This land is where we know where to find all that it provides for us–food from hunting and fishing, farms, building and tool materials, and medicines. This land keeps us together within its mountains; we come to understand that we are not just a few people or separate villages, but one people belonging to a homeland (Collins 32). The “homeland” is the Upper Mazaruni District of Guyana, a region in the Amazon rainforest where the Akawaio Indians make their home (32). The vast rainforest, often regarded as just a mass of trees and exotic species, is to many indigenous people a home. This home is being destroyed as miners, loggers, and developers move in on the cultures of these people to strip away their resources and complicate the peaceful, simple lives of these primitive tribes.
However, the tribes are not the only ones who lose in this situation. If rainforest invasion continues, mankind as a whole will lose a valuable treasure: the knowledge of these people in utilizing the resources and plants of the forest for food, building, and medicine. To prevent this loss, the governments of the countries housing the rainforests should provide some protection for the forest and its inhabitants through legislation and programs. Additionally, environmentalists should pursue educating the tribes in managing their resources for pragmatic, long-term profit through conservation.
Although hard to believe, the environmental problems of today started a long time before electricity was invented, before automobiles littered the highways, and before industries dotted the countryside. From ancient times to the Industrial Revolution, humans began to change the face of the earth. As populations increased and technology improved and expanded, more significant and widespread problems arose. “Today, unprecedented demands on the environment from a rapidly expanding human population and from advancing technology are causing a continuing and accelerating decline in the quality of the environment and its ability to sustain life” (Ehrlich 98).
Increasing numbers of humans are intruding on remaining wild land—even in those areas once considered relatively safe from exploitation. Tropical forests, especially in southeast Asia and the Amazon River Basin, are being destroyed at an alarming rate for timber, conversion to crop and grazing lands, pine plantations, and settlements. According to researcher Howard Facklam, “It was estimated at one point in the 1980s that such forest lands were being cleared at the rate of 20 (nearly 50 acres) a minute; another estimate put the rate at more than 200,000 sq km (more than 78,000 sq mi) a year.
In 1993, satellite data provided the rate of deforestation could result in the extinction of as many as 750,000 species, which would mean the loss of a multiplicity of products: food, fibers, medical drugs, dyes, gums, and resins” (53). So what kind of condition will the forests be in by the year 2050? If this rate of deforestation continues, there will be no tropical rainforest in the year 2050. Therefore, preservation needs to occur now to stop the terrible loss of the rainforests and all that they can provide. Rainforest destruction has two deadly causes: loggers and miners. For example, imagine loggers on bulldozers rolling into the forest, tearing down not only trees but also the invisible barrier between the modern, materialistic world and the serene paradise under the forest canopy. Forest locals told Scholastic Update that “…so much forest has vanished that the weather has changed delaying rains and increasing heat….” (Leo 19). Along with the loggers come miners seeking the gold and other minerals found in the forest.
Also, the native people have a natural sense of direction. The tribes chart vast distances of the Pacific Ocean using only their knowledge of currents and the feel of intermittent waves that bounce off distant islands (Hornaday 29). Their methods may seem primitive, but the ways of the rainforest people have come to be respected and valued by scientists and conservationists. In addition, the farming methods of the people are excellent in preservation of the land and abundant in production. They farm without irrigation and have developed an in-depth understanding of plant life (29).
Furthermore, this knowledge of plants is not only used in cultivating, but also in one of the most fascinating aspects of the tribes’ wisdom: their natural healing methods. Tribal healers, called shamans, are able to treat illnesses from colds to wounds. The treatments, such as using termites and poisonous plants to heal wounds, may seem exotic or unlikely, but are amazing in their results. Remarkably, medical professionals are turning to the healers in their research. The knowledge of the healers is regarded as a valuable research source to both medical researchers and doctors. Leading the way, reports Business Week, is a San Carlos, California-based company called Shaman Pharmaceuticals, Incorporated.
This small, successful operation has developed a method researchers describe as “ethnobotany”, in which the company sends their scientists into the forests to meet with tribal healers about medicinal properties of plants. The scientists show the shamans medical cases and photos to see how they would treat the problem. According to Business Week, this method brings about “an initial hit about half the time, versus a miniscule fraction of that in random-screening programs done by large-scale research companies” (53). The article continues by saying that Shaman Pharmaceuticals’ program is also beneficial to the people of the forest. The company began a foundation to help save the homes of the tribes that help them in their research by employing them to harvest the plants that the company uses (52).
Unfortunately, with each advance by those who destroy the forest and disrupt the cultures within, this knowledge becomes increasingly threatened. There are several reasons why. Sadly, the tribal healers are either forced out of their homes along with their tribes or die from illnesses or violence brought in by outsiders. Eugene Linden, a journalist of Time, points out a more disturbing reason: the young tribe members are ashamed of their culture. They have seen the technologies and novelties of civilization outside the forest and are embarrassed by their simple lifestyle. “Students who leave villages for schooling…learn that people, not the spirits of their ancestors, created the machines, dams, and other so-called cargo of the modern world. Once absorbed, this realization undermines the credibility and authority of elders” (Linden 50). Therefore, since some of their former teachings or beliefs were proved wrong, they make no effort to learn or carry on the useful traditions of their cultures.
Ironically, the tribes are at times responsible for the damage done to their homeland. According to Scholastic Update, some of the tribes, looking for short-term profits and quick relief from poverty, “…cut their own deals with miners, developers, and loggers” (Leo 20). G.T. Miller, author of Living in the Rain Forest, says this is to be expected: when an economically struggling country has a choice between logging a forest to sell timber for high profits and leaving the forest intact without monetary compensation, the nation usually chooses the profitable alternative because immediate economic gains are more important than future environmental costs (Miller 59).
Obviously, the tribes are confused. They are being pulled in all different directions by teams of environmentalists offering contradicting solutions, and they are being mesmerized by the promise of financial gain made by developers and businessmen who want the forest for their own use.
Therefore, a specialized environmental group needs to step in, a group with the goal to save the homes, cultures, and knowledge of the indigenous people, to whom the rainforest rightfully belongs. A group that will not use the situation as an opportunity to launch fundraising schemes for their benefit. If the National Arbor Day Foundation would focus its Rain Forest Rescue program on educating these tribes in the most beneficial ways to use their forest resources, the people would be fortified to resist the temptation to sell off their forest land in hopes of quick money. In the article “Paradise Lost?”, a study showed that “…an acre in the Peruvian Amazon would be worth $148 if used for cattle pasture, $1000 if cut for timber, and $6820 if selectively combed for fruits, rubber, and other profits…” (Linden 51). Tribal leaders need to be shown this information, and they need to be shown the evidence of benefiting from conversation.
In addition, the governments of the countries where rainforests are located can also play a part. Through legislation and programs, the governments need to regulate the infusion of developers, miners, and loggers into the forests. They can do this in a way similar to the way the NCAA regulates the recruiting of athletes. By closely restricting “recruiting tactics” made to convince the tribes to surrender their land, the natives will be less bombarded by fast-talking, money-hungry corporations. Also, there should be fewer outsiders allowed into the forests to destroy its simplicity. This will also keep the cultures from being overshadowed by those of the outside world, which will help to preserve the pride of the tribe members in their traditions and knowledge.
In fact, some governments have started to make an effort in the preservation of the rainforests. For example, in June 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, commonly known as the Earth Summit, convened for 12 days on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Earth Summit developed and legitimized a broad agenda for environmental, economic, and political change. The purposes of the conference were to identify long-term environmental reforms and to initiate processes for their international implementation and supervision. Conventions were held to discuss and adopt documents on the environment.
The major topics covered by these conventions included climate change, biodiversity, forest protections, Agenda 21 (a 900-page blueprint for environmental development), and the Rio Declaration (a six-page statement that called for integrating the environment with economic development). The Earth Summit was a historic event of great significance. Not only did it make the environment a priority on the world’s agenda, but delegates from 179 countries attended, making it the largest conference ever held (“Environment”).
However, despite great interest in the environment, environmental education still needs more focus. According to conservationist Raymond Dasmann: “To reduce environmental degradation and for humanity to save its habitat, societies must recognize that the environment is finite. Environmentalists believe that, as populations and their demands increase, the idea of continuous growth must give way to a more rational use of the environment, but that this can be accomplished only by a dramatic change in the attitude of the human species. The human attack on the environment has been compared to the dramatic upheavals of the earth in the geologic past; whatever a society’s attitude may be toward continuous growth, humanity should recognize that this attack threatens human survival” (12).
The serenity of the rainforest is worth preserving both for the sake of the tribes who call it home and for the human population that can benefit from the rainforest’s inhabitants’ invaluable expertise in hunting, building, conservation, and natural healing. Why must miners, loggers, and developers invade this uncomplicated society? Why not let these people live confidently in their traditions and peacefully in their paradise instead of destroying their homes or deceiving them into destroying themselves? The rainforest is their home, and as one tribal leader told Time, “If we die, we die in the forest. There is no other place for us to go” (Linden 51).
Works Cited:
- Cappon, Daniel. Health and the Environment. Pergamon, 1990.
- Collins, Mark. The Last Rainforest. Oxford, 1991.
- Dasmann, Raymond. Environmental Conservation. 5th ed. Wiley, 1988.
- Ehrlich, Anne et al. Earth. Watts, 1987.
- “Enchanted Canopy, The.” Business Week. 5 Sept. 1989: 52-53.
- “Environment.” Microsoft Encarta ’95: The Complete Interactive Multimedia Encyclopedia. 1995 edition. CD-Rom. Microsoft Corporation, 1992-1994.
- Facklam, Howard. Plants: Extinction or Survival?. Enslow, 1990.
- Hornaday, Anne. “Earth’s Threatened Resources.” Congressional Quarterly. 2 Sept. 1993: 28-29.
- Linden, Eugene. “Paradise Lost?” Time. 19 July 1990: 50-51.
- Leo, Robert. “The Changing Forest.” Scholastic Update. 2 Sept. 1992: 20.
- Miller, G.T. Living in the Environment. Wadsworth, 1987.
- Smith, Duane A. “My Trip to the Rain Forest.” Mining America: The Industry and the Environment. 3 Sept. 1991: 66.
