3 d. ago ‘This is my mission, my destiny’: a treacherous Amazon journey in the footsteps of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

Three years after the deaths of the British journalist and Brazilian activist, the Guardian joined the Indigenous peoples continuing their dangerous and often gruelling work to protect the rainforestPhotographs by João LaetTataco grimaces and braces for impact as his canoe hurtles towards the banks of Brazil’s Jordan River into a blizzard of branches, vines and leaves. In the bow of the boat, his Indigenous comrade, Damë Matis, shields his face with his arms as he is swallowed by the vegetation, twigs gouging his muscular shoulders.“Get down! Get down!” Tataco yells, battling to control the vessel before its occupants are skewered by the lance-like boughs jutting out from the shore. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago ‘This is my mission, my destiny’: a treacherous Amazon journey tracing the steps of our murdered colleagues

Three years after the deaths of the British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian activist Bruno Pereira, the Guardian joined the Indigenous peoples continuing their dangerous and often gruelling work to protect the rainforestPhotographs by João LaetTataco grimaces and braces for impact as his canoe hurtles towards the banks of Brazil’s Jordan River into a blizzard of branches, vines and leaves. In the bow of the boat, his Indigenous comrade, Damë Matis, shields his face with his arms as he is swallowed by the vegetation, twigs gouging his muscular shoulders.“Get down! Get down!” Tataco yells, battling to control the vessel before its occupants are skewered by the lance-like boughs jutting out from the shore. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago A journalist was killed while writing a book on the Amazon. Here's how friends completed his work

British journalist Dom Phillips was working for years on a book about saving the Amazon when he was killed in the region by fishermen in 2022

Events

1 week ago ‘We carry on with the sadness’: new projects honor life and legacy of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

Friends and colleagues of Phillips, killed in the Amazon in 2022, completed his book, which coincides with launch of investigative Guardian podcastThree years after the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian activist Bruno Pereira were murdered in the Amazon, two major new projects will celebrate their lives and work – and the Indigenous communities and rainforests both men sought to protect.Friends of Phillips have completed the book he was writing at the time of his death – How to Save the Amazon – which will be published in the UK, the US and Brazil on 27 May. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago The Guardian view on protecting the Amazon: forest defenders must have support | Editorial

Dom Phillips’ posthumously published book is an urgent reminder of why this unique landscape matters so muchIt doesn’t start for six months, but the build-up to the UN’s annual climate conference is already well under way in Brazil. Hosting the tens of thousands of delegates who make the trip is a big undertaking for any city. But the decision to host Cop30 in Belém, at the mouth of the Amazon river, has multiplied the complications.After three consecutive Cops in autocratic nations, the stated aim of Cop30’s chair, André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, is to make this year’s event a showcase for civil society, including the Indigenous groups and forest defenders who play such a vital role in conservation. But the lack of affordable accommodation and other infrastructure, as well as the distance that must be travelled to reach the Amazon port, mean this commendable ideal will be hard to realise. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago How to Save the Amazon by Dom Phillips review – tracing the late journalist’s footprints

A team of writers complete the vital book that Guardian journalist Dom Phillips was working on at the time of his murderOn page 165 of How to Save the Amazon, a black-and-white photo interrupts the text. Two wooden crucifixes stand in a freshly hacked clearing, lashed to tall, thin stumps. One of them bears the name Bruno Pereira. The other, Dominic Phillips, the author. The image splits the book in two. Before it, the pages are filled with Phillips’s vivid prose. After it, his friends and former colleagues have gathered and attempted to complete his work as best they can.Erected on the bank of the Itaquaí river, in a remote part of the Brazilian Amazon, the crosses mark the spot at which – early on the morning of 5 June 2022 – Pereira and Phillips were murdered. The two men had been travelling downriver in a small motorboat when they were attacked. Pereira, a Brazilian forest protector and Indigenous specialist, was shot first: three times, including in the back. Phillips...

Politics

2 w. ago A deadly mission: how Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira tried to warn the world about the Amazon’s destruction

The Guardian journalist and the Brazilian activist were killed while investigating the destruction of the Amazon. In this extract from the book Phillips was writing at the time of his death, he reflects on his encounters with the rainforest and its people – and why it is so vital to save this precious placePhillips and Pereira disappeared on a research expedition into the the far western Amazon. Pereira had received death threats due to his work helping Indigenous people protect the rainforest from illegal fishing and hunting. When the pair did not return, a search was launched. After 10 days, their bodies were found. Two men will go on trial for their murder next month.‘SNAKE!” The cry came from near the end of the line of 11 men, strung out along a narrow trail being hacked out of thick Amazon rainforest. I shivered. I had walked right past the danger lurking unseen in the dense undergrowth. Poisonous snakes are one of the most lethal threats in this part of the world. I...

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