My name is William Longavisha. I'm a writer for The New York Times magazine. This story is

about deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and the forces that are propelling it forward

at an increasing rate, likely spelling the ultimate destruction of the Amazon forest.

The reality of deforestation is not understood by most people. There's an overly rosy view

of the possibilities of stopping this process. Outsiders tend to believe that political efforts

in the application of economic pressures from abroad may stop the destruction of the forest,

and that's a very restrictive view of what's really going on. It does not delve into the

real Amazon as it exists off the guided tour map of natural wonders.

The Amazon is almost completely lawless. There are a few if any consequences for killing,

really, and there's a lot of killing going on. In terms of risk, the worst thing you could

be is an environmentalist. It's too unsafe. The second is maybe being an envoy of The New

York Times. I was warned by various people and police forces that going to Ituna Etata,

which was my chosen terrain for examining deforestation, post-serious dangers. I've

learned through decades of working in conflict zones around the world to take warnings like

this seriously.

Ituna Etata is a provisional indigenous reserve. Indigenous reserves constitute a large percentage

of the total area of the Brazilian Amazon, and within those reserves there are all kinds

of restrictions designed to both protecting indigenous groups and their land. These

large areas are not policed by outside forces, leaving the indigenous groups to protect

both the reserve and themselves. So you would think that Ituna Etata would be a place with

very little deforestation going on, but in fact of all the reserves in the Brazilian Amazon,

it has the greatest rates of deforestation. How can this be happening? And what does it

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