Deforestation commonly is both illicit and violent, associated with illegal land-grabbing (known as grilagem). Sophisticated criminal organizations connected to the Network engage in violent crime and human rights abuses—including murder, persecution, and other inhuman acts—against Rural Land Users and Defenders. However, environmental destruction in general and deforestation in particular, are not international crimes in themselves. Rather, in the Brazil situation, they are both the cause and the consequence of the international crimes that precede or follow. Violently evicting Rural Land Users from their land, illegally exploiting their natural resources, and destroying their natural environment has resulted in conflict and ended in mass human rights abuses. Perhaps unsurprisingly, an ecosystem as vast and precious as the Amazon cannot be destroyed without committing crimes against humanity.