Who is setting fire to the Amazon?

"Red John" is an old acquaintance of landowners and ranchers in the Brazilian Amazon.

He helps clears pastures cheaply, but also leaves blackened earth and charred trees in his wake -- threatening the planet's largest tropical forest.

In northern Brazil's cowboy country, fire is so entrenched in ranching that locals nicknamed it "Joao Vermelho" (Red John).

Abandoning it is almost unthinkable.

"Fire is a cheap way to maintain pasture. Labor is expensive, pesticides are expensive. Here we don't have any public funding," Antonio Carlos Batista, who owns 900 head of cattle in the municipality of Sao Felix do Xingu, told AFP.

During dry season, a bit of gasoline and a match are enough to get the job done.

When someone goes to light a fire, they say, "I'm going to hire the worker Red John!