Jacinto Jose, working on a ladder, uses the handle of his ax to loosen the dead bark of a cork oak tree, July 19 2000, at the Alpendres farm outside the town of Azaruja, in southern Portugal's region of Alentejo. The spongy cork peels like an orange baring the tree's bright yellow, living layer of bark. The traditional livelihoods and communities in this region are being threatened by a leap forward in modern technology: plastic stoppers, which are encroaching on the market for cork. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)