Inside the newsroom: Why did the Deseret News go into the Amazon rainforest? Here is the answer

[Judi Lynn]

By Doug Wilks, Editor Nov 16, 2019, 8:32pm MST

SALT LAKE CITY —

They had spent the day in the Virola Jatoba settlement, deep inside the Amazon danger zone near the town of Anapu in Pará, Brazil. Deseret News journalists Jesse Hyde and Spenser Heaps were having an important discussion with each other with serious implications for their safety.

“He wanted to go back and take pictures of Elias in the morning harvesting his rice,” Jesse told me of Spenser, our award-winning photojournalist, as we debriefed on what it took to deliver the video and compelling story headlined: “A nun, a shooting and the unlikely legacy that could save the Amazon rainforest.” Elias da Silva Lima is a farmer in the settlement and to reach him there is one road in and one road out surrounded by dense forest able to easily hide “invaders.”

These “invaders” are men who want the land. It used to be protected but now it is not. So they watch, intimidate and sometimes kill those who stand in the way of cattle ranching or tree harvesting in the rainforest. To get to the settlement required the help of a knowledgeable fixer willing to go there (and many were not willing to go).

Now out of the settlement, having successfully spoken with the farmer, and with compelling images by Spenser of him in the fields, the conversation turned to risk-reward. Spenser wanted to photograph the farmer harvesting his rice, which he does early in the morning. Spenser already had good photos. But early morning light with the farmer doing what he does each day is an important shot. Is it worth your life?

More:
https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2019/11/16/20962513/inside-the-newsroom-amazon-rainforest-environment