At the Cancún, Mexico United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2010, journalist Jeff Conant and I learned that California’s then-Governor Arnold Swarzenegger had penned an agreement with Chiapas, Mexico’s Governor Juan Sabines as well as the head of the province of Acre, Brazil. This deal would provide carbon offsets from Mexico and Brazil to polluting power companies in California—industries that needed to comply with the new California climate law (AB32) while continuing business as usual.

The plan was to use the carbon stored by forests in the two Latin American countries to supposedly offset the emissions of the California polluters.

Conant and I took an investigative trip to Chiapas in March 2011. When we arrived, we were invited by the people of Amador Hernandez–an indigenous village based in the Lacandon jungle (Selva Lacandona)–to visit, document and learn of the plans of the government to forcibly relocate them from their homes. The Mexican Army planned to do this in four days. The community vowed to stay and fight the army. We were asked if we would stay for the encounter. We stayed. The military did not move in and the village is there to this day.

What we uncovered was another battle in the ongoing war between a simpler or goodway of life (buen vivir) vs. the neoliberal development model.

The following photographs were taken in or near the Amador Hernandez community andduring an over flight of the Selva Lacandona and surrounding African palm plantations.