I just finished the book by Dom Phillips – the British journalist murdered in the Amazon in 2022, completed by his colleagues including The Guardian‘s Jonathan Watts. I’m speaking with Jon about it on June 23rd for the How To Academy.
Dom and his friend Bruno Pereira were killed while researching the people destroying the rainforest – murdered by the very illegal fishing networks they were trying to understand. Their deaths weren’t random violence; they were targeted for exposing truths that threaten billion-dollar criminal enterprises.
I believe one of the ways this book is different to all the other literature out there is the extent that it covers cattle ranching—the single biggest driver of Amazon deforestation.
It’s responsible for about 80% of forest loss.
Cattle ranching in the Amazon is very recent. In the 1970s & 80s Brazil’s military dictatorship systematically promoted it under the slogan “Integrar para não entregar” (integrate so as not to surrender). They used propaganda like “A forest without men for men without land” and even required forest clearing to qualify for bank loans.
- Today’s “cattle laundering” is sophisticated – between 2020-2023, nearly 12,000 cattle were moved from just one invaded Indigenous territory through fake permits, allowing illegal beef to enter global supply chains. Companies with independent auditing show 4% non-compliance rates; those without show 52%.
- The human cost is devastating: Indigenous leader Ty’e Parakanã described watching “more than half of our land deforested. It completely destroyed our land and polluted our river.”
Yet there’s hope in Dom’s approach. He believed real solutions come from amplifying all voices – ranchers, loggers, fishermen, and Indigenous communities alike.
The question Dom died investigating remains urgent: How do we save the Amazon while addressing the economic desperation that drives people to destroy it?