The Brazilian Amazon

An aerial view of the Álvaro Maia Highway, better known in Brazil as BR-319.

Opened in 1976 and around 560 miles (900 km) in length, the highway is the only overland route linking the Amazonas State capital, Manaus, to the rest of the country via Porto Velho, the capital of Rondônia State.

An aerial view of the forest around the Negro River in Amazonas State. Over 1,000 miles (1,700 km) long, it is the longest black-water river in the world.

Residents from the Afro-Brazilian community of Pedras Negras in Rondônia State fishing in the Guaporé River. The river's source is on the Parecis Plateau (Chapada dos Parecis) in Mato Grosso State.

Equipment from the Amazon Radar Project (Radar da Amazônia or RADAM), which was used between 1970 and 1985 to collect and process data about the Amazon region's natural resources.

An aerial view of the Amazon River in Amazonas State, during unprecedented flooding caused by extreme changes in the climate since 1953.

A riverside dweller weaves a fishing net at his home in the Serra do Divisor National Park in Acre State.

Landowners look on as the forest burns on a private property near the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in the Acre municipality of Xapuri.

An aerial view of a cultivated area in Nova Ubiratã, a municipality in Mato Grosso State, where huge swathes of forest were converted to agricultural use.

A member of the Tauató Operation (Operação Tauató) follows a road opened up by loggers in Rondônia State. The operation was the first measure introduced by the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon, a 2004 federal government initiative.

A family of river dwellers in a house built on stilts in the Amazon forest.

Members of the semi-nomadic Pirahã tribe watch a cattle truck on the Trans-Amazon Highway, next to the Maici River in the town of Humaitá, Amazonas State.

Trees reflected in the Tupana River to the south of Manaus, the capital of Amazonas State.

Work on the highway began towards the end of the 1960s and it was intended to pass through seven Brazilian states. Although it was opened in 1972, the Trans-Amazonian Highway has never been completed.

A golden trumpet tree stands out in the middle of the Amazon forest, in the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Territory in Cacoal, Rondônia State.

A member of the Indigenous Desana tribe fishes in a stream off the Tiquié River, in the community of São José in the northwestern Amazon.

Funai base on the Ituí river, at the confluence with the Itacoaí river, which functions as a checkpoint for entry into the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land

Dogs look at meat on display in a butcher's shop near the construction site of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant in Altamira (PA)

Heaps of trees are burned in a deforested area on the banks of the Transamazon highway (BR-230), in the municipality of Labrea (AM)

Illegal mining area next to the Transamazon highway

Work on the main dam of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant on the Xingu River

Recent deforestation in the municipality of Apuí, in the south of the state of Amazonas