Amazon Justice Boat

A man signs his electoral ID application with a fingerprint in the Balique island arquipelago of the Amazon river delta of Brazil's northern Amapa state. Every two months some 40 people from the justice department and other state agencies travel from the state capital Macapa down the Amazon river in a mission to bring state services to residents of the remote region. It is a unique Brazilian solution to the immense geography of the Amazon, where roads do not exist and travel is costly and slow. People who once lived their whole lives with no records of birth, mariage, death, or even ID cards, are no longer forgotton by the state in this real life waterworld. (AustralFoto/Douglas Engle)

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A man signs his electoral ID application with a fingerprint in the Balique island arquipelago of the Amazon river delta of Brazil's northern Amapa state. Every two months some 40 people from the justice department and other state agencies travel from the state capital Macapa down the Amazon river in a mission to bring state services to residents of the remote region. It is a unique Brazilian solution to the immense geography of the Amazon, where roads do not exist and travel is costly and slow. People who once lived their whole lives with no records of birth, mariage, death, or even ID cards, are no longer forgotton by the state in this real life waterworld. (AustralFoto/Douglas Engle)

Brazil Amazon justice remote river 20041206 floating court