Brazil's environmental enforcement agents set out in January on their first mission this year to combat illegal deforestation, with renewed energy after the election of a president who has promised to stop surging Amazon rainforest destruction.
But, after years of dwindling funding and staff at the environmental agency Ibama under former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, only two of the 12 agents on the mission near the town of Uruara had any experience with field operations.
