How to Save the Amazon

‘Ultimately as inspiring and devastating as the Amazon itself’ The Guardian

‘Bold, pacy, bursting with optimism and filled with vivid descriptions, this is the work of an indomitable soul’ - Guy Shrubsole

A brilliantly colourful work of reportage ... a haunting and truly important read’ - The Telegraph

RECIPIENT OF A WHITING FOUNDATION AWARD

On 5 June 2022, award-winning journalist Dom Phillips was working on this book, alongside the indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, when they were both shot. They are believed to have been assassinated by one of the criminal networks whose ecological exploitation they were working to expose.

As the world becomes more aware of the significance of the Amazon, home to nearly 400 billion trees, working in this vast region has become ever more dangerous for activists and journalists. Fires, land grabs, and the invasion of reserves have all spiked over recent decades, pushing the world's biggest forest ever closer to a point of no return. The last few years have seen efforts to reduce deforestation, but the question remains; can we save this globally essential ecosystem before it is too late?

A group of expert writers took up Phillips' partially completed manuscript, committed to his mission of uncovering the truth about deforestation and searching for solutions. Blending in-depth reporting and encounters with indigenous activists, ecologists, farmers, and political figures, How to Save the Amazon is a dazzling account of how we can fight ecological destruction and stand in solidarity with the Earth's environmental defenders.