Deep in the Amazon, in December of 1988, the fate of the rainforest was changed by a murder.

In the small town of Xapuri, Chico Mendes was shot and killed.

"The victim was devoted to preserving Brazil's irreplaceable rainforest.

And he paid for that, apparently, with his life."

Two armed guards had been hired to protect him.

But they were inside his house when Chico was hit by a bullet in his backyard.

Chico had led the fight to protect the largest rainforest on the planet.

It was a fight that alerted the world to the exploitation of the Amazon,

and changed the makeup of the rainforest, for decades to come.

The Amazon basin is rich in rubber trees that produce latex.

And for a long time, they were exclusive to this rainforest.

Native people had collected latex, or liquid rubber, for centuries.

But in the late 1800s, after the Europeans turned their attention to it, people started extracting

latex on a mass scale.

It became a valuable material in rapidly industrializing nations, where motor cars with rubber tires

started hitting the roads.

The Amazon quickly turned into a very profitable global resource.

Especially in Brazil, where

businessmen started moving into the rainforest.

To keep up with the high demand, wealthy "rubber barons" forced indigenous people to work for

them as rubber tappers.

And they directed waves of migrants from the coast to the rainforest.

Rubber tappers were forced to work in exchange for the use of the land, tools or food.

So the more they worked, the more they were in debt to their bosses.

But the rubber boom wouldn't last long.

"The seeds of rubber trees, such as these, smuggled out of the Amazon country,

shifted the rubber production of the world to the far east."

In the 1870s, an English colonist smuggled 70,000 rubber tree seeds out of the Amazon.

The seeds went from Brazil to British colonies in Southeast Asia, where they began harvesting

rubber at a lower cost.

Over the years, as rubber from these plantations flooded the market, prices fell,

and the rubber boom in the Amazon collapsed.

But demand spiked again during the Second World War,

when rubber became critical to making weapons and vehicles.

"We are going to see to it, that there's enough rubber

to build the planes to bomb Tokyo and Berlin.

Enough rubber to build the tanks. Enough rubber to win this war!"

The Brazilian government recruited tens of thousands and forced them to extract latex

under harsh conditions.

After the war, demand collapsed again and most rubber barons moved on to other businesses.

Leaving many rubber tappers in the rainforest, where they settled and were now free to harvest

rubber on their own terms.

Among them was Chico Mendes, a young rubber-tapper. who started out working under rubber bosses.

This is Raimundo Mendes de Barros, Chico's cousin,

who works and lives on a reserve in Acre state.

Chico's time to step in and lead would come in the 70s and 80s.

When the Amazon began seeing deforestation at an unprecedented rate.

Chico Mendes and the rubber tappers lived freely in the state of Acre for about a decade.

They harvested rubber and collected Brazil nuts sustainably without damaging the forest.

And made a living selling what they gathered to traveling merchants.

But there was a problem on the horizon.

At the time, Brazil was led by a military regime that wanted to use the Amazon for economic

development, so they opened it up to ranchers for business.

They took over large estates, typically occupied by rubber tappers, and cleared the forest

to make room for their cattle.

"The politics of land speculation, and the large-scale deforestation...

They have as their objective, the substitution of man by cattle.

It would be a disaster if this process were allowed to continue in our region."

The ranchers used intimidation tactics to expel rubber tappers.

They hired gunmen and set fires to tear down trees.

But the rubber tappers got together and fought back.

They organized "empates" or barricades where they'd sit in front of trees or block the

paths to the rubber reserves to prevent loggers and bulldozers from coming through.

Chico and Raimundo were both on the front lines.

Protecting the rubber tappers' way of life was at the heart of the struggle led by Chico.

But over the years, it turned into a much bigger fight for survival.

The government, backed by international organizations, built roads in the Amazon,

which brought deforestation to different corners of the rainforest.

As a result, by 1987, nearly 300,000 square kilometers of the rainforest had been torn down.

The fight to prevent deforestation extended throughout the Amazon, and Chico became its

spokesperson on a global stage...

"... Chico Mendes..."

"Together, we can preserve the forest ,and make it productive, securing this immense treasure

for the future of all our children."

And the world began to pay attention.

"It involves the destruction of one of the earth's greatest natural resources: the Amazon rainforest."

"The rainforest is unique in all the world.

Once it is gone. It is gone forever."

International organizations withdrew tens of millions of dollars

from the development of the Amazon.

A small extraction reserve was created for rubber tappers in Acre in 1988:

The first of its kind in Brazil.

The land would be owned by the state, but rubber tappers, like Raimundo, would have

the right to live and work on it.

The reserve would keep everyone else out.

Especially cattle ranchers.

Making this entire reserve legally protected from deforestation.

But in 1988, protecting the rainforest came at a deadly cost.

89 environmental activists were killed that year alone.

"I have already escaped six attempts on my life from the enemy.

Still, I have a moral commitment to myself.

I cannot abandon the struggle, even if, one day, I should be struck by an assassin's bullet."

Cattle ranchers looking to expand their business in the Amazon saw Chico as a threat.

He was given armed guards for protection.

But just days after his 44th birthday, he was shot in his backyard.

His killers were cattle ranchers - a father and a son - whose land had just become a protected area.

Chico's death pushed changes forward in the Amazon.

A larger Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve was created in 1990.

Today, it is still the biggest in the Amazon and has protected more than 2 million acres

of rainforest from a lot of the deforestation that surrounds it.

It's home to about 10,000 people who can freely maintain their traditions and livelihoods.

Since Chico's death, all these extractive reserves have been created.

There are more than a hundred spread throughout the Amazon.

But the fight isn't over.

Brazil's current government has pushed for more economic development in the Amazon, while

downplaying Chico's struggle:

They've also scaled back efforts to preserve the Amazon — leaving protected areas

at risk all over again.

Nearly half of the deforestation is taking place in protected areas,

including the Chico Mendes Reserve, where ranchers are reportedly

persuading rubber tappers to clear their land for money.

But some, like Raimundo's son, are committed to keeping Chico's legacy alive.

Hi, thanks for watching the second episode of Atlas in the Amazon's mini-series.

I want to take a quick second to thank the filmmakers who filmed Chico Mendes and the Amazon in the 80s.

That footage was crucial in allowing us to tell Chico's story,

and the role he played in trying to protect the Amazon.

We are very grateful to them.

In the next episode, we look at the struggle between indigenous people trying

to protect their land,

and the president threatening to take their rights away.

Make sure to come back and watch the third and final episode of Atlas in the Amazon's mini-series.

Thanks again for watching, and see you next time.