Can ranchers help rescue the Amazon?
It’s an ecosystem like no other. One 19th century explorer called it “the last page of Genesis, yet to be written.” Brazil has been busy drafting that page ever since, sometimes to alarming results.
A fifth of the rainforest has been cleared for farms, cattle grazing and ambitious development schemes such as highways and megadams, too often by lawless means and for only fleeting wealth. Unless the economy, governance and culture of the region undergo a fundamental reset, scientists fear, the entire biome may be on track for irreversible dieback.
