] sophie: after several hours, we arrive at dilma's house. it was here last march that she was brutally murdered. ♪♪♪ francisca: [speaking foreign language]

sophie: the 43-year-old mother and her friends were tortured before they were killed. francisca: [speaking foreign language] cesar: dilma's crime was reporting illegal logging. her crime was defending the forest and then she paid with her life. the investigation is showing that a local landowner was involved in illegal logging, possibly also drug trafficking. and he was sending his logging trucks through a road that went,

you know, in front of dilma's house. sophie: while the farmer has been arrested, francisca is not confident justice will be delivered. and she's terrified she'll be targeted for speaking out. francisca: [speaking foreign language] sophie: over the past decade, more than 300 brazilians have been murdered while trying to protect the rainforest. cesar: there has always been an enormous level of impunity for those killings. we have a government that has undermined law enforcement in the amazon and, in fact, given in--effectively, given a green

light to criminal networks that are both destroying the forest and attacking anyone who stands up to defend it. [cars driving] sophie: we want to find out more about how these illegal timber networks operate. [cars driving] sophie: we begin a two-day drive west across the trans-amazonian highway, passing through dozens of small logging

and farming towns. cesar: when you go to these logging towns in the amazon, everybody knows. everybody. everybody who lives there, they know who the logger is, who is the, you know, the person who is occupying illegal land and land grabbing. everybody knows them. everybody sees the logging trucks. sophie: there are loggers in the amazon who have government permits to cut down specific trees. [saw buzzing] sophie: the owner of this door factory insists this wood is legal. but out the back we find a different timber yard, dealing with a suspicious amount of valuable hardwood. [machines whirring]

cristiane: the system that controls timber logging has lots of loopholes and one of them, for instance, is that sometimes the state will allow removing timber from one area. and then this permission is used to remove timber from another area, and this area can be like a protected area, indigenous land. sophie: some of the amazon's trees end up in decks and in flooring in europe, the us, japan, and even australia. more than $75 million of brazilian timber products are imported by australian businesses each year.

sophie: is it possible to have a clean supply chain for timber, for logging, in the amazon? cristiane: right now, it's very hard to say that the supply chain is clean. it's hard to say that any timber that comes from brazil is legal, has a legal origin. ♪♪♪ sophie: we turn off the trans-amazonian highway and head south down brazil's br-163, the highway credited with opening up the amazon for development. ♪♪♪ carlos: the main driver of deforestation in all of the amazon are roads, and when you pave a road, existing road, then the deforestation rates increased a lot.

that's the way people come and access undisturbed forests and start doing land grabbing. sophie: in the '80s, brazil's military government paid thousands of families from the south to settle here along the highway. carlos: that plan was to bring hundreds of thousands of people as settlers, and e idea was remove the forest and start cattle ranches. [truck driving] sophie: today the destruction of the rainforest fans out alongside the br-163. we're heading to novo progresso, a cattle and logging town. it's infamous for the threats environmental agents receive

when they visit. cesar: novo progresso is one of many logging cities and towns in the amazon. and it's controlled by a local elite that is involved in illegal business. some of these criminal networks that operate there have armed men that their j is to threaten, intimidate, and kill. ♪♪♪ sophie: the people of novo progresso believe they have god on their side. today the town is celebrating its patron saint. male announcer: viva santa lucia! [crowd applauding] ♪♪♪ sophie: like most families in this town, deputy mayor gelson

dill resettled here from southern brazil to farm cattle. he says his constituents are decent, god-fearing people. gelson dill: [speaking foreign language] sophie: most people here are cattle farmers. locals are proud of the industry they've carved out of the rainforest. beef is what they live, eat, and breathe. [background chatter] sophie: seventy-eight per cent of the town voted for president bolsonaro. gelson: [speaking foreign language]

sophie: gelson dill believes previous governments have unfairly punished farmers in the amazon. the deputy mayor is among many here fined for illegal land clearing. gelson: [speaking foreign language] sophie: the deputy mayor says local producers have benefited from a massive jump in demand for beef from china. gelson: [speaking foreign language]

erasmus zu ermgassen: the biggest country that buys from brazil is china, which buys about a third of brazil's beef exports. and we've seen that that's growing. exports overall are up a third. as the demand goes up, then they are moving into sort of frontier areas where there's more deforestation in order to, you know, get the beef that they need. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ sophie: we are on our way into jamanxim national park, a massive conservation area next to novo progresso. cutting down the rainforest here is forbidden. if farmers break those rules they can be placed on an official "embargoed" list, banning them from selling cattle or crops produced on illegally cleared land.

sophie: this is meant to be a conservation area but there are dozens and dozens of farms that have set up inside this park illegally. now, we've been given the gps location of this property because it is meant to be under embargo. that is because they have illegally cleared the rainforest for their farming. so we're here to see if there's any evidence of if they're still operating or not. sophie: we put a drone up and can spot a large herd of cows on the embargoed land. clearly, they are still in business. sophie: what does that mean when there's still cattle on a farm that's been placed under embargo? cristiane: these farmers that still have the cattle in embargoed area, they're counting on impunity. they know that they can still do an illegal activity in a area that's restricted, that's embargoed, that nothing is gonna happen to them. sophie: the biggest buyer of beef from the amazon is the

brazilian company, jbs, the world's largest meat supplier. it's signed pledges to try and reduce deforestation, but experts say the company is still driving the destruction of the rainforest. erasmus: what we find is that through those purchases, they're actually linked to between 24 and 29,000 hectares of deforestation risk. it's not very difficult to get around the monitoring because there's widespread, what is called laundering, where cows are moved from one property to a second. the first property had recent deforestation, but once they're on the second property, then they look clean because the system only checks the last guy who sold to the slaughterhouse. sophie: there is somethinghen else in jamanxim national park we have come to investigate. sophie: now more than 100 kilometers deep into the park is