Daniel Beltra, a Spanish photographer, is traveling the world to capture the world’s three major rainforest regions. We have some of his amazing shots from the first leg of the trip… the Amazon! From cattle men in the deforested Mato Grasso region of Brazil to smiling native Indian children pointing down the barrel of his lens Daniel captures a compelling array of images from this important part of our planet.

March 29th 2009,  North West of Mato Grosso State (Brasil)..Enawene Nawe village. The indigenous tribe (500 members) is best known for their cultural richness. Their traditional fishing method of building barrages is being threatened by a project of 86 dams to be constructed on the Juruena river basin . (© Daniel Beltra, courtesy of The Prince’s Rainforests Project and Sony)

Beltra’ won The Prince’s Rainforests Project (PRP) Award at the Sony World Photography Awards. This contest, funded by the Prince of Wales, has awarded Beltra’, based out of Seattle, a fully funded assignment to photograph the rainforests of the world.

“Traveling to the Amazon has been an incredible experience and I have been able to capture some powerful images that show the many different elements of the rainforest – the beauty, the wildlife, the local people and also the destruction“, says Daniel. “It is has been an eye-opening journey so far and I’m looking forward to photographing the Central African and South East Asian rainforests on the next parts of my trip. I hope the photos I produce will make a strongly persuasive argument for emergency action to preserve the world’s tropical rainforests”.

(© Daniel Beltra, courtesy of The Prince’s Rainforests Project and Sony)

March 14th 2009, Manaus, Amazonas State (Brasil) Aerial view of the Anavilhanas archipelago on the Rio Negro near Manaus, Brazil. (© Daniel Beltra, courtesy of The Prince’s Rainforests Project and Sony)

March 20th 2009, Cristalino State Park, Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso (Brasil). View of the rainforest canopy from the ground in in Cristalino State Park, Brazil. (© Daniel Beltra, courtesy of The Prince’s Rainforests Project and Sony)

Check out more from Daniel Beltra’ here.

Visit Prince’s Rainforests Project here.
© Daniel Beltra, courtesy of The Prince’s Rainforests Project and Sony