1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,866
Now, I'm an ethnobotanist.

2
00:00:01,866 --> 00:00:04,121
That's a scientist who 
works in the rain forest

3
00:00:04,121 --> 00:00:07,552
to document how people use local plants.

4
00:00:07,552 --> 00:00:10,608
I've been doing this for a long time,

5
00:00:10,608 --> 00:00:12,377
and I want to tell you,

6
00:00:12,377 --> 00:00:15,344
these people know these forests
and these medicinal treasures

7
00:00:15,344 --> 00:00:18,493
better than we do and
better than we ever will.

8
00:00:18,493 --> 00:00:20,801
But also, these cultures,

9
00:00:20,801 --> 00:00:22,345
these indigenous cultures,

10
00:00:22,345 --> 00:00:27,024
are disappearing much faster
than the forests themselves.

11
00:00:27,024 --> 00:00:29,974
And the greatest and
most endangered species

12
00:00:29,974 --> 00:00:31,778
in the Amazon rain forest

13
00:00:31,778 --> 00:00:33,618
is not the jaguar,

14
00:00:33,618 --> 00:00:35,343
it's not the harpy eagle,

15
00:00:35,343 --> 00:00:39,164
it's the isolated and uncontacted tribes.

16
00:00:39,164 --> 00:00:42,923
Now four years, I injured my 
foot in a climbing accident

17
00:00:42,923 --> 00:00:44,517
and I went to the doctor.

18
00:00:44,517 --> 00:00:45,991
She gave me heat,

19
00:00:45,991 --> 00:00:48,445
she gave me cold, Aspirin,

20
00:00:48,445 --> 00:00:52,335
narcotic painkillers, anti-inflammatories,

21
00:00:52,335 --> 00:00:54,192
cortisone shots.

22
00:00:54,192 --> 00:00:56,209
It didn't work.

23
00:00:56,209 --> 00:00:57,696
Several months later,

24
00:00:57,696 --> 00:00:59,613
I was in the northeast Amazon,

25
00:00:59,613 --> 00:01:01,606
walked into a village,

26
00:01:01,606 --> 00:01:04,323
and the shaman said, "You're limping."

27
00:01:04,323 --> 00:01:06,632
And I'll never forget
this as long as I live.

28
00:01:06,632 --> 00:01:08,466
He looked me in the face and he said,

29
00:01:08,466 --> 00:01:12,912
"Take off your shoe and give 
me your machete."

30
00:01:12,912 --> 00:01:15,187
(Laughter)

31
00:01:15,187 --> 00:01:16,871
He walked over to a palm tree

32
00:01:16,871 --> 00:01:18,437
and carved off a fern,

33
00:01:18,437 --> 00:01:19,579
threw it in the fire,

34
00:01:19,579 --> 00:01:21,121
applied it to my foot,

35
00:01:21,121 --> 00:01:23,160
threw it in a pond of water,

36
00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:25,076
and had me drink the tea.

37
00:01:25,076 --> 00:01:28,518
The pain disappeared for seven months.

38
00:01:28,518 --> 00:01:30,654
When it came back, I went
to see the shaman again.

39
00:01:30,654 --> 00:01:32,399
He gave me the same treatment,

40
00:01:32,399 --> 00:01:36,499
and I've been cured for three years now.

41
00:01:36,499 --> 00:01:39,151
Who would you rather be treated by?

42
00:01:39,151 --> 00:01:41,957
(Applause)

43
00:01:41,957 --> 00:01:43,785
Now make no mistake, Western medicine

44
00:01:43,785 --> 00:01:45,735
is the most successful system of healing

45
00:01:45,735 --> 00:01:47,235
ever devised,

46
00:01:47,235 --> 00:01:49,760
but there's plenty of holes in it.

47
00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:51,508
Where's the cure for breast cancer?

48
00:01:51,508 --> 00:01:53,378
Where's the cure for schizophrenia?

49
00:01:53,378 --> 00:01:55,772
Where's the cure for acid reflux?

50
00:01:55,772 --> 00:01:57,969
Where's the cure for insomnia?

51
00:01:57,969 --> 00:01:59,888
The fact is that these people

52
00:01:59,888 --> 00:02:01,924
can sometimes, sometimes, sometimes

53
00:02:01,924 --> 00:02:03,940
cure things we cannot.

54
00:02:03,940 --> 00:02:06,002
Here you see a medicine man
in the northeast Amazon

55
00:02:06,002 --> 00:02:07,532
treating Leishmaniasis,

56
00:02:07,532 --> 00:02:09,863
a really nasty protozoal disease

57
00:02:09,863 --> 00:02:13,264
that afflicts 12 million
people around the world.

58
00:02:13,264 --> 00:02:15,927
Western treatment are
injections of antimony.

59
00:02:15,927 --> 00:02:18,608
They're painful, they're expensive,

60
00:02:18,608 --> 00:02:20,349
and they're probably
not good for your heart.

61
00:02:20,349 --> 00:02:21,899
It's a heavy metal.

62
00:02:21,899 --> 00:02:23,257
This man cures it with

63
00:02:23,257 --> 00:02:25,813
three plants from the Amazon rain forest.

64
00:02:25,813 --> 00:02:28,102
This is the magic frog.

65
00:02:28,102 --> 00:02:30,828
My colleague, the late
great Loren McIntyre,

66
00:02:30,828 --> 00:02:32,877
discoverer of the source lake of Amazon,

67
00:02:32,877 --> 00:02:34,927
Laguna McIntyre in the Peruvian Andes,

68
00:02:34,927 --> 00:02:37,041
was lost on the Peru-Brazil border

69
00:02:37,041 --> 00:02:38,639
about 30 years ago.

70
00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:40,463
He was rescued by a group of isolated

71
00:02:40,463 --> 00:02:43,216
Indians called the Matses.

72
00:02:43,216 --> 00:02:44,705
They beckoned for him to follow them

73
00:02:44,705 --> 00:02:46,504
into the forest, which he did.

74
00:02:46,504 --> 00:02:48,959
There, they took out palm leaf baskets.

75
00:02:48,959 --> 00:02:51,581
There, they took out these
green monkey frogs

76
00:02:51,581 --> 00:02:53,819
— These are big suckers,
they're like this —

77
00:02:53,819 --> 00:02:56,202
and they began licking them.

78
00:02:56,202 --> 00:02:59,120
It turns out, they're
highly hallucinogenic.

79
00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:00,822
McIntyre wrote about this, and it was read

80
00:03:00,822 --> 00:03:04,112
by the editor of High Times Magazine.

81
00:03:04,112 --> 00:03:06,243
You see, the ethnobotanists have friends

82
00:03:06,243 --> 00:03:08,280
in all sorts of strange cultures.

83
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:09,893
This guy decided he would go down

84
00:03:09,893 --> 00:03:11,616
to the Amazon and give it a whirl,

85
00:03:11,616 --> 00:03:14,950
or give it a lick, and he did,

86
00:03:14,950 --> 00:03:16,138
and he wrote,

87
00:03:16,138 --> 00:03:18,005
"My blood pressure went through the roof,

88
00:03:18,005 --> 00:03:20,415
I lost full control of
my bodily functions,

89
00:03:20,415 --> 00:03:22,165
I passed out in a heap,

90
00:03:22,165 --> 00:03:24,381
I woke up in a hammock six hours later,

91
00:03:24,381 --> 00:03:26,655
felt like God for two days."

92
00:03:26,655 --> 00:03:28,376
(Laughter)

93
00:03:28,604 --> 00:03:29,987
An Italian chemist read this and said,

94
00:03:29,987 --> 00:03:31,863
"I'm not really interested
in the theological aspects

95
00:03:31,863 --> 00:03:33,571
of the green monkey frog.

96
00:03:33,571 --> 00:03:36,288
What's this about the
change in blood presure?

97
00:03:36,288 --> 00:03:38,572
Now, this is an Italian chemist

98
00:03:38,572 --> 00:03:40,867
who's working on a new treatment
for high blood pressure

99
00:03:40,867 --> 00:03:42,667
based on peptides in the skin

100
00:03:42,667 --> 00:03:44,293
of the green monkey frog,

101
00:03:44,293 --> 00:03:46,319
and other scientists are looking

102
00:03:46,319 --> 00:03:50,490
at a cure for drug-resistant staph aureus.

103
00:03:50,490 --> 00:03:53,022
How ironic, if these isolated Indians

104
00:03:53,022 --> 00:03:54,543
and their magic frog

105
00:03:54,543 --> 00:03:56,594
prove to be one of the cures.

106
00:03:56,594 --> 00:03:58,227
Here's an Ayahuasca shaman

107
00:03:58,227 --> 00:04:00,000
in the northwest Amazon, in
the middle of a yage ceremony.

108
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,594
I took him to Los Angeles

109
00:04:02,594 --> 00:04:04,260
to meet a foundation officer

110
00:04:04,260 --> 00:04:05,662
looking for support

111
00:04:05,662 --> 00:04:07,796
for moneys to protect their culture.

112
00:04:07,796 --> 00:04:10,230
This fellow looked at the
medicine man, and he said,

113
00:04:10,230 --> 00:04:13,337
"You didn't go to medical school, did you"

114
00:04:13,337 --> 00:04:15,037
The shaman said, "No, I did not."

115
00:04:15,037 --> 00:04:17,898
He said, "Well, then what can
you know about healing?"

116
00:04:17,898 --> 00:04:19,432
The shaman looked at him and he said,

117
00:04:19,432 --> 00:04:21,592
"You know what? If you have an infection,

118
00:04:21,592 --> 00:04:23,218
go to a doctor,"

119
00:04:23,218 --> 00:04:24,919
but he said, "but many human afflictions

120
00:04:24,919 --> 00:04:27,293
are disease of the heart,

121
00:04:27,293 --> 00:04:30,049
the mind, and the spirit.

122
00:04:30,049 --> 00:04:31,961
Western medicine can't touch those.

123
00:04:31,961 --> 00:04:34,417
I cure them."

124
00:04:34,417 --> 00:04:38,550
(Applause)

125
00:04:38,550 --> 00:04:40,278
But all is not rosy in learning

126
00:04:40,278 --> 00:04:42,246
from nature about new medicines.

127
00:04:42,246 --> 00:04:44,345
This is a viper from Brazil,

128
00:04:44,345 --> 00:04:47,823
the venom of which was studied at
the Universidade de São Paulo here.

129
00:04:47,823 --> 00:04:49,212
It was later developed

130
00:04:49,212 --> 00:04:51,144
into ace inhibitors.

131
00:04:51,144 --> 00:04:53,600
This is a frontline treatment
for hypertension.

132
00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:56,274
Hypertension kills over 10 percent

133
00:04:56,274 --> 00:04:58,458
of all deaths on the planet everyday.

134
00:04:58,458 --> 00:05:00,542
This is a four billion dollar industry

135
00:05:00,542 --> 00:05:02,734
based on venom from a Brazilian snake,

136
00:05:02,734 --> 00:05:06,068
and the Brazilians did not get a nickel.

137
00:05:06,068 --> 00:05:08,716
This is not an acceptable way

138
00:05:08,716 --> 00:05:11,499
of doing business.

139
00:05:11,499 --> 00:05:13,170
The rain forest has been called

140
00:05:13,170 --> 00:05:14,908
the greatest expression of life on Earth.

141
00:05:14,908 --> 00:05:16,206
There's a saying in Suriname

142
00:05:16,206 --> 00:05:17,760
that I dearly love:

143
00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:19,498
"The rain forests hold answers

144
00:05:19,498 --> 00:05:23,265
to questions we have yet to ask."

145
00:05:23,265 --> 00:05:25,822
But as you all know,
it's rapidly disappearing,

146
00:05:25,822 --> 00:05:28,168
here in Brazil, in the Amazon,

147
00:05:28,168 --> 00:05:29,485
around the world.

148
00:05:29,485 --> 00:05:31,505
I took this picture from a small plane

149
00:05:31,505 --> 00:05:34,353
flying over the eastern border
of the Xingu indigenous reserve

150
00:05:34,353 --> 00:05:37,732
in the state of Mato Grosso
to the northwest of here.

151
00:05:37,732 --> 00:05:39,335
The top half of the picture,

152
00:05:39,335 --> 00:05:41,037
you see where the Indians live.

153
00:05:41,037 --> 00:05:42,414
The line through the middle

154
00:05:42,414 --> 00:05:44,761
is the eastern border of the reserve.

155
00:05:44,761 --> 00:05:48,659
Top half Indians, bottom half white guys.

156
00:05:48,659 --> 00:05:50,411
Top half wonder drugs,

157
00:05:50,411 --> 00:05:53,996
bottom half just a bunch
of skinny-ass cows.

158
00:05:53,996 --> 00:05:56,079
Top half carbon sequestered

159
00:05:56,079 --> 00:05:57,714
in the forest where it belongs,

160
00:05:57,714 --> 00:06:00,143
bottom half carbon in the atmosphere

161
00:06:00,143 --> 00:06:02,766
where it's driving climate change.

162
00:06:02,766 --> 00:06:05,034
In fact, the number two cause

163
00:06:05,034 --> 00:06:07,573
of carbon being released
into the atmosphere

164
00:06:07,573 --> 00:06:11,041
is forest destruction.

165
00:06:11,041 --> 00:06:12,647
But in talking about destruction,

166
00:06:12,647 --> 00:06:14,461
it's important to keep in mind

167
00:06:14,461 --> 00:06:16,374
that the Amazon is the mightiest

168
00:06:16,374 --> 00:06:18,158
landscape of all.

169
00:06:18,158 --> 00:06:20,626
It's a place of beauty and wonder.

170
00:06:20,626 --> 00:06:23,117
The biggest anteater in the world

171
00:06:23,117 --> 00:06:25,065
lives in the rain forest,

172
00:06:25,065 --> 00:06:27,738
tips the scale at 90 pounds.

173
00:06:27,738 --> 00:06:29,909
The goliath bird-eating spider

174
00:06:29,909 --> 00:06:31,747
is the world's largest spider.

175
00:06:31,747 --> 00:06:34,418
It's found in the Amazon as well.

176
00:06:34,418 --> 00:06:36,486
The harpy eagle wingspan

177
00:06:36,486 --> 00:06:38,001
is over seven feet.

178
00:06:38,001 --> 00:06:40,453
And the black cayman.

179
00:06:40,453 --> 00:06:42,219
These monsters can tip the scale

180
00:06:42,219 --> 00:06:43,928
at over half a ton.

181
00:06:43,928 --> 00:06:46,858
They're known to be man-eaters.

182
00:06:46,858 --> 00:06:49,648
The anaconda, the largest snake,

183
00:06:49,648 --> 00:06:52,725
the capybara, the largest rodent.

184
00:06:52,725 --> 00:06:54,037
A specimen from here in Brazil

185
00:06:54,037 --> 00:06:57,733
tipped the scale at 201 pounds.

186
00:06:57,733 --> 00:07:00,318
Let's visit where these creatures live,

187
00:07:00,318 --> 00:07:01,864
the northeast Amazon,

188
00:07:01,864 --> 00:07:03,563
home to the Akuriyo tribe.

189
00:07:03,563 --> 00:07:05,336
Uncontacted peoples

190
00:07:05,336 --> 00:07:09,531
hold a mystical and iconic role

191
00:07:09,531 --> 00:07:11,211
in our imagination.

192
00:07:11,211 --> 00:07:13,548
These are the people who know nature best.

193
00:07:13,548 --> 00:07:15,159
These are the people who truly live

194
00:07:15,159 --> 00:07:18,687
in total harmony with nature.

195
00:07:18,687 --> 00:07:21,481
By our standards, some would
dismiss these people as primitive.

196
00:07:21,481 --> 00:07:22,742
They don't know how to make fire,

197
00:07:22,742 --> 00:07:25,244
or they didn't when they
were first contacted,

198
00:07:25,244 --> 00:07:26,978
but they know the forest

199
00:07:26,978 --> 00:07:28,773
far better than we do.

200
00:07:28,773 --> 00:07:31,752
The Akuriyos have 35 words for honey,

201
00:07:31,752 --> 00:07:33,502
and other Indians look up to them

202
00:07:33,502 --> 00:07:35,357
as being the true masters

203
00:07:35,357 --> 00:07:37,923
of the emerald realm.

204
00:07:37,923 --> 00:07:40,162
Here you see the face of my friend Ponay.

205
00:07:40,162 --> 00:07:41,815
When I was a teenager rocking out

206
00:07:41,815 --> 00:07:44,709
to the Rolling Stones in my
hometown of New Orleans,

207
00:07:44,709 --> 00:07:46,794
Ponay was a forest normad

208
00:07:46,794 --> 00:07:49,291
roaming the jungles of
the northeast Amazon

209
00:07:49,291 --> 00:07:50,911
in a small band,

210
00:07:50,911 --> 00:07:52,531
looking for game,

211
00:07:52,531 --> 00:07:54,626
looking for medicinal plants,

212
00:07:54,626 --> 00:07:56,023
looking for a wife

213
00:07:56,023 --> 00:07:58,301
in other small nomadic bands.

214
00:07:58,301 --> 00:08:00,779
But it's people like these

215
00:08:00,779 --> 00:08:02,712
that know things that we don't,

216
00:08:02,712 --> 00:08:04,912
and they have lots of lessons

217
00:08:04,912 --> 00:08:06,819
to teach us.

218
00:08:06,819 --> 00:08:08,340
However, if you go into most

219
00:08:08,340 --> 00:08:10,222
of the forests of the Amazon,

220
00:08:10,222 --> 00:08:12,037
there are no indigenous peoples.

221
00:08:12,037 --> 00:08:13,971
This is what you find:

222
00:08:13,971 --> 00:08:17,120
rock carvings which indigenous peoples,

223
00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:19,640
uncontacted peoples, used to sharpen

224
00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:21,985
the edge of the stone axe.

225
00:08:21,985 --> 00:08:23,622
These cultures that once danced,

226
00:08:23,622 --> 00:08:26,203
made love, sang to the gods,

227
00:08:26,203 --> 00:08:27,786
worshipped the forest,

228
00:08:27,786 --> 00:08:29,964
all that's left is an imprint in stone,

229
00:08:29,964 --> 00:08:31,744
as you see here.

230
00:08:31,744 --> 00:08:34,004
Let's move to the western Amazon,

231
00:08:34,004 --> 00:08:37,411
which is really the epicenter
of isolated peoples.

232
00:08:37,411 --> 00:08:39,129
Each of these dots represents

233
00:08:39,129 --> 00:08:41,422
a small, uncontacted tribe,

234
00:08:41,422 --> 00:08:42,990
and the big reveal today is

235
00:08:42,990 --> 00:08:46,381
we believe there are 14 or 15 isolated groups

236
00:08:46,381 --> 00:08:50,262
in the Columbian Amazon alone.

237
00:08:50,262 --> 00:08:52,004
Why are these people isolated?

238
00:08:52,004 --> 00:08:54,421
They know we exist, they
know there's an outside world.

239
00:08:54,421 --> 00:08:56,731
This is a form of resistance.

240
00:08:56,731 --> 00:08:58,866
They have chosen to remain isolated,

241
00:08:58,866 --> 00:09:02,439
and I think it is their
human right to remain so.

242
00:09:02,439 --> 00:09:04,992
Why are these the tribes
that hide from man?

243
00:09:04,992 --> 00:09:06,997
Here's why. Obviously some of this

244
00:09:06,997 --> 00:09:09,225
was set off in 1492,

245
00:09:09,225 --> 00:09:11,247
but at the turn of the last century

246
00:09:11,247 --> 00:09:13,282
was the rubber trade.

247
00:09:13,282 --> 00:09:14,722
The demand for natural rubber,

248
00:09:14,722 --> 00:09:16,628
which came from the Amazon,

249
00:09:16,628 --> 00:09:19,802
set off the botanical
equivalent of a gold rush.

250
00:09:19,802 --> 00:09:21,678
Rubber for bicycle tires,

251
00:09:21,678 --> 00:09:23,296
rubber for automobile tires,

252
00:09:23,296 --> 00:09:25,047
rubber for zeppelins.

253
00:09:25,047 --> 00:09:28,054
It was a mad race to get that rubber,

254
00:09:28,054 --> 00:09:30,732
and the man on the left, Julio Arana,

255
00:09:30,732 --> 00:09:33,799
is one of the true thugs of the story.

256
00:09:33,799 --> 00:09:35,492
His people, his company,

257
00:09:35,492 --> 00:09:37,594
and other companies like them

258
00:09:37,594 --> 00:09:40,349
killed, massacred, tortured,

259
00:09:40,349 --> 00:09:42,641
butchered Indians like the Witotos you see

260
00:09:42,641 --> 00:09:45,836
on the right hand side of the slide.

261
00:09:45,836 --> 00:09:48,081
Even today, when people
come out of the forest,

262
00:09:48,081 --> 00:09:50,786
the story seldom has a happy ending.

263
00:09:50,786 --> 00:09:53,906
These are Nukaks. They
were contacted in the '80s.

264
00:09:53,906 --> 00:09:58,333
Within a year, everybody over 40 was dead.

265
00:09:58,333 --> 00:10:00,095
And remember, these
are preliterate societies.

266
00:10:00,095 --> 00:10:02,375
The elders are the libraries.

267
00:10:02,375 --> 00:10:03,923
Every time a shaman dies,

268
00:10:03,923 --> 00:10:07,042
it's as if a library has been burned down.

269
00:10:07,042 --> 00:10:09,538
They have been forced off their lands.

270
00:10:09,538 --> 00:10:11,841
The drug traffickers have taken over

271
00:10:11,841 --> 00:10:13,756
the Nukak lands,

272
00:10:13,756 --> 00:10:15,739
and the Nukaks live as beggars

273
00:10:15,739 --> 00:10:19,791
in public parks in eastern Colombia.

274
00:10:19,791 --> 00:10:21,361
From the Nukak lands, I want to take you

275
00:10:21,361 --> 00:10:23,328
to the southwest, to the most spectacular

276
00:10:23,328 --> 00:10:25,177
landscape in the world:

277
00:10:25,177 --> 00:10:27,121
Chiribiquete National Park.

278
00:10:27,121 --> 00:10:28,860
It was surrounded by three isolated tribes

279
00:10:28,860 --> 00:10:30,291
and thanks to the Colombian government

280
00:10:30,291 --> 00:10:31,646
and Colombian colleagues,

281
00:10:31,646 --> 00:10:33,717
it has now expanded.

282
00:10:33,717 --> 00:10:35,694
It's bigger than the state of Maryland.

283
00:10:35,694 --> 00:10:39,655
It is a treasure trove
of botanical diversity.

284
00:10:39,655 --> 00:10:42,090
It was first explored botanically in 1943

285
00:10:42,090 --> 00:10:43,880
by my mentor, Richard Schultes,

286
00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:46,870
seen here atop the Bell Mountain,

287
00:10:46,870 --> 00:10:49,335
the sacred mountains of the Carajás?

288
00:10:49,335 --> 00:10:52,066
And let me show you
what it looks like today.

289
00:10:52,066 --> 00:10:53,725
Flying over Chiribiquete,

290
00:10:53,725 --> 00:10:55,983
realize that these lost world
mountains are still lost.

291
00:10:55,983 --> 00:10:58,358
No scientist has been atop them.

292
00:10:58,358 --> 00:10:59,981
In fact, nobody has been
atop the Bell Mountain

293
00:10:59,981 --> 00:11:02,340
since Schultes in '43,

294
00:11:02,340 --> 00:11:03,952
and we'll end up here
with the Bell Mountain

295
00:11:03,952 --> 00:11:07,070
just to the east of the picture.

296
00:11:07,070 --> 00:11:10,050
Let me show you what it looks like today.

297
00:11:10,050 --> 00:11:12,937
Not only is this a treasure
trove of botanical diversity,

298
00:11:12,937 --> 00:11:15,715
not only is it home to
three isolated tribes,

299
00:11:15,715 --> 00:11:17,503
but it's the greatest treasure trove

300
00:11:17,503 --> 00:11:20,828
of pre-Colombian art in the world:

301
00:11:20,828 --> 00:11:23,897
over 200,000 paintings.

302
00:11:23,897 --> 00:11:25,611
The Dutch scientist Thomas van der Hammen

303
00:11:25,611 --> 00:11:29,157
described this as the Sistine Chapel

304
00:11:29,157 --> 00:11:32,421
of the Amazon rain forest.

305
00:11:32,421 --> 00:11:34,641
But move from Chiribiquete
down to the southeast,

306
00:11:34,641 --> 00:11:36,082
again in the Colombian Amazon.

307
00:11:36,082 --> 00:11:37,554
Remember, the Colombian Amazon

308
00:11:37,554 --> 00:11:39,312
is bigger than New England.

309
00:11:39,312 --> 00:11:40,991
The Amazon's a big forest,

310
00:11:40,991 --> 00:11:42,212
and Brazil's got a big part of it,

311
00:11:42,212 --> 00:11:43,698
but not all of it.

312
00:11:43,698 --> 00:11:45,286
Moving down to these two national parks,

313
00:11:45,286 --> 00:11:47,435
Cahuinari and Puré

314
00:11:47,435 --> 00:11:48,781
in the Colombian Amazon

315
00:11:48,781 --> 00:11:51,819
— that's the Brazilian
border to the right —

316
00:11:51,819 --> 00:11:53,843
it's home to several groups

317
00:11:53,843 --> 00:11:56,207
of isolated and uncontacted peoples.

318
00:11:56,207 --> 00:11:57,716
To the trained eye, you
can look at the roofs

319
00:11:57,716 --> 00:12:00,087
of these maloccas, these longhouses,

320
00:12:00,087 --> 00:12:01,728
and see that there's cultural diversity.

321
00:12:01,728 --> 00:12:03,776
These are, in fact, different tribes.

322
00:12:03,776 --> 00:12:06,340
As isolated as these areas are,

323
00:12:06,340 --> 00:12:08,743
let me show you how the outside world

324
00:12:08,743 --> 00:12:10,595
is crowding in.

325
00:12:10,595 --> 00:12:13,316
Here we see trade and transport
increased in Putamayo.

326
00:12:13,316 --> 00:12:16,096
With the diminishment of
the Civil War in Colombia,

327
00:12:16,096 --> 00:12:19,148
the outside world is showing up.

328
00:12:19,148 --> 00:12:21,120
To the north, we have illegal gold mining,

329
00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:22,812
also from the east, from Brazil.

330
00:12:22,812 --> 00:12:24,672
There's increased hunting and fishing

331
00:12:24,672 --> 00:12:26,452
for commercial purposes.

332
00:12:26,452 --> 00:12:29,509
We see illegal logging
come in from the south,

333
00:12:29,509 --> 00:12:31,334
and drug runners are trying to move

334
00:12:31,334 --> 00:12:34,370
through the park and get into Brazil.

335
00:12:34,370 --> 00:12:37,128
This, in the past, is why you didn't mess

336
00:12:37,128 --> 00:12:39,029
with isolated Indians,

337
00:12:39,029 --> 00:12:40,613
and if it looks like this
picture is out of focus

338
00:12:40,613 --> 00:12:43,899
because it was taken
in a hurry, here's why.

339
00:12:43,899 --> 00:12:46,416
(Laughter)

340
00:12:46,416 --> 00:12:52,303
This looks like — (Applause)

341
00:12:52,303 --> 00:12:54,823
This looks like a hangar
from the Brazilian Amazon.

342
00:12:54,823 --> 00:12:57,566
This is an art exhibit in Havana, Cuba.

343
00:12:57,566 --> 00:12:59,413
A group called Los Carpinteros.

344
00:12:59,413 --> 00:13:01,039
This is their perception
of why you shouldn't

345
00:13:01,039 --> 00:13:04,094
mess with uncontacted Indians.

346
00:13:04,094 --> 00:13:05,761
But the world is changing.

347
00:13:05,761 --> 00:13:08,759
These are Mascoteros
on the Brazil-Peru border

348
00:13:08,759 --> 00:13:10,460
who stumbled out of the jungle

349
00:13:10,460 --> 00:13:12,414
because they were essentially chased out

350
00:13:12,414 --> 00:13:14,792
by drug runners and timber people,

351
00:13:14,792 --> 00:13:17,425
and in Peru, there's
a very nasty business.

352
00:13:17,425 --> 00:13:19,245
It's called human safaris.

353
00:13:19,245 --> 00:13:20,757
They will take you in

354
00:13:20,757 --> 00:13:23,433
to isolated groups to take their picture.

355
00:13:23,433 --> 00:13:24,813
Of course, when you give them clothes

356
00:13:24,813 --> 00:13:25,831
then you give them tools,
you also give them diseases.

357
00:13:25,831 --> 00:13:30,298
We call these "inhuman safaris."

358
00:13:30,298 --> 00:13:32,166
These are Indians again on the Peru border

359
00:13:32,166 --> 00:13:35,584
who were overflown by flights
sponsored by missionaries.

360
00:13:35,584 --> 00:13:36,805
They want to get in there

361
00:13:36,805 --> 00:13:38,544
and turn them into Christians.

362
00:13:38,544 --> 00:13:40,840
We know how that turns out.

363
00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:42,704
What's to be done?

364
00:13:42,704 --> 00:13:45,080
Introduce technology
to the contacted tribes,

365
00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:46,612
not the uncontacted tribes,

366
00:13:46,612 --> 00:13:49,745
in a culturally sensitive way.

367
00:13:49,745 --> 00:13:52,051
This is the perfect marriage

368
00:13:52,051 --> 00:13:53,875
of ancient shamanic wisdom

369
00:13:53,875 --> 00:13:56,717
and 21st century technology.

370
00:13:56,717 --> 00:13:59,728
We've done this now with over 30 tribes,

371
00:13:59,728 --> 00:14:02,652
mapped, managed, and increased protection

372
00:14:02,652 --> 00:14:06,555
of over 70 million acres
of ancestral rain forest.

373
00:14:06,555 --> 00:14:11,828
(Applause)

374
00:14:11,828 --> 00:14:15,050
So this allows the Indians to take control

375
00:14:15,050 --> 00:14:18,907
of their environmental
and cultural destiny.

376
00:14:18,907 --> 00:14:20,566
They also then set up guard houses

377
00:14:20,566 --> 00:14:22,572
to keep outsiders out.

378
00:14:22,572 --> 00:14:25,211
These are Indians, trained
as indigenous park rangers,

379
00:14:25,211 --> 00:14:26,867
patrolling the borders

380
00:14:26,867 --> 00:14:30,238
and keeping the outside world at bay.

381
00:14:30,238 --> 00:14:33,247
This is a picture of actual contact.

382
00:14:33,247 --> 00:14:34,614
These are Chitanawa Indians

383
00:14:34,614 --> 00:14:36,617
on the Brazil-Peru border.

384
00:14:36,617 --> 00:14:38,321
They've come out of the jungle

385
00:14:38,321 --> 00:14:40,062
asking for help.

386
00:14:40,062 --> 00:14:41,468
They were shot at,

387
00:14:41,468 --> 00:14:44,205
their maloccas, their 
longhouses, were burned.

388
00:14:44,205 --> 00:14:46,708
Some of them were massacred.

389
00:14:46,708 --> 00:14:49,794
Using automatic weapons

390
00:14:49,794 --> 00:14:53,207
to slaughter uncontacted peoples

391
00:14:53,207 --> 00:14:55,276
is the single most despicable

392
00:14:55,276 --> 00:14:56,788
and disgusting human rights abuse

393
00:14:56,788 --> 00:14:59,671
on our planet today, and it has to stop.

394
00:14:59,671 --> 00:15:06,205
(Applause)

395
00:15:06,205 --> 00:15:08,928
But let me conclude by saying,

396
00:15:08,928 --> 00:15:11,792
this work can be spiritually rewarding,

397
00:15:11,792 --> 00:15:15,076
but it's difficult and
it can be dangerous.

398
00:15:15,076 --> 00:15:17,538
Two colleagues of mine
passed away recently

399
00:15:17,538 --> 00:15:19,903
in the crash of a small plane.

400
00:15:19,903 --> 00:15:21,681
They were serving the forest

401
00:15:21,681 --> 00:15:24,429
to protect those uncontacted tribes.

402
00:15:24,429 --> 00:15:26,366
So the question is, in conclusion,

403
00:15:26,366 --> 00:15:28,191
is what the future holds.

404
00:15:28,191 --> 00:15:30,408
These are Uray people in Brazil.

405
00:15:30,408 --> 00:15:31,969
What does the future hold for them,

406
00:15:31,969 --> 00:15:34,640
and what does the future hold for us?

407
00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:37,121
Let's think differently.

408
00:15:37,121 --> 00:15:38,918
Let's make a better world.

409
00:15:38,918 --> 00:15:40,836
If the climate's going to change,

410
00:15:40,836 --> 00:15:42,357
let's have a climate that changes for

411
00:15:42,357 --> 00:15:44,919
the better rather than for the worse.

412
00:15:44,919 --> 00:15:48,084
Let's live on a planet

413
00:15:48,084 --> 00:15:50,904
full of luxuriant vegetation,

414
00:15:50,904 --> 00:15:53,010
in which isolated peoples

415
00:15:53,010 --> 00:15:54,869
can remain in isolation,

416
00:15:54,869 --> 00:15:57,212
can maintain that mystery

417
00:15:57,212 --> 00:15:58,838
and that knowledge

418
00:15:58,838 --> 00:16:00,533
if they so choose.

419
00:16:00,533 --> 00:16:02,128
Let's live in a world

420
00:16:02,128 --> 00:16:04,497
where the shamans live in these forests

421
00:16:04,497 --> 00:16:07,441
and heal themselves and us

422
00:16:07,441 --> 00:16:10,178
with their mystical plants

423
00:16:10,178 --> 00:16:12,235
and their sacred frogs.

424
00:16:12,235 --> 00:16:14,082
Thanks again.

425
00:16:14,082 --> 00:16:18,001
(Applause)