Brazil’s environmental balancing act

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Brazil, host of the Rio+20 Earth Summit on June 20-23, is itself struggling with balancing economic and environmental priorities. The BR-222 highway in Para state, seen here on June 9, reflects prosperity but also deforestation.

Although illegal logging in Brazil's Amazon is down 80 percent since 2004, environmentalists fear recent changes to the Forest Code will lead to further destruction.

Some 20 million people live in Brazil's Amazon, which is the size of the U.S. west of the Mississippi. The region is also challenged by farm and mine pollution, new electricity dams and illegal land speculation -- including the occupation of forest reserves and indigenous land.

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Illegal burning for a farm clears brush in an already deforested section of Amazon rainforest on June 11 in Maraba. Around 20 percent of the Amazon forest has already been destroyed.

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A truck hauls illegally felled logs on June 10 near the protected Arariboia Indigenous Reserve in Maranhao state. Guajajara tribe members say their forests are being plundered and that one member was killed while trying to stop the logging.

According to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, which tracks rainforest destruction by satellite, 242 square kilometers in the reserve have been logged.

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Frederico Guajajara and his daughter, seen here on June 10, are among the villagers in the Arariboia Indigenous Reserve. Guajajara is the tribe's deputy chief.

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Blackened by his job, a worker on June 8 moves charcoal made by burning illegally cut rainforest in Rondon do Para. The charcoal is primarily used to power smelters producing pig iron, including some for export.

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Charcoal is moved to trucks on June 8 in Rondon do Para. Greenpeace alleges that 2,700 charcoal camp workers were liberated from conditions akin to slavery between 2003 and 2011. The workers here said they made $40 per loaded truck.

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A worker carries a bag of charcoal produced from illegally harvested Amazon rainforest wood up a ladder onto a truck on June 8, in Rondon do Para, Brazil. According to a recent Greenpeace study, illegal wood charcoal is primarily used in Brazil to power smelters producing pig iron, which is used to make steel for industries including U.S. auto manufacturing.

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This soybean field in Para state, seen on June 9, used to be forest. Soybeans are Brazil's biggest farm export.

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Cows graze in a deforested area near Amarante do Maranhao on June 10. The cattle industry has taken over much of the deforested land in the Amazon.

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A smelter produces pig iron in Acailandia on June 9. Charcoal used by smelters like this one is largely from illegally logged forests.