From the ashes: how a mayor beat the loggers to turn the Amazon green again

Once known for landgrabs, shootouts and slash-and-burn farming, Paragominas has halted deforestation to become a model of sustainable growth in a region charred by wildfiresIt's 9am and the sun is already high above a parched Amazon. Not even stray dogs are out on the asphalt in Paragominas today, but Adnan Demachki knows just the retreat. Turning right off state highway PA-125, the former mayor and native of this restless frontier town of 105,000 people in northern Brazil pulls up to the municipal park a five-minute drive from the town centre.Inside, a shaded boardwalk winds through the forest to a green-hued lake complete with lily pads and a sculpted serpent rising from the waters. Macaws squawk in the canopy near a soaring sumaúma tree, the giant of the rainforest. Continue reading...