Report: Deforestation in the Amazon, largely driven by powerful and violent criminal networks

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(CNN) - Human Rights Watch (HRW) published an in-depth report documenting how criminal illegal logging networks in Brazil are responsible for deforestation in the Amazon. The report says that these criminals use violence and intimidation against those who try to stop them and have been able to operate without an adequate investigation of their activities by the Brazilian government.

Criminal networks have the ability to coordinate deforestation, processing and sale of large-scale timber "while deploying armed men to intimidate and, in some cases, kill those who seek to defend the forest," says Human Rights Watch. The 165-page report details 28 murders, 4 assassination attempts and more than 40 death threats in the past five years, of which only 2 have gone to trial for the deaths and none have been tried for the death threats.

Human Rights Watch says that "this lack of sanctions is due in large part to the fact that the police have not carried out adequate investigations," since, according to HRW, many of the killings take place in remote areas and, therefore, inaccessible

Aerial view of deforestation in Nascentes da Serra do Cachimbo, in Altamira, Brazil. (JOAO LAET / AFP / Getty Images)

Since August, deforestation-related fires have devastated the Amazon at twice the level of 2018, giving a devastating blow to the rainforest. The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, and his government have sent troops to control the fires, but they are minimizing the situation and have rejected offers of international aid.

Human rights watch