WEBVTT

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Now, I'm an ethnobotanist.

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That's a scientist who 
works in the rain forest

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to document how people use local plants.

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I've been doing this for a long time,

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and I want to tell you,

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these people know these forests
and these medicinal treasures

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better than we do and
better than we ever will.

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But also, these cultures,

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these indigenous cultures,

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are disappearing much faster
than the forests themselves.

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And the greatest and
most endangered species

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in the Amazon rain forest

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is not the jaguar,

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it's not the harpy eagle,

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it's the isolated and uncontacted tribes.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now four years, I injured my 
foot in a climbing accident

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and I went to the doctor.

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She gave me heat,

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she gave me cold, Aspirin,

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narcotic painkillers, anti-inflammatories,

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cortisone shots.

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It didn't work.

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Several months later,

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I was in the northeast Amazon,

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walked into a village,

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and the shaman said, "You're limping."

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And I'll never forget
this as long as I live.

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He looked me in the face and he said,

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"Take off your shoe and give 
me your machete."

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(Laughter)

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He walked over to a palm tree

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and carved off a fern,

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threw it in the fire,

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applied it to my foot,

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threw it in a pond of water,

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and had me drink the tea.

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The pain disappeared for seven months.

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When it came back, I went
to see the shaman again.

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He gave me the same treatment,

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and I've been cured for three years now.

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Who would you rather be treated by?

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(Applause)

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Now make no mistake, Western medicine

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is the most successful system of healing

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ever devised,

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but there's plenty of holes in it.

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Where's the cure for breast cancer?

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Where's the cure for schizophrenia?

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Where's the cure for acid reflux?

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Where's the cure for insomnia?

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The fact is that these people

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can sometimes, sometimes, sometimes

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cure things we cannot.

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Here you see a medicine man
in the northeast Amazon

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treating Leishmaniasis,

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a really nasty protozoal disease

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that afflicts 12 million
people around the world.

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Western treatment are
injections of antimony.

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They're painful, they're expensive,

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and they're probably
not good for your heart.

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It's a heavy metal.

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This man cures it with

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three plants from the Amazon rain forest.

NOTE Paragraph

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This is the magic frog.

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My colleague, the late
great Loren McIntyre,

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discoverer of the source lake of Amazon,

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Laguna McIntyre in the Peruvian Andes,

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was lost on the Peru-Brazil border

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about 30 years ago.

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He was rescued by a group of isolated

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Indians called the Matses.

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They beckoned for him to follow them

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into the forest, which he did.

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There, they took out palm leaf baskets.

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There, they took out these
green monkey frogs

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— These are big suckers,
they're like this —

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and they began licking them.

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It turns out, they're
highly hallucinogenic.

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McIntyre wrote about this, and it was read

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by the editor of High Times Magazine.

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You see, the ethnobotanists have friends

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in all sorts of strange cultures.

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This guy decided he would go down

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to the Amazon and give it a whirl,

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or give it a lick, and he did,

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and he wrote,

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"My blood pressure went through the roof,

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I lost full control of
my bodily functions,

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I passed out in a heap,

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I woke up in a hammock six hours later,

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felt like God for two days."

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(Laughter)

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An Italian chemist read this and said,

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"I'm not really interested
in the theological aspects

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of the green monkey frog.

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What's this about the
change in blood presure?

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Now, this is an Italian chemist

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who's working on a new treatment
for high blood pressure

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based on peptides in the skin

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of the green monkey frog,

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and other scientists are looking

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at a cure for drug-resistant staph aureus.

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How ironic, if these isolated Indians

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and their magic frog

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prove to be one of the cures.

NOTE Paragraph

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Here's an Ayahuasca shaman

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in the northwest Amazon, in
the middle of a yage ceremony.

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I took him to Los Angeles

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to meet a foundation officer

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looking for support

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for moneys to protect their culture.

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This fellow looked at the
medicine man, and he said,

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"You didn't go to medical school, did you"

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The shaman said, "No, I did not."

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He said, "Well, then what can
you know about healing?"

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The shaman looked at him and he said,

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"You know what? If you have an infection,

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go to a doctor,"

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but he said, "but many human afflictions

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are disease of the heart,

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the mind, and the spirit.

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Western medicine can't touch those.

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I cure them."

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(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

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But all is not rosy in learning

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from nature about new medicines.

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This is a viper from Brazil,

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the venom of which was studied at
the Universidade de São Paulo here.

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It was later developed

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into ace inhibitors.

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This is a frontline treatment
for hypertension.

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Hypertension kills over 10 percent

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of all deaths on the planet everyday.

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This is a four billion dollar industry

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based on venom from a Brazilian snake,

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and the Brazilians did not get a nickel.

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This is not an acceptable way

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of doing business.

NOTE Paragraph

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The rain forest has been called

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the greatest expression of life on Earth.

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There's a saying in Suriname

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that I dearly love:

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"The rain forests hold answers

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to questions we have yet to ask."

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But as you all know,
it's rapidly disappearing,

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here in Brazil, in the Amazon,

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around the world.

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I took this picture from a small plane

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flying over the eastern border
of the Xingu indigenous reserve

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in the state of Mato Grosso
to the northwest of here.

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The top half of the picture,

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you see where the Indians live.

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The line through the middle

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is the eastern border of the reserve.

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Top half Indians, bottom half white guys.

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Top half wonder drugs,

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bottom half just a bunch
of skinny-ass cows.

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Top half carbon sequestered

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in the forest where it belongs,

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bottom half carbon in the atmosphere

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where it's driving climate change.

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In fact, the number two cause

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of carbon being released
into the atmosphere

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is forest destruction.

NOTE Paragraph

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But in talking about destruction,

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it's important to keep in mind

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that the Amazon is the mightiest

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landscape of all.

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It's a place of beauty and wonder.

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The biggest anteater in the world

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lives in the rain forest,

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tips the scale at 90 pounds.

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The goliath bird-eating spider

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is the world's largest spider.

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It's found in the Amazon as well.

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The harpy eagle wingspan

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is over seven feet.

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And the black cayman.

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These monsters can tip the scale

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at over half a ton.

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They're known to be man-eaters.

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The anaconda, the largest snake,

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the capybara, the largest rodent.

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A specimen from here in Brazil

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tipped the scale at 201 pounds.

NOTE Paragraph

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Let's visit where these creatures live,

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the northeast Amazon,

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home to the Akuriyo tribe.

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Uncontacted peoples

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hold a mystical and iconic role

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in our imagination.

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These are the people who know nature best.

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These are the people who truly live

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in total harmony with nature.

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By our standards, some would
dismiss these people as primitive.

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They don't know how to make fire,

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or they didn't when they
were first contacted,

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but they know the forest

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far better than we do.

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The Akuriyos have 35 words for honey,

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and other Indians look up to them

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as being the true masters

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of the emerald realm.

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Here you see the face of my friend Ponay.

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When I was a teenager rocking out

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to the Rolling Stones in my
hometown of New Orleans,

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Ponay was a forest normad

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roaming the jungles of
the northeast Amazon

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in a small band,

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looking for game,

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looking for medicinal plants,

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looking for a wife

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in other small nomadic bands.

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But it's people like these

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that know things that we don't,

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and they have lots of lessons

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to teach us.

NOTE Paragraph

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However, if you go into most

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of the forests of the Amazon,

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there are no indigenous peoples.

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This is what you find:

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rock carvings which indigenous peoples,

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uncontacted peoples, used to sharpen

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the edge of the stone axe.

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These cultures that once danced,

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made love, sang to the gods,

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worshipped the forest,

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all that's left is an imprint in stone,

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as you see here.

NOTE Paragraph

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Let's move to the western Amazon,

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which is really the epicenter
of isolated peoples.

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Each of these dots represents

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a small, uncontacted tribe,

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and the big reveal today is

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we believe there are 14 or 15 isolated groups

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in the Columbian Amazon alone.

NOTE Paragraph

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Why are these people isolated?

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They know we exist, they
know there's an outside world.

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This is a form of resistance.

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They have chosen to remain isolated,

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and I think it is their
human right to remain so.

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Why are these the tribes
that hide from man?

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Here's why. Obviously some of this

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was set off in 1492,

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but at the turn of the last century

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was the rubber trade.

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The demand for natural rubber,

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which came from the Amazon,

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set off the botanical
equivalent of a gold rush.

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Rubber for bicycle tires,

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rubber for automobile tires,

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rubber for zeppelins.

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It was a mad race to get that rubber,

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and the man on the left, Julio Arana,

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is one of the true thugs of the story.

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His people, his company,

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and other companies like them

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killed, massacred, tortured,

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butchered Indians like the Witotos you see

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on the right hand side of the slide.

NOTE Paragraph

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Even today, when people
come out of the forest,

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the story seldom has a happy ending.

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These are Nukaks. They
were contacted in the '80s.

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Within a year, everybody over 40 was dead.

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And remember, these
are preliterate societies.

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The elders are the libraries.

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Every time a shaman dies,

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it's as if a library has been burned down.

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They have been forced off their lands.

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The drug traffickers have taken over

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the Nukak lands,

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and the Nukaks live as beggars

00:10:15.739 --> 00:10:19.791
in public parks in eastern Colombia.

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From the Nukak lands, I want to take you

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to the southwest, to the most spectacular

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landscape in the world:

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Chiribiquete National Park.

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It was surrounded by three isolated tribes

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and thanks to the Colombian government

00:10:30.291 --> 00:10:31.646
and Colombian colleagues,

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it has now expanded.

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It's bigger than the state of Maryland.

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It is a treasure trove
of botanical diversity.

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It was first explored botanically in 1943

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by my mentor, Richard Schultes,

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seen here atop the Bell Mountain,

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the sacred mountains of the Carajás?

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And let me show you
what it looks like today.

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Flying over Chiribiquete,

00:10:53.725 --> 00:10:55.983
realize that these lost world
mountains are still lost.

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No scientist has been atop them.

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In fact, nobody has been
atop the Bell Mountain

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since Schultes in '43,

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and we'll end up here
with the Bell Mountain

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just to the east of the picture.

00:11:07.070 --> 00:11:10.050
Let me show you what it looks like today.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:10.050 --> 00:11:12.937
Not only is this a treasure
trove of botanical diversity,

00:11:12.937 --> 00:11:15.715
not only is it home to
three isolated tribes,

00:11:15.715 --> 00:11:17.503
but it's the greatest treasure trove

00:11:17.503 --> 00:11:20.828
of pre-Colombian art in the world:

00:11:20.828 --> 00:11:23.897
over 200,000 paintings.

00:11:23.897 --> 00:11:25.611
The Dutch scientist Thomas van der Hammen

00:11:25.611 --> 00:11:29.157
described this as the Sistine Chapel

00:11:29.157 --> 00:11:32.421
of the Amazon rain forest.

NOTE Paragraph

00:11:32.421 --> 00:11:34.641
But move from Chiribiquete
down to the southeast,

00:11:34.641 --> 00:11:36.082
again in the Colombian Amazon.

00:11:36.082 --> 00:11:37.554
Remember, the Colombian Amazon

00:11:37.554 --> 00:11:39.312
is bigger than New England.

00:11:39.312 --> 00:11:40.991
The Amazon's a big forest,

00:11:40.991 --> 00:11:42.212
and Brazil's got a big part of it,

00:11:42.212 --> 00:11:43.698
but not all of it.

00:11:43.698 --> 00:11:45.286
Moving down to these two national parks,

00:11:45.286 --> 00:11:47.435
Cahuinari and Puré

00:11:47.435 --> 00:11:48.781
in the Colombian Amazon

00:11:48.781 --> 00:11:51.819
— that's the Brazilian
border to the right —

00:11:51.819 --> 00:11:53.843
it's home to several groups

00:11:53.843 --> 00:11:56.207
of isolated and uncontacted peoples.

00:11:56.207 --> 00:11:57.716
To the trained eye, you
can look at the roofs

00:11:57.716 --> 00:12:00.087
of these maloccas, these longhouses,

00:12:00.087 --> 00:12:01.728
and see that there's cultural diversity.

00:12:01.728 --> 00:12:03.776
These are, in fact, different tribes.

00:12:03.776 --> 00:12:06.340
As isolated as these areas are,

00:12:06.340 --> 00:12:08.743
let me show you how the outside world

00:12:08.743 --> 00:12:10.595
is crowding in.

00:12:10.595 --> 00:12:13.316
Here we see trade and transport
increased in Putamayo.

00:12:13.316 --> 00:12:16.096
With the diminishment of
the Civil War in Colombia,

00:12:16.096 --> 00:12:19.148
the outside world is showing up.

00:12:19.148 --> 00:12:21.120
To the north, we have illegal gold mining,

00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:22.812
also from the east, from Brazil.

00:12:22.812 --> 00:12:24.672
There's increased hunting and fishing

00:12:24.672 --> 00:12:26.452
for commercial purposes.

00:12:26.452 --> 00:12:29.509
We see illegal logging
come in from the south,

00:12:29.509 --> 00:12:31.334
and drug runners are trying to move

00:12:31.334 --> 00:12:34.370
through the park and get into Brazil.

00:12:34.370 --> 00:12:37.128
This, in the past, is why you didn't mess

00:12:37.128 --> 00:12:39.029
with isolated Indians,

00:12:39.029 --> 00:12:40.613
and if it looks like this
picture is out of focus

00:12:40.613 --> 00:12:43.899
because it was taken
in a hurry, here's why.

00:12:43.899 --> 00:12:46.416
(Laughter)

00:12:46.416 --> 00:12:52.303
This looks like — (Applause)

00:12:52.303 --> 00:12:54.823
This looks like a hangar
from the Brazilian Amazon.

00:12:54.823 --> 00:12:57.566
This is an art exhibit in Havana, Cuba.

00:12:57.566 --> 00:12:59.413
A group called Los Carpinteros.

00:12:59.413 --> 00:13:01.039
This is their perception
of why you shouldn't

00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:04.094
mess with uncontacted Indians.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:04.094 --> 00:13:05.761
But the world is changing.

00:13:05.761 --> 00:13:08.759
These are Mascoteros
on the Brazil-Peru border

00:13:08.759 --> 00:13:10.460
who stumbled out of the jungle

00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:12.414
because they were essentially chased out

00:13:12.414 --> 00:13:14.792
by drug runners and timber people,

00:13:14.792 --> 00:13:17.425
and in Peru, there's
a very nasty business.

00:13:17.425 --> 00:13:19.245
It's called human safaris.

00:13:19.245 --> 00:13:20.757
They will take you in

00:13:20.757 --> 00:13:23.433
to isolated groups to take their picture.

00:13:23.433 --> 00:13:24.813
Of course, when you give them clothes

00:13:24.813 --> 00:13:25.831
then you give them tools,
you also give them diseases.

00:13:25.831 --> 00:13:30.298
We call these "inhuman safaris."

00:13:30.298 --> 00:13:32.166
These are Indians again on the Peru border

00:13:32.166 --> 00:13:35.584
who were overflown by flights
sponsored by missionaries.

00:13:35.584 --> 00:13:36.805
They want to get in there

00:13:36.805 --> 00:13:38.544
and turn them into Christians.

00:13:38.544 --> 00:13:40.840
We know how that turns out.

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:40.840 --> 00:13:42.704
What's to be done?

00:13:42.704 --> 00:13:45.080
Introduce technology
to the contacted tribes,

00:13:45.080 --> 00:13:46.612
not the uncontacted tribes,

00:13:46.612 --> 00:13:49.745
in a culturally sensitive way.

00:13:49.745 --> 00:13:52.051
This is the perfect marriage

00:13:52.051 --> 00:13:53.875
of ancient shamanic wisdom

00:13:53.875 --> 00:13:56.717
and 21st century technology.

00:13:56.717 --> 00:13:59.728
We've done this now with over 30 tribes,

00:13:59.728 --> 00:14:02.652
mapped, managed, and increased protection

00:14:02.652 --> 00:14:06.555
of over 70 million acres
of ancestral rain forest.

00:14:06.555 --> 00:14:11.828
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:14:11.828 --> 00:14:15.050
So this allows the Indians to take control

00:14:15.050 --> 00:14:18.907
of their environmental
and cultural destiny.

00:14:18.907 --> 00:14:20.566
They also then set up guard houses

00:14:20.566 --> 00:14:22.572
to keep outsiders out.

00:14:22.572 --> 00:14:25.211
These are Indians, trained
as indigenous park rangers,

00:14:25.211 --> 00:14:26.867
patrolling the borders

00:14:26.867 --> 00:14:30.238
and keeping the outside world at bay.

00:14:30.238 --> 00:14:33.247
This is a picture of actual contact.

00:14:33.247 --> 00:14:34.614
These are Chitanawa Indians

00:14:34.614 --> 00:14:36.617
on the Brazil-Peru border.

00:14:36.617 --> 00:14:38.321
They've come out of the jungle

00:14:38.321 --> 00:14:40.062
asking for help.

00:14:40.062 --> 00:14:41.468
They were shot at,

00:14:41.468 --> 00:14:44.205
their maloccas, their 
longhouses, were burned.

00:14:44.205 --> 00:14:46.708
Some of them were massacred.

00:14:46.708 --> 00:14:49.794
Using automatic weapons

00:14:49.794 --> 00:14:53.207
to slaughter uncontacted peoples

00:14:53.207 --> 00:14:55.276
is the single most despicable

00:14:55.276 --> 00:14:56.788
and disgusting human rights abuse

00:14:56.788 --> 00:14:59.671
on our planet today, and it has to stop.

00:14:59.671 --> 00:15:06.205
(Applause)

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:06.205 --> 00:15:08.928
But let me conclude by saying,

00:15:08.928 --> 00:15:11.792
this work can be spiritually rewarding,

00:15:11.792 --> 00:15:15.076
but it's difficult and
it can be dangerous.

00:15:15.076 --> 00:15:17.538
Two colleagues of mine
passed away recently

00:15:17.538 --> 00:15:19.903
in the crash of a small plane.

00:15:19.903 --> 00:15:21.681
They were serving the forest

00:15:21.681 --> 00:15:24.429
to protect those uncontacted tribes.

00:15:24.429 --> 00:15:26.366
So the question is, in conclusion,

00:15:26.366 --> 00:15:28.191
is what the future holds.

00:15:28.191 --> 00:15:30.408
These are Uray people in Brazil.

00:15:30.408 --> 00:15:31.969
What does the future hold for them,

00:15:31.969 --> 00:15:34.640
and what does the future hold for us?

00:15:34.640 --> 00:15:37.121
Let's think differently.

00:15:37.121 --> 00:15:38.918
Let's make a better world.

00:15:38.918 --> 00:15:40.836
If the climate's going to change,

00:15:40.836 --> 00:15:42.357
let's have a climate that changes for

00:15:42.357 --> 00:15:44.919
the better rather than for the worse.

00:15:44.919 --> 00:15:48.084
Let's live on a planet

00:15:48.084 --> 00:15:50.904
full of luxuriant vegetation,

00:15:50.904 --> 00:15:53.010
in which isolated peoples

00:15:53.010 --> 00:15:54.869
can remain in isolation,

00:15:54.869 --> 00:15:57.212
can maintain that mystery

00:15:57.212 --> 00:15:58.838
and that knowledge

00:15:58.838 --> 00:16:00.533
if they so choose.

00:16:00.533 --> 00:16:02.128
Let's live in a world

00:16:02.128 --> 00:16:04.497
where the shamans live in these forests

00:16:04.497 --> 00:16:07.441
and heal themselves and us

00:16:07.441 --> 00:16:10.178
with their mystical plants

00:16:10.178 --> 00:16:12.235
and their sacred frogs.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:12.235 --> 00:16:14.082
Thanks again.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:14.082 --> 00:16:18.001
(Applause)