>> reporter: battling alongside them, mentor and activist nadina bandiera, working for decades in thecely dedicating to protecting it. >> reporter: the struggle against deforestation in the amazon is decades in the making. the massive rain forest absorbs one-quarter of the world's 2.4 billion metric tons of carbon each year. but some parts of the amazon now produce more carbon than it's able to absorb. dramatic google earth images highlight the undeniable sprawl into its green areas from 1984 to 2016. on the bottom left is the uru territory. >> where you see chopped-down, razed land, that's private property run by farmers and ranchers. where you see intact forest is indigenous demarcated territory. >> reporter: so-called settlers firmly believe they have a right to use the land. director alex pritz says it was nadina who urged him to hear from those ranchers and farmers. >> i do understand the situation they're in, thought it important to find where those motivations are coming from if we're going to find a real solution to this conflict. >> reporter: the ranchers believe it is their