Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro last week denied there were thousands of fires burning in the Amazon rainforest, contradicting data from his own government. But the threat is very real for communities in a conservation reserve in Amazonas state, who fear what the dry season will bring.

Our correspondent Nadia Pontes spoke to inhabitants of the Middle Juruá Extractive Reserve, who say they've never seen the water level so low in their river - and worry they'll have less fish to eat and seeds to collect because of the drought.

“We discuss climate change a lot here," says the reserve's manager. "It is something that we are very afraid of. After all, what we take as a community... comes from natural resources.”

The coronavirus pandemic is another major risk for the peoples of the Amazon.

The rate of COVID-19 deaths among indigenous communities in Brazil's Amazon is nearly 250% higher than in the general population, for reasons ranging from a lack of access to healthcare to invasions of indigenous land, researchers have found.

Angela Kaxuyana, of the Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon, says indigenous people "are placed in a situation of vulnerability", particularly with the ongoing arrival of illegal miners, loggers and others carrying the virus.

Back in the city, where the pandemic also continues to reshape life, Kenya's capital Nairobi is pushing to expand green infrastructure - to help residents cope not just with the coronavirus crisis but also worsening climate change impacts and future pandemics, a local government officer says.

In Asia, Seoul's Seongdong-gu district has rolled out 10 bus shelters powered by solar energy, and equipped with ultraviolet sterilisers and thermal imaging cameras that check temperatures, in a bid to make public transport safer in the coronavirus era.

Others are wondering whether the pandemic offers a window of opportunity to introduce a congestion charge to keep air pollution low - while London, which already has a traffic tax, is planning to turn a bus garage into a virtual power station, using electric buses that can feed spare energy back into the grid.  

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