Quilombo Residents Threatened By Ranching And Logging In Brazil's Amazon

PEDRO DO ROSARIO, BRAZIL - NOVEMBER 20: Community leader Luiz Lopes (TOP) and son Railton Lopes walk while giving a tour of threatened forests near homes in the Imbiral quilombo, which community members say is being heavily encroached upon by illegal logging and cattle ranching, in the Amazon basin on November 20, 2014 in the Pedro do Rosario municipality of Brazil. Quilombos are communities usually made up primarily of descendants of escaped slaves who fled to rural areas in Brazil and formed autonomous communities. Residents of the Imbiral quilombo, which is officially recognized, say illegal logging and ranching has rapidly depleted their ancestral territory and some community members have received death threats for resisting deforestation. The non-governmental group Imazon recently warned that deforestation in Brazil's Amazon basin skyrocketed 450 percent in October of this year compared with the same month last year. The United Nations climate conference is scheduled to begin December 1 in neighboring Peru. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)