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More from Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

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The village of Mutum, Rio Gregório Yawanawá Indigenous Territory, State of Acre, Brazil, 2016. In the course of some 50 years, the Yawanawá have emerged from complete invisibility into a period of exuberant cultural activity, becoming a reference point for sustainable living and indigenous culture for travelers from all over the world. In 1970, there were just 120 of them, with rampant alcoholism and the resulting social and cultural breakdown, to the point where their language was about to disappear. They were pressured not to use their language in front of whites, mainly by the owners of the rubber plantations, who controlled the forests of Acre from the late 19th century. The plantation owners treated them as slaves and did not want the language to reveal the existence of native tribes who might claim ownership of the land. Another threat was posed by Evangelical missionaries who had enforced Christian worship and attacked traditional indigenous rites as "demonic." Biraci Brasil Yawanawá, better known as Bira, assumed leadership of the group in the early 1990s, expelled the missionaries, got rid of the bibles, reestablished teaching of the traditional language, and began encouraging study of the old myths and stories as a way to pass down the old people's knowledge and memories to the new generations. In three decades, the population has grown to about 1,200 people.

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

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It is only possible to grasp the true dimension of the Amazon forest from space, occupying as it does one-third of the South American continent, an area larger than the entire European Union. Not marked are the land borders of the nine countries that share this ecosystem, although by far the largest part of the territory—over 60 percent—lies inside Brazil. At the heart of this extravaganza of nature is the Amazon River which, fed by some 1,100 tributaries, including 17 over 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) long, disgorges 20 percent of the world's freshwater when it finally enters the Atlantic Ocean. The rainforest also plays a crucial role in slowing climate change, notably as what is known as a "carbon sink." Put simply, every year its trees absorb around two billion tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to five percent of total emission of greenhouse gases driving global warming. At the same time, the forest not only produces an important portion of the oxygen we breathe, but it also determines how much rain is delivered to other regions of South America and beyond. Nonetheless, with at least 17.25% of the biomass already cut down, the fear is that deforestation may soon reach "a point of no return" where the biome cannot recover, turning large areas of forest into tropical savannas.

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

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For centuries after Portugal colonized Brazil, the Amazon rainforest was nicknamed the Green Hell, an impenetrable rain-sodden jungle that offered only danger to outsiders. Many expeditions, above all those hoping to find gold in the mythical lost city of El Dorado, never returned. Some may have been killed by hostile native tribes or died of snake bites or starvation, but a surprisingly large number of explorers chose to settle down with indigenous tribes and share their bucolic way of life. Today, the rainforest is viewed more benignly, sometimes even romantically, as the Green Paradise, more often simply as an extraordinary treasure of nature, one with the planet's largest concentration of botanical species, including some 16,000 species of trees and innumerable plants with remarkable medicinal potential. Further, this unparalleled concentration of vegetation absorbs greenhouse gases and breathes out oxygen. It also offers a traditionally secure home to hundreds of indigenous tribes, some of whom have never had contact with the outside world.

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

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State of Roraima, Brazil, 2018 One of the most extraordinary - and perhaps least known - features of the Amazon rainforest is a phenomenon variously known as "flying rivers" or "aerial rivers." It may seem like a contradiction to talk of a "river" that cannot be seen, yet these "flying rivers" carry more water than the Amazon River itself and affect a larger area of South America and beyond. Scientists have estimated that, while 17 billion tons of water enter the Atlantic from the Amazon River each day, over a similar period 20 billion tons of water rise into the atmosphere from the jungle, earning it the nickname of the "Green Ocean", and then leave the Amazon region. What is remarkable, though, is the scale on which this takes place. A large tree can suck water from as much as 60 meters below the ground and produce as many as 1,000 liters of water per day. And since this is repeated by between 400 and 600 billion trees, it is easy to see how the Amazon forest generates an important proportion of the water that it later receives. In fact, even the water that reaches the mainland through evaporation of sea-water is itself quickly recycled by the jungle in a process known technically as "evapotranspiration." But if the "flying rivers" are vital to the economic welfare of tens of millions of people, mainly in Brazil, they also impact weather patterns across the globe and are themselves vulnerable to the effects of deforestation and global warming.

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

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The community of Piaú, Yanomami Indigenous Territory, State of Amazonas, Brazil, 2019. The Yanomami are the largest low-contact indigenous ethnic group in the world. They have a population of around 40,000 people, with 28,000 in Brazil and the rest in Venezuela. They live in mountains ranges and valleys in the far north of Brazil, in the country's largest indigenous territory. The land extends from the north of the state of Roraima to the Rio Negro in the state of Amazonas. Shamanism is central to Yanomami culture. Their main leader is the shaman Davi Kopenawa, a pioneer in the campaign to establish the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, starting in the late 1970s. In 1993, Haximu, a Yanomami community, suffered a massacre by illegal miners. This led to the only conviction for the crime of genocide in the entire history of Brazilian justice. The Yanomami include at least one isolated group.

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

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Village Mati-Keyawaia, Valley of Javari Indigenous Territory, State of Amazonas, Brazil, 2018. Javari Valley, Marubo Indigenous Territory, state of Amazonas, Brazil, 2018. The current Marubo population is just over 2,000 people. The Javari Valley Indigenous Territory that they inhabit is one of the largest in Brazil, measuring 8.5 million hectares (21 million acres) and is home to several other ethnic groups: Korubo, Matis, Matsés, Katukina, and a variety of isolated groups. More than a century of coexistence with nonindigenous people is reflected in Marubo children's education, and learning Portuguese well is an important part of growing up there. This is why many of them end up becoming translators and intermediaries in interactions with government employees (such as nurses at indigenous health posts) and to support indigenous organizations' activities, notably through ongoing participation in expeditions to contact other ethnic groups in the region. Since the 1990s, the region has recorded high rates of hepatitis infection. Documenting the fight against disease was the reason for my first visit to the region in 1998, followed by another visit in 2018.

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

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Parima Forest Reserve, State of Roraima, Brazil, 2018 Over the Amazon rainforest, rare is the day when you can see a clear sheet of blue sky or a solid blanket of gray cloud. Rather cloud formations offer an ever-changing spectacle. This begins in the morning when warm moist air rises from the jungle and makes contact with minuscule particles which permit the vapor to condense into water droplets and become little clouds resembling cotton balls known locally as aru. As the day advances, they rise and join forces and, temperature and wind speed permitting, gather strength to become a storm cloud known as a cumulonimbus. This is quite the most dangerous meteorological formation, reaching several thousand meters into the sky, spewing out pieces of ice and winds of up to 200 kilometers per hour (125 miles per hour) at the same time as sending lightning, strong winds, and fierce precipitation toward the jungle. Such is its force that even large aircraft will do everything to avoid it, helicopters immediately look for a jungle clearing in order to land and riverboats hurriedly take shelter from the blinding rain.

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

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State of Amazonas, Brazil, 2009 One of the most extraordinary - and perhaps least known - features of the Amazon rainforest is a phenomenon variously known as "flying rivers" or "aerial rivers." It may seem like a contradiction to talk of a "river" that cannot be seen, yet these "flying rivers" carry more water than the Amazon River itself and affect a larger area of South America and beyond. Scientists have estimated that, while 17 billion tons of water enter the Atlantic from the Amazon River each day, over a similar period 20 billion tons of water rise into the atmosphere from the jungle, earning it the nickname of the "Green Ocean", and then leave the Amazon region. What is remarkable, though, is the scale on which this takes place. A large tree can suck water from as much as 60 meters below the ground and produce as many as 1,000 liters of water per day. And since this is repeated by between 400 and 600 billion trees, it is easy to see how the Amazon forest generates an important proportion of the water that it later receives. In fact, even the water that reaches the mainland through evaporation of sea-water is itself quickly recycled by the jungle in a process known technically as "evapotranspiration." But if the "flying rivers" are vital to the economic welfare of tens of millions of people, mainly in Brazil, they also impact weather patterns across the globe and are themselves vulnerable to the effects of deforestation and global warming.

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado

Amazonia - Sebastiao Salgado