forests

In the village it is pitch dark by 7.30 pm. At the designated spot for the meeting, there are about 15 or 20 villagers holding solar lanterns. The meeting lasts over two hours and throughout that time, people keep coming and joining the conversation. Halfway into the meeting, I turn around to steal a quick look at the crowd and I am surprised at how large the group has become! It’s about a 100 people sitting, standing, leaning against their houses and trees, listening intently and waiting for their turn to speak.

Illegal logging is the norm in the Brazilian Amazon, where timber laundering - covering illegal timber with phony papers - happens on an industrial scale. So why is the DIY chain Jewson selling garden decking made from rare Amazon trees?

For two years, Greenpeace has been investigating logging in the Brazilian Amazon. We found that criminals were ransacking the forest - and that the systems set up to stop them are being used to launder illegal timber.

On Friday, Johnson & Johnson announced it would stop buying palm oil from companies destroying the rainforest. Now the onus is on the palm oil industry as a whole to leave its forest destruction behind.

It's not every day that you get to organise an award ceremony - especially when the recipient has no idea that they've won.