being built. The port authority is using materials dredged from the nearby seabed and earth excavated from tunneling work on a subway line to cut use of sand by about 70 per cent on the current pier being built -- the second of what will eventually be four piers. Singapore has been short of sand for its sizeable and continual land reclamation and construction work, having bought sand from its neighbouring Southeast Asian countries for decades. © Sim Chi Yin | Magnum Photos

the forrest free of uncontrolled fires by cleaning the dry leaves when the rainy season comes. The Caçique Paolo cesar, the chief of Belem village, complains that with the increase of temperatures fire has become more difficult to control. Their village is surrounded by fazendas and they are always blamed for starting fires to a point that the Dilma government banned the fire for 5 years. This, according to the chief, caused the accumulation of dry vegetation in the forrest that fuels the uncontrolled fires now. In the picture, chief Paolo Cesar walks along the landing track that they are preparing to start receiving visitors. eco-Tourism is one of the little economic opportunities that soem villages have to survive after the collapse of their culture and way to live. © Cristina de Middel | Magnum Photos

sting tense relation that human presence imposed to natural habitat in a country that was about to burn down both literal and metaphorically With semi-performative experiments and the combination of cultural material (like books, magazines, archival photography) with the surrounding wildlife, we have been constructing narratives that illustrate the current economic and political context using nocturnal animals as improvised actors.

rs now live in makeshift huts and tents on the dikes, while their home and villages are flooded. Flooded village of Jhapa. Villagers walking around in front of one of the few concrete buildings in the village, the Jhapa Brojobihari United High School. © Jonas Bendiksen | Magnum Photos

en (gamcha), Amar Uddin. © Jonas Bendiksen | Magnum Photos

Hua Shi Xia. The family is quite poor, and mainly unemployed. Dong Zhu (6-year-boy), is seen playing with a toy motorcycle, outside the window of his house. The simple concrete structures of the resettlement camp is seen in the background. © Jonas Bendiksen | Magnum Photos

low lakes among the dunes. Local herders said that this area was green with grass as recent as 10 years ago. A herder family has a tent and pastures next to this desertified area (we were without a tibetan speaker, and could not communicate) About 3/4 of Qinghai's lakes have disappeared already. © Jonas Bendiksen | Magnum Photos

es that span the Zerafshan river. The villages along the Zerafshan river are irrigated farmlands, creating a green belt all along the valley, with arid hills on both sides. The Zerafshan river runs westwards from the Zerafshan glacier, and crosses over into Uzbekistan further west. © Jonas Bendiksen | Magnum Photos

s and versions vary but what is confirmed is the increase by 500% iof deforestation in the areas of intense agro-business, like Sorriso and Sinop. In Claudia, the border of the legal Amazonia and where the jungle is supposted to be protected from the agro-business, fires have been a constant since the beginning of the dry season. Fires can come from land owners who clean the remains, reactivate the land after harvest, thunderstorms and even traditional hunting from the indigenous villages that remain in the area, but deforestation is a criminal act that is difficult to track and prosecute and who´sprotection budget has been reduced significantly with Bolsonaro´s government. Settlers are given small plots of land by the government to make them productive. Many times remote and with lack of control, the small fires made to clean the remains of harvest may get out of control and end up with the devastation of large portions of the protected areas. The fire brigade has in many cases little to do when the owners of the land do not have the means to fight against the fire by themselves and they just come to control the proliferation of the fire to assess if more help is needed. in the picture, Aaron, plays in the backyard of the small farm in Assentamento Victoria, with the fire devouring the jungle just a few meters behind him. © Cristina de Middel | Magnum Photos

s and versions vary but what is confirmed is the increase by 500% iof deforestation in the areas of intense agro-business, like Sorriso and Sinop. In Claudia, the border of the legal Amazonia and where the jungle is supposted to be protected from the agro-business, fires have been a constant since the beginning of the dry season. Fires can come from land owners who clean the remains, reactivate the land after harvest, thunderstorms and even traditional hunting from the indigenous villages that remain in the area, but deforestation is a criminal act that is difficult to track and prosecute and who´sprotection budget has been reduced significantly with Bolsonaro´s government. In the picture, the fire destroys the protected area of a settling area called Asentamento Victoria. Settlers are given small polts of land by the government to make them productive. Many times remote and with lack of control, the small fires made to clean the remains of harvest may get out of control and end up with the devastation of large portions of the protected areas. The fire brigade has in many cases little to do when the owners of the land do not have the means to fight against the fire by themselves and they just come to control the proliferation of the fire to assess if more help is needed until it gets naturally extinguished. © Cristina de Middel | Magnum Photos

teh picture a family of owls stands by teh road that divides the property. © Cristina de Middel | Magnum Photos

land who was burning trash, it was fueled by the remains of the crops, passed by his house and stopped where the forest starts. In the picture Sidnei poses with his family, Leticia, 7, Glausia Priscila, 36, holfing levi, the youngest of their children, and Livia, 3. © Cristina de Middel | Magnum Photos

n the growing cities and ensure a better salary. They say they miss their old house and that school in Mato Grosso is very bad. Their backyard was burnt during one of the many fires that affect the region at the dry season. © Cristina de Middel | Magnum Photos

ely visited the ruins of their home after it collapsed into the Tien River (a major branch of the Mekong River) in late January (2017), taking most of the family's furniture and possessions into the water. Madam Ha Thi Be ran a little coffee stall out front. Madam Ha Thi Be said, looking emotional as she stood in the ruins of the only house she has called her own. " We are lucky it happened in the afternoon. If it had happened in the night while we three were asleep, we would have died, " Madam Ha Thi Be said, looking emotional as she stood in the ruins of the only house she has called her own. "My son never let me visit the ruins of the house afterwards... he was afraid that the house would collapse on me." "I'm very sad to lose the ancestral riverfront house where I grew up. That's why I stayed until the very end. It took all of what we owned to build the house, and how it's all gone." "I love the river. It was so close to our lives. When I was a child, we'd catch fish, snails to eat. When the sand dredges came, the fish and snails are no more. They keep taking the sand, causing the land to erode. My house collapsed because the dredgers kept taking sand. We all dislike them but the government approved them so there's nothing we can do about it. I don't know what they use the sand for. I just heard that they take the sand to Saigon to build houses." Location: Phu Thuan B Commune, Hong Ngu district, Dong Thap province.

e water. She has been relocated inland to a plot of land on which the family has built a new house, but she stays at her mother-in-law’s house a few doors down the road from here during the daytime as that is the only way she can make a living selling groceries and provisions out of a little shop. Location: Phu Thuan B commune, Hong Ngu district, Dong Thap province bordering Cambodia. © Sim Chi Yin | Magnum Photos

reclaimed land. This hotel is itself built on reclaimed land. © Sim Chi Yin | Magnum Photos

being built. The port authority is using materials dredged from the nearby seabed and earth excavated from tunneling work on a subway line to cut use of sand by about 70 per cent to built the second of what will eventually be four piers. Singapore has been short of sand for its sizeable and continual land reclamation and construction work, having bought sand from its neighbouring Southeast Asian countries for decades. © Sim Chi Yin | Magnum Photos

or. The ambitious project plans to make four artificial islands out of the sea. One has so far been made, with a hotel, residential and commercial complex built on it. It is sold as a development that is green and a model of future urban planning, but has displaced aboriginals and disrupted traditional fishing grounds and eco life. © Sim Chi Yin | Magnum Photos

orld's largest in the next 30 years -- is being built. The port authority is using materials dredged from the nearby seabed and earth excavated from tunnelling work on a subway line to cut use of sand by about 70 per cent in the building of this pier -- which will be one of four eventually. Singapore has been short of sand for its sizeable and continual land reclamation and construction work, having bought sand from its neighbouring Southeast Asian countries for decades. © Sim Chi Yin | Magnum Photos