Charcoal Workers of the Amazon


  • Photographer
    Mario Tama
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Company/Studios
    getty images
  • Date of Photograph
    06/08/2012

see below

Story

According to a recent Greenpeace study, illegal charcoal camps were found to sometimes result in slave labor and the destruction of Amazon rainforest on protected indigenous lands. Between 2003-2011, 2,700 charcoal camp workers were liberated from conditions akin to slavery, according to Greenpeace. Illegal wood charcoal is primarily used in Brazil to power smelters producing pig iron, which is used to make steel for U.S. auto manufacturing. The workers in these photos claimed they were being paid $40 per truckload of charcoal. The Brazilian Amazon, home to 60 percent of the world’s largest forest and 20 percent of the Earth’s oxygen, remains threatened by the rapid development of the country. The area is currently populated by over 20 million people and is challenged by deforestation, agriculture, mining, a governmental dam building spree, illegal land speculation including the occupation of forest reserves and indigenous land and other issues. Brazil is caught up in its own dilemma between accelerated growth and environmental preservation. Brazil is now the world’s sixth largest economy and is set to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.

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