WEBVTT

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Our story continues. The trees
of the Amazon rainforest

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breathe moisture into the air.

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The water vapor collects into
clouds that grow into storms.

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For millennia, the great
storms of the Amazon

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have carried rains to all
the surrounding regions.

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[sil.]

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What happens here affects
the world’s climate.

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The storms are tracked by satellite.

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[sil.]

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From the Brazilian Space Institute, scientists
monitor the westerly flow of the storms

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across the Amazon. And in a cycle that
repeats itself every 100 miles or so,

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the clouds drop their
rain, pickup new moisture

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and water the jungle, like watering a lawn.

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[sil.]

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But the invasion of colonists,

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who are cutting and burning the
trees, has broken the water cycle.

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[sil.]

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Once interrupted, the rain is wasted.

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[sil.]

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The soil eroded.

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[sil.]

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And without the protection of the canopy of trees, the
forest is left vulnerable to the harsh equatorial sun.

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[music]

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Yet a steady stream of colonists along the main highway
continued to cut into the heart of the forest.

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[music]

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The small towns on the
forest edge were swollen

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with new settlers, eager to move on to their
piece of land. They would move out of the towns,

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down the side road known as
the 429 penetration road,

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directly into the heart of the Uru Eu Wau Wau
Indian Territory. And the closer they got,

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the more likely they would bring
disease and death to the Indians.

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So Isabel, the expedition’s leader, took to the air to
spot settlers roads cutting into the Indian Territory.

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This road had gotten within 30
miles of an Indian village.

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[sil.]

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Since their first peaceful contact with the agency,
the Indians had disappeared into the forest.

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But there were regular reports of bloody
Indian attacks all over the region.

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[sil.]

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These illegal tin prospectors were having
frequent run-ins with the Indians.

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They are near one of the rivers
that crisscrossed Indian Territory.

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[sil.]

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Tin prospectors can make good
money doing this risky business,

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but they had to keep constant
watch for Indian attacks.

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Hammocks, mosquito nets,

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clothes, they took everything.
Recently over there,

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the Indians roamed around
me for three nights.

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You know, when you’re moving the
Indians don’t shoot at you,

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it’s only when you’ve set up a
camp or working in the day shift.

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But no story of Indian attacks could

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surpass the kidnapping of little Fabio Prestos, who’s father
Chico who talked with the miners about how even simple tasks

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can be dangerous in Indian country.

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As you go for water, who thinks of Indians?

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It’s when you least expect it,
that’s when they shoot you.

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The Indian agency was powerless
to stop these skirmishes.

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So Isabel did about the only thing
he could, he blocked the road

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into Indian Territory with a homemade sign.

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I’m putting up this warning
not to cross the river.

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This site is the reserve
of the Uru Eu Wau Wau.

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But the attacks continued. I was repairing
a billhook when this arrow hit me.

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[sil.]

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A rain of arrows followed me
until I reached this man here.

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How many Indians were there?
25, 30, all strong Indians.

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All naked?

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No, the rest naked but the
chief in front had trousers.

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Then the Indians came back to the post.

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The agency wondered whether these Indians
had been responsible for the attacks.

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But because no one spoke their language, it was hard for
by Bayano, the head of the Indian agency to find out.

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The columnists may have
killed some of them,

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for they seemed nervous and very tense.

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[sil.]

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So far they had never heard anyone from the
Indian agency. Then just three weeks later,

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Bayano himself was attacked by this Indian.

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[sil.]

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They were in front, but
none of the arrows hit.

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I knocked them aside with my hand.
They shot you from in front?

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Yes. And they are not the side of the
arrows. But when I try to get out,

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and was turning in the door,

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the first arrow hit me in the spine. Bayano’s
brush with death brought new urgency

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to the Indian agencies efforts to
try to gain the Indians trust.

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As soon as the Indians started accepting the
post’s food, they started introducing medicines

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to get the Indians used to them, even
though they often weren’t really necessary.

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[sil.]

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The agency vividly remembers an experience, says
another tribe Suruí first encountered civilization.

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The Suruí’s leader
Hitabura(ph) tells the story.

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At first, we only got crops.

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Then we started going
to the frontier towns.

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[sil.]

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Then measles caught everyone,
killed all of us, Indians.

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Hitabura had been

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10 years younger. The tribe summoned the
Indian agencies Regional Director (inaudible)

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to Hitabura’s village. (inaudible)saw
an appalling situation.

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Many Indians had refused medication.

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[music]

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Those who hadn’t often quit
taking it before they were cured.

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[music]

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They would carry the
measles from camp to camp.

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In the end, roughly half the tribe died.

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For (inaudible) it had been
a shattering experience.

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He says, he learned that tribes require
years of preparation against our epidemics.

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[sil.]

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The biggest stint,

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is an epidemic of flu or measles.

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Especially if they visit the
colonists, before our interpreters

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can explain that they must be
vaccinated and take our medicines.

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But the Uru Eu Wau Wau

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were not to be given the years it would
take to get used to the medicines.

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And as civilization got closer, the Indians that came
into the post appeared increasingly disoriented,

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as if the pressures of civilization
were finally weighing on them.

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[sil.]

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The Indian agency personnel now knew that
the tribe would be in increasing trouble.

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[music]

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Besides the union agency, there were a few
voices in Brazil arguing to protect this forest

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and the people living here. One of
them was a Brazilian Environmentalist

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Dr. José Lutzenberger.

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Like the others we have met, the communists,
the Indians, we would also spend the decade

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following the man, Brazilians
affectionately call the mad professor

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and his crusade to save the forest.

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This time, he’s on his way

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deep into the forest to meet people who had
successfully lived here for more than hundred years.

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The serengatoes(ph) or rubber
tappers were also being threatened

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by the onslaught of colonists.
There’s was a simple way of life.

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They lived here without destroying the forest.
They used the network of rivers as their highways.

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[sil.]

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They lived in functional open air houses.

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[sil.]

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Raising most of their food,
fishing for the rest.

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[sil.]

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Like much of their way of life,
the serengatoes(ph) learned

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to do this from the Indians.
They tapped the rubber in trees,

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sold Brazil nuts, but their
lives were about to be changed,

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as Brazil’s land agency began to
divide up the forest for colonization.

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Anyone can see that people living
in this rubber tapper village,

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lead a relatively happy life. They are
much happier. They’re much better off

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than a columnist who will soon drive them
out. How crazy to allow this to happen.

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The lifestyle of the
colonist on top of being

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a much harder is also unsustainable.

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Lutzenberger said, the serengatoes(ph) will be driven away from their
simple lives completely if the government colonization program continues.

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But despite Lutzenberger’s pleas
on behalf of these people,

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Rondônia’s governor continued to
encourage the massive migration.

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Rondônia was forged
calloused hands and bodies

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covered with the sweat and dust
of the divine labor of the earth.

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Come Brazilians from all over Brazil.

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Come men from all peoples. Rondônia
offers work, solidarity, and respect.

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You bring your dreams,

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hopes, and illusions.

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They would come from the slums of São Paulo and Rio
de Janeiro, from the played out farms of the south,

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sent down the road into the forest.

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[sil.]

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But Lutzenberger argued they were being blindly
sent by a government totally unaware of

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how hard it was to make a life here.

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[sil.]

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This is the region of Ouro Preto,

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where the colonist Renato abandoned
his land. In fact, so many colonists

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are giving up their plots that something must be
fundamentally wrong with the whole colonization scheme.

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[sil.]

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For Lutzenberger, it was a program in
chaos. Banned soils that simply eliminated

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many small farmers.

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The government also offered huge tax
incentives to create large cattle ranches.

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Thousands of acres of forest were cut down
to create grazing land for these cattle.

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But the soil was so poor, it can take as
many as ten acres to feed only one steer.

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[sil.]

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And even after the forest is cut down,
the pasture was quickly overgrown

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by jungle scrub that looks
green, but as useless as field.

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The government also encouraged

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huge agribusinesses to plant rubber and cocoa,
but the trees turned out to be vulnerable

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to special Amazonian diseases.

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The yield per acre is falling drastically.

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Each year it produces less,
the trees produce fruit,

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but the fruit is lost to pest disease.

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The problem is lack of research
to find a variety of cocoa

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that resist the two main diseases.

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[sil.]

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Meanwhile, the systematic division of

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the rainforest continued. By now, the
Brazilian Land Agency had gotten

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pretty good at making sure each plot
was properly marked and registered.

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But the farms were rigidly divided

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without reference to the
terrain, many had no water,

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were included rocky hills.

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Like the cattle ranching and the
planting of cocoa and rubber susceptible

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to Amazonian diseases. This policy also
infuriated environmentalist Lutzenberger.

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[non-English narration]

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Why these straight lines?
Why does this road cut

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straight across the river several times? It’s not
taking into account the terrain or drainage.

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I see plots without streams,
others cut three times

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by the same stream. It’s done on a
map without taking into account

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ecological conditions, placing on top
of the countryside something conceived

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on a drawing board.

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They can’t arrange for every
plot to have a stream.

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I believe what’s possible was done.

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If it’s not perfect,

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then it’s open for criticism. And the
colonists were given no training

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for tropical farming. The chances were that

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European style farms would
fail in the sandy soil.

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So Lutzenberger challenged the
head of Rondônia’s land agency.

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We’re replacing something sustainable

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that can last forever, with something that
can’t last 20 years, this is a crime.

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Again replied, we’re
giving food to a family.

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For how long? For how long?

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I don’t ask that question. At
least they’re eating today.

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A human being receiving food. But
for how long? Let’s work together,

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so it will last.

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I’m sacrificing one thing for
another which will produce.

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[sil.]

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If this land should become unproductive,
than it’s a crime, a crime.

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Lutzenberger was witnessing a government
program that sacrificed the forest,

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so that the rest of Brazil would no
longer be swarming with landless poor.

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[sil.]

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[music]

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The government’s entire development program defended on
the great convoys from the industrial part of Brazil.

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But in the rainy season,

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thousands of trucks were stuck in the
mud, while the food inside rotted.

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[music]

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So Brazil asked the World Bank for one third
of the money it would take to pave this road.

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The World Bank eventually lent

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nearly half a billion dollars for what the
bank called \"The Northwest Region Program.

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In Brazil, Polonoroeste.

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Critics of the project argued that dirt
road was bad enough, paving it just made it

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that much easier to destroy this fragile
area. They wanted to stop the paving

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until Rondônia was capable of coping
with the migration it would encourage.

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The banks send survey teams,
they saw the burning,

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the failed farms and cattle ranches
and they heard about the Indians.

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Then the bank’s own experts warned
them, the road would cause trouble.

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I was asked by the World Bank to
evaluate the feasibility of the plan

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which the Brazilian agency had produced uh…
for safeguarding the interests of the Indians

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in the area and the competence
of the Brazilian organ to

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carry out those plans. And very simply

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I found the plan silly and ignorant.

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Their initial reaction was
to essentially suppress

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the distribution of my report within the bank itself. In a
serious sense, I don’t think they paid very much attention.

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In 1982, the World Bank

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decided to go ahead with the
paving of the main highway, BR364.

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José Lutzenberger and other
environmentalists had no luck stopping

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either the bank or the Brazilian government. So next,
they took their case to the United States Congress.

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Mr. Chairman, the World Bank is financing

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a project, Polonoroeste Project,
the Northwest Pole project,

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a project of $1.6 billion.

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I would like Congress to know
that the World Bank has written,

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my conditions into its agreements. For
instance, the respect of Indian reserves

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and not making colonization
schemes in areas

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with unsuitable storms. And these agreements
are being flouted by our government.

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They are being blatantly flouted. So
actually, the World Bank should now

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cease its funding for this project.
And it would then also be setting

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a very important sign, signal, uh… for
further development of the Amazon.

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The lobbying effort before Congress
caused the committee’s chairman,

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Representative James Scheuer, to write a letter
to the World Bank expressing deep concern

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over the Polonoroeste Project.
The World Bank’s reply

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was terse and unwavering. Senator
Robert Kasten, whose committee approves

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U.S. contributions to the bank, wrote a decisive
letter describing the World Bank’s response

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as an insult and warning them that they could face
trouble getting money from the U.S. Congress.

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We hoped that this would lead to
the stopping of the funding of

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the overall Polonoroeste Project.
At that point we were

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aware of the fact that it was, it was
bad, it was wrong, it was a mess,

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and we didn’t want U.S. taxpayer dollars
going to fund projects like that.

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Following Lutzenberger’s visit,
criticism was mounting from the press,

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environmental groups, and the U.S.
Congress.

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
Finally, the World Bank suspended
payments of the loan to pave the road.

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
So under pressure, the Brazilian
government finally decided

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
to mark out formal boundaries
around the reservation.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
But even though the boundaries
were being drawn by the army,

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
it was clear they could do nothing to
keep the settlers out or the Indians in.

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
[sil.]

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
The reservation was already
swarming with squatters.

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
On my right is the reservation
of the Uru Eu Wau Wau,

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
on the left the area of the Colonists.

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
But it’s precisely here that the forest is cut
down, so are the squatters on the reservation?

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
Yes.

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
Are there many squatters clearings?
Yes, many.

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:28.000
[sil.]

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
Nevertheless, the World Bank took the drawing of the boundaries as an
opportunity to reinstate the loan for the paving of the main road.

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
Behind the bulldozers, came more colonists,

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
timber cutters and prospectors.
Where you’re going?

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
Prospecting for gold.
There’s gold in there?

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
Yes. Aren’t you afraid of
a clash with Indians? No.

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
If you clash what will you do? We’ll run.

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
If we come across them, we’ll go around.

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:13.000
[sil.]

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
Not far from here, was an
Uru Eu Wau Wau village.

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:28.000
[sil.]

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
By now the Indian agency
was already fighting

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
epidemic after epidemic
with inadequate resources.

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:48.000
[sil.]

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
They now know they had been too
late to contact the Indians.

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
The reservations formal boundaries were
ineffective. The Indians are increasingly

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
in contact with colonists and disease.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:18.000
[sil.]

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
The agency had learned to talk to the
Indians, their language turned out

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
to be similar to a neighboring tribe. They said
they lived and traveled in separate groups.

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
This group had a forceful leader.
He traveled with his young wife

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
and a four year old son.
They were beginning to adopt

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
the ways of the agency.
Here, an Uru Eu Wau Wau boy

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
tries to take the clothes from the
agency’s nurse. I’ve only got one outfit.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
Well, so you find out the
plane brings the clothes.

00:26:55.000 --> 00:27:03.000
[sil.]

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
In the end, the post gave clothes to
the Indians, if they asked for them.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
[sil.]

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
But the fear of infection continued

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
as the Indians increasingly made
similar visits to the colonists.

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:33.000
[sil.]

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
But all this time, it was still the unsolved
mystery of what had happened to the boy

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
who had been kidnapped,
young Fabio Prestos.

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
[sil.]

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
If he is alive, he’s
suffering, missing his family,

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
eating Indian food, living in the
jungle, seeing only animals,

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
living without hope. It’s only we who hope.

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
I’ve buried my sons, but Fabio,

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
nobody knows, nobody can settle it.

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
But finally, the mystery of
Fabio Prestos would be settled.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
It was a year later, the Indians
had admitted to the Indian agency

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
that they knew what happened to young
Fabio. So they took the agency

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
to the place where they had kidnapped
the boy. This is the river Jamari.

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
[sil.]

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
The site of the killing by the Indian,

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
where they killed a 17 year
old boy and a nine year old

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
and kidnap the seven year old Fabio.

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
The Indians said that after they killed Fabio’s
oldest brother and shot nine year old Demus(ph),

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
they grabbed little Fabio and
headed into these trees.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
Some tribes kidnapped children

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
to increase their own numbers.
But Fabio was crying,

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
so after only a few minutes, the
Indian said, they killed him.

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
Only a few hundred yards from where his brother’s leg
wounded, the Indians said they hastily buried the boy.

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
[sil.]

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
The truth brought little consolation to the
family. And soon after, another tragedy,

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
Chico died of malaria. After his death,

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
when he could no longer be prosecuted, his wife told us the truth
about what had really happened when Chico went after the Indians

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
to rescue his son. Chico
shot dead an Indian

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
and then he saw another in the forest.
He fired, then the Indian ran,

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
two other hidden Indians also ran.
So they waited for night,

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
they couldn’t go on. As the Indians were trying
to kill them, so they returned in the dark.

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
[sil.]

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
Three sons and her husband were dead,

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
half the Prestos family had been wiped out.

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
Chico had spent four years

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
obsessed with finding his son.
He’d lost his land, his family,

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
his health. His final hours in the
hospital were spent delirious,

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
calling for little Fabio.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:48.000
[music]

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
[sil.]

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
429 Penetration Road continued.

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
And as it did,

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
the forest on the very poor soils by the road
was cut and burned for hundreds of miles,

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
despite the fact that there was
a specific clause against it

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
in the World Bank’s agreement.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
David Knox of the World Bank in Washington.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
I believe was that, rather than
trying to save flatly look,

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
you will not build a road. I’m sure that we have
that degree of influence, anyhow in Brazil.

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
It was far more important
to encourage the Brazilians

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
to carry out a proper environmental impact
studies that one could assess properly,

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
the likely effects of this road

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
and that has been agreed to and that’s
what they are now doing Two years later,

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
that environmental impact study was still not
completed. Specialists, who analyzed deforestation

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
through satellite photographs, believed
the destruction was caused by the road.

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
That more than 11% of the
state has been deforested

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
and most of it in the last two,
three years. The light areas

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
are deforestation among
the main BR364 highway.

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
Every year, satellite images show
an increase in deforestation,

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
obviously stimulated by the paving of
the highway. This graph summarizing

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
our satellite analysis of the last few
years, which show, this actually between

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
1984 and 1985 that deforestation has,

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
had the largest impact on the state. And this
is precisely when highway 364 was paved.

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
But even faced with this
evidence, the World Bank said

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
they did not regret having
made the Polonoroeste loan.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
No I don’t think we do because umm… I think
the implication of your question is,

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
if there’s causing effect here? That because the road
was paved off, or there was a flood of migrants?

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
Perhaps paving the road
had some effect on this,

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
but I doubt whether it had much effect. But the
effects could be seen throughout Rondônia.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
This is the area where we first
filmed the settler Renato.

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
By 1986, 80% of his immediate
neighbors had sold

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
or abandoned their land and
land speculation started.

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
Twenty nine plots here have been bought by one family
with the hope of selling it someday at a profit.

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
At the large cattle ranch

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
where we filmed this scene, all that was
left of the ranch house was a rusty safe,

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
and this vast 5,000 acre clearing which
had been abandoned to squatters.

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
And Rondônia’s largest
agribusiness had just plowed up,

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
most of their cocoa, coffee, and rubber. In
this area we cut down 500 acres of rubber.

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
Why did you re-plow it? We left
the surviving rubber trees,

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
those were into disease and planted grass.

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
Once you were the largest
agriculturalist in this area.

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
Once I was the largest in the state.

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
Then it’s really a total disaster? The
disaster, not just for us, but for the state.

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
The colonization program was now a crisis.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
In the capital of Rondônia, even the new
governor admitted the state’s failure.

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:48.000
[non-English narration]

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
The great problem Rondônia faces today is…

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
[sil.]

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
Principally the devastation of our state.

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
Rondônia is being trampled down
by a migration of 180,000 a year.

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
For Lutzenberger, it is confirmation of

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
what he had feared from the beginning.
Outside the meeting,

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
he talked with rubber tappers who had seen their
land devastated by the government’s program.

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
[sil.]

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
Well, in Washington,

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
the World Bank’s role in helping Brazil
was increasingly coming under attack.

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:48.000
[sil.]

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:08.000
[sil.]

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
We want World Bank to know, we what you guys to
know that we’re gonna be back here next year.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
Throughout the United States 75 demonstrations going
on right now in other communities around the country.

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
The World Bank wants us to believe

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
that when they help finance the projects
that are destroying the forests,

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
that they are helping the people in those
areas. Now this is a big lie, an infamous lie.

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
The opposite is true. The
people living in the forest,

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
they have an interest in their preservation. The people living
in them, they want to be preserved, it’s their livelihood.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
[sil.]

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
The Congress acted in the Budget of
October 1986, cutting U.S. contributions

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
to the multilateral banks by over 20%.
That percentage reduction,

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
could I think, we looked up is kind of a
warning shot that the Congress is fed up.

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
And if we don’t have more adequate
environmental consideration

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
on loans and projects that they are part of, then
all of their money is likely to be in jeopardy.

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
Not long afterwards at Washington,

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
Sheraton Carlton Hotel, the President of the
World Bank admitted the bank’s mistakes.

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
Inevitably, the bank has also stumbled.

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
For instance, more recent Brazilian project
known as Polonoroeste was a sobering example of

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
an environmentally sound
effort which went wrong.

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
The bank misread the human institutional and
physical realities of the jungle in the frontier.

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
In some cases, the dynamic of the
frontier got out of control.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
Protective measures to shelter fragile
land and tribal people were included.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
They were not however carefully
timed or adequately monitored.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
Polonoroeste teaches many lessons.
First, we’re creating a top level

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
environmental department to help set the
direction of bank policy, at the same time…

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
But that summer, the smokey’s in
Rondônia was worse than ever.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:28.000
[music]

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
Finally in 1989, the Brazilian
Space Institute came up with a way

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
to stop the burning.
Every day at 1 o’clock,

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
a satellite takes a heat
sensitive photo of the fires.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
The precise positions of the fires
were plotted, already being telex out.

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
Alberto Setzer developed the technique.
Well, what we see in the screen

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
is an example of a telex message
that is being send right now

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
uh… to different institutions.
Each set of number but response

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
for different forest fire. And you can
see that we have hundreds of them.

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
Each of these spots is a fire.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
The forestry police were then dispatched
to an exact location by the computers.

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
[sil.]

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
The biggest fires were now set by ranchers
in their continuing need for pasture.

00:39:55.000 --> 00:40:03.000
[sil.]

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
A forestry officer was preceded by a
policeman with an automatic weapon.

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
Under Brazilian law, they were authorized
to levy fines and seize equipment.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
You have to appear at this
address on Friday at 3 o’clock

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
Millions of dollars of fines were issued. We’re leaving
in order with you, for him to present himself on Friday.

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
They also confiscate the chainsaws.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
The rancher can only get them back,

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
if you can prove he had a
license to cut the forest.

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
But while the system for locating the fires
worked, most of the fines weren’t paid.

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
The government didn’t appear to want to anger
wealthy ranchers during an election year.

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
And there were other political pressures

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
aimed at getting more
of the Indians forest.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
The new governor of Rondônia,
Jerônimo Santana canvassed for votes

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
among landless columnists by campaigning for
the Uru Eu Wau Wau reservation to be reduced.

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
[sil.]

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
It was a popular sentiment
among the failed farmers.

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
The reservation is super sized
beyond the needs of the Indians.

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
It’s a reservation of 3.5 million acres

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
and it could have been 2 or 2.5 million.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
There is no need for a reservation of
this size. He officially requested

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
the President of Brazil to
reduce the Indians territory.

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
And in one of his last official acts, the
President did cancel the reservation.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
[sil.]

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
But it was the road that caused the most damage,
as columnists moved from it into the reservation

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
to infect even the most distant and isolated
group of Uru Eu Wau Wau, called Amondawa.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
Since they lived

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
far away from the post, and medical
treatment, the Indian agency believes that

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
more than half this group died. They
have no resistance to chicken pox.

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:38.000
[sil.]

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
They came into the post
desperate and dying,

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
but there never had been an official count
of the living, so it was hard to know

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
how many had died. For
lack of a better method,

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
we pinned up our pictures of the
other Uru Eu Wau Wau groups

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:05.000
we filmed at the beginning of the decade. We
asked who died out of this random selection?

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
[sil.]

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
Sadly as the decade drew to a close.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
(inaudible)the Indian agencies
own director blamed his agency

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
for many of the problems.
I see it as a great

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
(inaudible)of the Indian agency.

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
Despite, all our previous experience,

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
we can excuse

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
repetition of the same errors.
The lack of money and personnel

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
to prevent indiscriminate contact

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
between the Indians and
the pioneer of frontier.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
The point this country has
reached in corruption

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
and misappropriation of money,

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
we just to a great despair. If
there’s no change in policy

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
towards the Indians and the environment,

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
neither the Indians nor
the riches of nature

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
will survive in this country.

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
And so the decade ended for our 90
randomly photographed Uru Eu Wau Wau.

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
We believe at least one in six died,

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
most from the flu.

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
Disease, death, and the
land changed forever.

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
The Jamari River

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
where we filmed the first geological soundings 10
years ago is now blocked by the huge Samuel Dam.

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
[music]

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
And much of the Indians forest is flooded.

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
The small settlement of (inaudible)
as mushroomed into a market town.

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
[music]

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
The municipal town of Ouro Preto
is becoming an industrial center.

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:33.000
[music]

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
And the 429 road through Virgin Jungle
is now the main route to Bolivia.

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
Yet, as the main highway was

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
finally paved through Rondônia leaving
in it’s wake such destruction.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
Another international bank approved a
loan to continue paving and expansion

00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
into the neighboring state of Acre.
As the paving went on,

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
the forest burned, as thousands
of settlers move down the road.

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:13.000
[music]

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
And incredibly, close to the new road,
José Lutzenberger found the man

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
we had met at the very
beginning, the columnist Renato

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
had joined the land rush.
I came from Rondônia.

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
80% of my Rondônia
acquaintances have come here.

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
[non-English narration]

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
Did many neighbors come with you? Many
people came from Rondônia this year.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
But you’re not from Rondônia. We’re from
Paraná. From Paraná I migrated to (inaudible)

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
then Rondônia, then here.
So it’s your third move?

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
Hundreds and thousands
had migrated into Acre.

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
Most of those that stayed behind,
moved into Rondônia’s cities.

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
And as we return to Renato’s original
area, the only settler we could find

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
was his old neighbor, Goyano. He had been
among the first to clear the forest.

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
Now a decade later, he was bitter.

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
After the last 10 years, I’m worse off. When
I got land from the government, they said,

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
they would give every assistance,
but I had no assistance,

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
all I got was malaria.

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
Now we’re a rainforest once stood,
there are hundreds of slums.

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
After a decade of Brazil’s biggest
colonization and agricultural program,

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
three quarters of Rondônia’s population now
lives in the towns, much of it in slums.

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
[sil.]

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
It is the ultimate irony for
many environmentalists.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
For instance, this settlement was built
for migrants with state government help,

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
but without sewers, running
water, or trash disposal.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:33.000
[sil.]

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
We asked Lutzenberger, how he would sum up what
had happened in Rondônia during the 1980s.

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
[sil.]

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
Well, the explicit aim of the Polonoroeste Project, cutting
down and clearing these forests was to make a better world here

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
for people who had been approved it and
who were miserable in other places,

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
in the south of Brazil and then in the south,
in the north east. But look what we have here,

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
just the same thing. These people
are just as poor, just as miserable

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
and, and irreversible process has been
trigged. The rainforest make its own climate

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
and it’s the result of that climate.
How long can we go on devastating it

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
before it collapses, we may
be very close to this point.

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
[music]

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
For a decade, the Brazilian government

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
had been hurling columnists
quite blindly to disaster.

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
Now their lives in ruins, they
wait for other solutions.

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
The Indians they shot and infected

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
are no longer wild and free. A quarter
of Rondônia’s rainforest is in ruins.

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
But the annual incineration of Amazonia,

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
produced a growing public concern
throughout Brazil and the world.

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
Finally, on Inauguration Day in 1990,

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
Brazil’s new President Fernando Collor
facing staggering debt on a forest in ruins,

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
he knew he had to pay
attention to the environment.

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:28.000
[sil.]

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
So in a surprise move, Collor picked José
Lutzenberger to be his Secretary of Environment.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:53.000
[sil.]

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
Since Election Day, Collor and Lutzenberger have
made a number of moves to improve the environment.

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
They’ve adopted the Brazilian Space
Agency’s technique of using satellites

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
to stop the burnings.

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
In 1990, the fires had been reduced
by 65% from their peak in 1987.

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
[sil.]

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
But besides fires, there are still many
problems facing President Collor in the Amazon,

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
problems we have recorded
during the decade.

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
[sil.]

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
In Episode II, we journeyed
to the Northeastern Amazon

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
where millions of landless rural poor roam this
countryside looking for any unused piece of land.

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
Rich land owners have hired gunmen
to terrorize and kill the squatters.

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:58.000
[sil.]

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
The bloody feuds have turned entire sections
of a state into our lawless no man’s land.

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
[sil.]

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
Land reform is one of the most
emotional and controversial issues

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
confronting President Collor, because when the squatters
are defeated, they’re pushed deeper into the forest,

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
to start the cycle of slashing
and burning all over again.

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
[music]

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
In Episode III, we will see another
problem facing President Collor

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
here in the Carajás
Mountains of the Amazon.

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
This is the world’s richest mineral
province. Under the forest mist,

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
massive deposits of gold, tin,
iron ore, bauxite and copper.

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
During the 1980s, the government
decided to exploit the area

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
to help pay their staggering
international debt.

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
But also during this time, hundreds of thousands
of poor prospectors swarmed into the area.

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
[sil.]

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
This vast volatile population

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
simply began mining for gold
wherever they could find it.

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
But violence broke out.

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:33.000
[sil.]

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
The miners were driven
further into the forest.

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
[music]

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
And even though the riches of the
forest were Brazil’s to take,

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
President Collor now realizes that the
attempts to industrialize the region

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
have resulted in massive
deforestation and destruction.

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:13.000
[music]

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
Episode III, is centered
in the Western Amazon,

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
where the paving the main highway from
Rondônia, the BR364 had continued

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
into the neighboring State of Acre.
Again, the building of a road

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
and the migration it would encourage
threatened Indians and rubber tappers.

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
But this time the tempers
had a leader, Chico Mendes.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
His campaign to create protected
reservations led him from the forest,

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
to political power, to international
environmental celebrity,

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
but it also led to his assassination.
Francisco Mendes Filho was shot dead

00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
Thursday night in his house… December
22, Francisco Mendes was gunned down

00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
in a remote city in the Amazon. Mr.
Mendes was shot dead outside his home in

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
Northwestern Brazil on Thursday.

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
Chico Mendes was Brazil’s first environmental
martyr. His death led to an international outcry.

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
An outcry that has enabled José
Lutzenberger and President Collor

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
to make some environmental gains in Brazil.

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
Millions of acres of the rainforest are
now protected, the Chico Mendes Reserve.

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
And as President Collor dedicated it,

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
he said that if the rest of the world were willing
to help Brazil with it’s staggering debt,

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
he would find the political will to put
an end to the decade of destruction

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
and begin in Brazil a new
decade of the environment.

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:55.000
[music]

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.999
The Decade of Destruction by Adrian Cowell

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:30.000
is published by Henry Holt and Company and is
available in libraries and bookstores nationwide.