Brasilia - Friends vowed to complete the project after British journalist Dom Phillips was shot while researching an ambitious book on how to protect the world's largest rainforest. Three years later, their mission was completed.

"How to Save Amazon" published in Brazil and England before its release in the United States was pieced together by journalists who immerse themselves in Phillips' notes, an overview and several chapters he has written. The final book is scheduled to be published in the United States on June 10, and Phillips paired with the works of others, making a strong contribution to the reasons for his life.

In addition to leading the core group that completed the book’s work, other colleagues and friends helped edit the chapters, including Associated Press reporters Fabiano Maisonave and David Biller.

Phillips, a former regular contributor to the Guardian newspaper, was planning the final report of his book when he was shot dead by fishermen in the Javari Valley in the Western Amazon on June 5, 2022. Bruno Pereira, an expert in the indigenous tribes of Brazil, was also killed, who created enemies in the area to defend local communities from invading fishermen, poachers and illegal miners. Their deaths have made headlines around the world. Nine people were prosecuted.

"It's just a frightening, very sad moment. Everyone is thinking: How can you handle something like that? That book is there." Jonathan Watts, an environmental writer for Amazon's Guardian, co-written the foreword and one of the chapters.

Under Phillips's Wound, a team of five friends agreed to advance the project. Along with Watts, the core groups also include Rio de Janeiro intercepting Brazilian President Andrew Fishman; Phillips's agent Rebecca Carter; David Davies was a colleague in the London-era music journalist era; and Ireland-era Latin American journalist Tom Hennigan.

"It's not only a way to feel bad about what's going on, but keep working hard, especially because many of Don's friends are journalists," Watts said. "What you know best is journalism."

When Phillips died, Phillips had traveled extensively across Amazon and completed the introduction, and had nearly four of the 10 chapters of the plan. He also left outlines for the rest of the chapters, with varying degrees of detail, and many handwritten notes, some of which were barely readable.

"I think it's possible to say that even Don doesn't know what he's going to do in these chapters," Watts said.

Phillips is looking for hope. He assured the editor a character-driven travel book where readers will understand a wide range of people living in the area, “all of whom have a deep understanding of Amazon and provide innovative solutions to the millions of people living there.”

Writers selected by the group led by Sampaio provide themes for the rest of the chapters, from the Bioeconomic Initiative in Brazil’s Acres to the global funding of rainforest preservation. Beto Marubo, an indigenous leader of Javari Valley, was recruited to write after writing. The team also launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to pay for more reporting trips.

One of the challenges of the organization is to make sure the book reflects Brazil’s political shift to Amazon in the years since Phillips’ death. Most of Phillips' research was done during the tenure of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, as Brazil's Amazon deforestation reached its highest level in 15 years in 2021. The pace of destruction slowed down after Bolsonaro's 2022 defeat by left-wing leader Luizinácioináciolula lula dailva.

In the 300+ pages throughout the book, we hope that the clip will be combined with the grim reality. Phillips noted in Chapter 2 “Cow Chaos” that 16% of the Brazilian Amazon has been converted to ranch. Even a farmer who became a successful increase in productivity without removing most of the land was criticized for the widespread use of fertilizer.

Journalist Jon Lee Anderson, in a chapter on bioeconomics, visited an afforestation initiative where Asananka leader Benki Piyãko facilitated environmental restoration, plus ayahuasca treatment and fish farms. But, given the man-made threats and climate change, senior journalists can’t see how it can be scalable and reproducible.

Later in this chapter, he quotes Marek Hanusch, a German economist at the World Bank, saying: “At the end of the day, deforestation is a macroeconomic choice, and as long as Brazil’s growth model is based on agriculture, you’ll see expansion to the Amazon.”

In the preface, the five organizers’ panel noted: “Like Don, none of us fantasize about our writing saving Amazon, but we can certainly follow his leader to ask people we might know.”

But in this book, blood and dim hope staining, there is another message, according to Watts: “Most importantly, it’s totally solidarity with our friends and journalism in general.”

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