Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has made good on a series of campaign promises to defend the Amazon and empower Indigenous peoples. He already signed an executive order to relaunch a billion-dollar Amazon fund, where foreign governments can contribute to forest protection, among six other orders.
Brazil is rushing ahead with big economic development plans. It will host the soccer World Cup later this year, and the Olympics two years later. But all that progress is challenging the traditions — even the way of life — of the country’s indigenous people.Brazil is rushing ahead with big economic development plans. It will host the soccer World Cup later this year, and the Olympics two years later. But all that progress is challenging the traditions — even the way of life — of the country’s indigenous people.
In the extremely remote region of the Ecuadorian Amazon the Zapara tribe, much reduced in numbers, tries to revive its language and culture just as the oil industry is approaching their territory. From the Homelands Productions series, “Worlds of Difference,” Alan Weisman reports on the tribe’s uncertain fate.