Why Amazon fires keep raging 10 years after a deal to end them

In 2009, the three biggest Brazilian meatpacking companies signed an agreement with the environmental group Greenpeace not to buy cattle from ranchers who raised their beef in newly deforested areas.

An aerial view of a burned forest area next to a cattle ranch in the state of Pará in Altamira, Brazil, Aug. 31, 2019. A deal reached 10 years ago was meant to stop the setting of fires by ranchers and others, but the ecological arson continues as the Earth warms. (Victor Moriyama/The New York Times)

Written by Clifford Krauss, David Yaffe-Bellany and Mariana Simões