Fears over rising violence in Amazon as 'forest guardians' battle logging

Brazil's 900,000 indigenous people make up less than 1 percent of the population and live on reservations that account for 13 percent of the country. They are increasingly concerned about illegal logging and agriculture encroaching on the jungle. Brazil led the world in rainforest destruction in 2018, according to independent monitoring group Global Forest Watch.

Indigenous chief Olimpio Santos Guajajara paints his face with red dye from urucum seeds as he prepares to go on patrol to protect Brazil's Amazon rainforest. He is the leader of about 120 Guajajara Indians who call themselves "guardians of the forest" and fight illegal logging in the Amazon where rainforest destruction hit the highest level in a decade in 2018, according to government data.

On a rarely permitted visit, the Thomson Reuters Foundation followed 12 "guardians" on a three-day patrol in the northeast state of Maranhao where they set fire to an illegal logging camp and to piles of timber ready to be sold.