Deforestation in the Amazon rain forest is only weakly prevented by law and law enforcement. The rest is covered by outside organizations, empowered local tribes, and a dose of vigilante justice, National Geographic reported.

The decline of the Amazon began in the 1980s and hit its peak in 2004 largely because of the logging industry and the infrastructure behind it. Its spread appeared "unstoppable," according to Nat Geo, until NGO's and environmental groups developed somewhat unorthodox partnerships with indigenous groups.

In a region that shines a near perfect green from satellite images, around 25 tribes comprising over 12,000 people protect their land by law and with help. Some have legal protection, like the Kayapo, but it is poorly enforced. Just as logging companies use that to their advantage, so do organizations sympathetic to the plight of indigenous groups and protective of the environment.

Some run fly-overs, alert groups where logging or other illegal activity is taking place, and provide them with GPS and other tools to track down the perpetrators and sometimes even capture them. Other organizations help tribes develop their own land in economically and environmentally sufficient ways, such as the now booming peanut industry that exists within the Kayapo tribe. Greater economic self-sufficiency ensures the population of indigenous peoples and allows them to turn down potentially lucrative offers from opportunistic logging companies, according to Nat Geo.

"The Amazon rain forest is the greatest expression of life on Earth," Nat Geo writes in its plea for continued assistance of indigenous tribes. "It is home to about a third of our planet's terrestrial life forms, cycles about one-quarter of the Earth's freshwater, and plays a key role in absorbing carbon and moderating climate."