Online chancers have been trying to sell protected areas of Amazon rainforest using Facebook’s marketplace. An investigation by the BBC in March found that users, who were unable to provide proof of legal ownership, had listed areas of land as large as 1,000 football pitches.
Ads came up in searches for ‘native jungle’ and ‘timber’. The areas for sale include land belonging to the indigenous Uru Eu Wau Wau community, which was listed for a total of $23,300 in Brazilian real. BBC journalists set up secret meetings with vendors, claiming to be interested in land for cattle pasture and farming.
