People cycle along the street in Afuá, a city in northern Brazil's Pará state, in January. Since 2002, this city on the banks of the Amazon River has been famously off limits to motor vehicles. Stefan Kolumban hide caption
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amazon rainforest
A woman and her child stand in front of a landscape denuded by gold mining in the southern Peruvian jungle in the Madre de Dios region. This picture is from 2015. Today, there's an effort to plant saplings to revive the forest. Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Achuar people ply the Rio Wichimi in a solar canoe. The nonprofit Kara Solar has helped fund a fleet of six sun-powered craft in hopes of benefitting the Indigenous Achuar while reducing pressure to build roads in the rainforest. Peter Yeung for NPR hide caption
Aerial view showing a fire at the Chapada Diamantina region, between the cities of Andarai and Mucuge, in Bahia state, northeastern Brazil, on October 7, 2020. - Chapada Diamantina National Park preserves areas of three Brazilian biomes: Mata Atlantica, Cerrado and Caatinga among its 152,000 hectares. MATEUS MORBECK/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Brazil's president will try to rally more support to save rainforest at Amazon Summit
Guarani Indigenous block Bandeirantes highway to protest proposed legislation that would change the policy that demarcates Indigenous lands on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. Ettore Chiereguini/AP hide caption
An aerial picture shows an illegal mining camp during an operation by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources against Amazon deforestation at the Yanomami territory in Roraima state, Brazil, on Feb. 24. Alan Chaves/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
View of a deforested and burned area of the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil on Sept. 2, 2022. Douglas Magno/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Carlos Costa/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A riverside fisherman pulls a captured pirarucu into his canoe in Lake Amanã on Nov. 15. Bruno Kelly for NPR hide caption
An aerial view of the BR-319 highway where it meets the Igapó Açu River in São Sebastião, Brazil, on Sept. 24. The community is a stopping point for travelers and tourists. Bruno Kelly for NPR hide caption
A Brazilian road project cuts through the Amazon, paving the way to vast deforestation
The two candidates in Brazil's presidential elections campaign leading up to a runoff election. Left: President Jair Bolsonaro in Guarulhos on Saturday. Right: Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Rio de Janeiro State on Oct. 11. Left: Caio Guatelli / AFP / Getty Images, Right: Carl de Souza / AFP / Getty Images hide caption
A large fire in a recently deforested area of the Amazon rainforest along Highway BR-319 in the state of Amazonas, Brazil, on Sept. 25. Bruno Kelly for NPR hide caption
Brazil's election could determine the fate of the Amazon after surging deforestation
The two front-runners in Brazil's presidential elections in the final days of campaigning. Left: President Jair Bolsonaro in Santos on Wednesday. Right: Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in São Paulo on Monday. Left: Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images; Right: Andre Penner/AP hide caption
Jewish townspeople of the village of Nasielsk, Poland in 1938. Family Affair Films, US Holocaust Memorial Museum hide caption
'The Territory' and 'Three Minutes: A Lengthening' find cinematic hope in tragedy
Images of British journalist Dom Phillips (left) and Indigenous affairs expert Bruno Pereira are seen on a sign presented by employees of Brazil's national Indigenous agency, FUNAI, during a vigil in Brasilia, Brazil, on June 9. Eraldo Peres/AP hide caption
A man cries over his mother's grave in the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery, in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, on Sept. 29, 2020. Iris Gonçalves Alves died at age 54 the previous day from COVID-19, according to the information on her burial record. During the worst times of the pandemic in Manaus, only three relatives could attend a burial in its cemeteries. Raphael Alves hide caption
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro pulls off his protective face mask to address the 76th session of the U.N. General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday. Eduardo Munoz/AP hide caption
A young, red-handed tamarin monkey. Some of these monkeys are changing their vocal call to better communicate with another species of tamarin. Schellhorn/ullstein bild/Getty Images hide caption
Scientists Say These Monkeys Use An 'Accent' To Communicate With Their Foe
Reili Franciscato, pictured in 1997, on the Purus River in Brazil. Franciscato died Wednesday in the Amazon rainforest, shot with an arrow. Todd Lewan/AP hide caption
A burned trunk stands amid the devastation left after wildfires tore through parts of Brazil's Amazon rainforest earlier this year. During the yearlong period ending in July, deforestation claimed a span of the Amazon 12 times the size of New York City. João Laet/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
G-7 nations pledged millions to help Amazon countries fight wildfires, but Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Tuesday that he's not interested unless he gets an apology from French President Emmanuel Macron. Eraldo Peres/AP hide caption
Indigenous people protest in defense of the Amazon in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. Experts from the country's satellite monitoring agency say most of the fires are set by farmers or ranchers clearing existing farmland, but the same monitoring agency has reported a sharp increase in deforestation this year as well. Bruna Prado/AP hide caption
Moacir Cordeiro, who works in a local cattle farm, looks on after digging grooves with a tractor in an attempt to stave off fires in the Alvorada da Amazonia region in Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil, on Sunday. Leo Correa/AP hide caption