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Left: A member of a local timber union inspects the trees that were logged down in a farm in south Para, during an operation alongside the inspectors from the Ministry of Labour.

Middle: The Ministry of Labour’s inspectors are developing a pioneering activity, linking the exploitation of poor workers making charcoal at the edges of the Amazon forest, in one side of the production chain, to profitable pig-iron producers in the other. Here they are inspecting a big company in Para. The managers of this company were arrested the following day, as the Federal Police found over 50 truckloads of illegal charcoal in the company’s premises, destined to pig-iron production. The company was also fined heavily by the environmental agency IBAMA.

Right: The authorities raided a charcoal producer in south Para and arrested its manager. He was taken to the police station and forced to pay all the unpaid salaries. He will have to face criminal charges for keeping workers in slavery-like conditions and for logging down the rain forest in the Amazon.