The Solutions

Some indigenous people of the Brazilian Amazon are leading the way for protect of the rainforest.

One group of Indians, the Deni, living in a remote area of the Amazon are taking the future of their territory and culture into their own hands. With a population of just over 600 people, and little contact with the outside world, the forest is their home and source of livelihood.

Their land is being threatened by commercial logging, so the Deni have taken over control of the demarcation process. By mid-October, after almost 20 years, demarcated paths of hundreds of kilometres will be in place to protect the Deni culture and their 1,600,000 hectares of pristine forest in the heart of the Amazon from invading transnational companies and local loggers.

Indigenous groups are not the only people dependent on the forest for preserving traditional ways of life.

As many as 63,000 families depend on rubber tapping in extractive reserves in the Brazilian Amazon. Rubber tapping has been a traditional way of life for many people living in the rainforest. It does not require the tree to be cut down in order for the latex to be extracted.

Extractive reserves are protected areas of forest established by the Brazilian government to allow the rubber tappers to maintain their traditional way of life and currently cover approximately one percent of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. Greenpeace is working with the rubber tappers and other groups to help increase the size of the extractive reserves to 10 percent of the Brazilian Amazon for ecologically responsible use.

With the protection of indigenous lands and the creation of more extractive reserves, as much as 30 percent of the Amazon would be legally off limits to logging and industrial development.

Certified logging operations offer an important way forward for the logging industry in the Amazon. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is the certification system currently favoured as promoting better ecological practices.

A handful of companies in the Brazilian Amazon, such as Precious Woods of Itacoatiara, have already received certification and are now shipping wood from ecologically managed operations around the world.

Many more solutions are needed that protect the forest and use its resources responsibly, while simultaneously improving the quality of life for the more than 20 million people living in the region. This can only be achieved if economic alternatives and solutions to destructive logging are adopted.

Throughout the world, ancient forests are in crisis. Many of the plants, animals and human cultures that live in these forests are under threat. But the news is not all bad. If world governments choose now to SAVE the ancient forests, there is a last chance to protect these forests and the life they support. more>