Roberto Brito

It used to be that when Roberto Brito looked at a tree, he would see a number: the amount of money he could earn from chopping it down. Brito and his family, who live along the Rio Negro in the Brazilian Amazon, only saw the monetary value of logged trees. He learned how to use a chainsaw at the age of 11, and represented his family’s fourth generation of men cutting down trees before they became legal adults. At first Brito found it hard to see a beautiful tree, which he knew would produce good timber, without cutting it down. Resisting this impulse was excruciating, like quitting smoking, he says. Now, when Brito looks at a tree, everything has changed.