Amazon with Bruce Parry (2008) s01e06 Episode Script
Part 6
I'm on my final stretch of my journey down the Amazon where the destruction of the rainforest is taking place on a massive scale.
This is the front line in the conflict over the Amazon's resources.
I ride out with the cowboys driving Brazil's booming cattle industry.
I go on a raid with the environmental police as they try to combat illegal logging.
Seems that their paperwork's not in order.
I meet the modern-day slaves, hidden in the shadows.
No-one deserves this.
I hear from the Kayapo Indians, fiercely defending their territory from invasion.
This is war paint, because, for the people here, it's a proper battle.
I've been travelling for seven months.
This now is the final stage of what's become quite an epicjourney.
I can't quite believe that the end is almost in sight.
All the way through Brazil so far, I've been in Amazonas State, living with Coboclos, Ribeirinhos, loggers, fishermen, farmers.
But now, it's completely different.
What started as a tiny trickle in the high Andes has become this vast body of water.
The main river has been joined by the Madeira and the Negro, two of the longest rivers in the world.
But these are mere tributaries of the mighty Amazon.
Here, as I enter Para State at the end of the river, the forces of global commerce are now starting to dominate the landscape.
As the river now is just getting bigger and bigger, the stories are getting bigger and bigger, too.
In this part of the Amazon, vast swathes of rainforest have been destroyed to make way for agriculture.
Brazil has now become the world's largest exporter of beef and soya.
But Brazil's emergence as a global agricultural powerhouse comes at a huge cost to the environment.
And this is the dilemma at the heart of the Amazon.
It's home to a quarter of the world's known species and provides a fifth of the Earth's oxygen.
But it's also rich in land, gold, oil and timber.
At this point, I'm heading inland, away from the river, to see the damage to the forest, firsthand.
Oorgh! Obrigado.
OK.
Adios! I'm driving into the Amazon's new agricultural frontier where cattle ranching has taken over the jungle.
Not so long ago, all of this was pristine forest.
But, now that all the logs have gone, one of the biggest uses of this sort of land is for cattle ranching.
And I'm now right in the middle of cow country.
I've come south of the Amazon River, to the heart of Para State, to a region called Altamira, where the beef business is booming.
I'm travelling on the Transamazônica Highway, on my way to a cattle ranch, where I'll be spending a few days, experiencing life out on the range.
Bruce.
Wow! What a place! Hey! (SPEAKS PORTUGUESE) (LAUGHS) You're not gonna let me get too close.
Valdo is the head cowboy on the farm and he takes me to meet the rest of the gang.
Wow.
OK.
Nice to meet you.
So, tomorrow amanha I'll be helping you guys on the farm? You might have to give me some lessons.
I'm not very good at all this stuff.
It's my first morning on the ranch and my first task is to mount up.
They've found me a good horse.
This one's pretty placid, I can tell.
Not a slight quiver from a novice on its back.
This is a fattening farm.
It has roughly 4,000 head of cattle, covering roughly 70,000 hectares.
But it's a minnow compared to others in the region.
(SHOUTING) It takes a full day's riding across this vast farm before we round up the last of the cattle.
Two medium-sized herds that we've had to round up and drag through hedges and across streams and finally got them into this pen.
They're going to be fed up a little bit before they're sent for export.
(CATTLE LOWING) My thighs are aching this morning, after a long day on horseback, but now, I'm facing a whole new challenge.
Today it's the turn of the calves, only it's gonna be a little bit different, because these guys are gonna have that as well.
This morning, the farm manager, Big Tony, is here to help with the branding.
What's the fate of these young ones now? My first job is to catch the calves, which may sound easy as they look quite small, but they're very strong and pretty quick.
Each calf is branded so the cowboys know exactly when it was born.
These are tough zebu cattle, originally bred in Africa and now thriving on the new grasslands of the Amazon.
(CALF BELLOWS) Grappling with the calves is a muddy business and makes me realise just how hard these guys work.
I'm absolutely knackered with all this heat.
It's overpowering.
This dude, about to lasso these huge calves - how cool is he? When the rope's handed to me, all I manage to catch with the lasso is one of the cowboys, Chico.
That's who I was trying to get.
What are you talking about?! (LAUGHS) My word.
I'm bushwhacked.
Obrigado, Tony.
Obrigado.
After a good morning's work, what could be better than a load of meat? I have to say that I'm really enjoying my time on the ranch.
I know that this beef comes at a cost to the environment, but it's wonderful to meet such friendly and hospitable people.
(WHOOPING) The sorting of the cattle is a never-ending task.
Just had a buyer turn up today who wants just white cattle.
So what we're gonna do is separate them here in the corral and then weigh them and he's then gonna take them away on his truck for export.
Minero is a typical entrepreneur in the region.
He's a cattle dealer, a middleman, buying from Tony's farm to sell to the big exporters.
Cattle is big in Brazil.
How is it for you? And what do you say to those people that accuse the ranchers of destroying the forest? What is your answer to those people? We've weighed them and we've sorted them.
All that remains is for the ones that we want to be branded and then put on the truck for taking away.
While we're waiting for the next truck to appear, some of the younger cowboys rope up a bull for practice as the rodeo season is about to start.
Vanderley is a budding rodeo star and makes it look deceptively easy.
They just saddled up a rodeo show for themselves and then some bright spark looked at me and said, ''Oi, do you want to have a go?'' Hand in here.
OK, and then? Squeeze here? And squeeze here.
And then just (LAUGHS) Well, just Stupid question, really, isn't it? What are you supposed to do? Grip, hold on and grip! Well, there you go.
OK, OK.
Right, here? And when I fall off, which I will Just let go.
And fall, then Ah, ah, ow! That hurt! (LAUGHS) Argh! That properly hurt.
That was about two seconds on the rodeo.
Whoo! That hurt! Ow! My last day of being a cowboy and I think Good way to leave it, really.
Leave it to the big boys, the real cowboys.
The trucks are eventually loaded and we all head off to the cattle port of Victoria on the Xingu River.
From here, the cows will be shipped all the way to the end of the Amazon and out to sea.
As a meat-eater, you always know that the transporting of animals goes on, but when you're here and you see it, it really does make you reevaluate.
Brazil has over 200 million head of cattle and last year sold more than $4 billion worth of beef.
As economies grow and lifestyles improve, more people around the world want to eat meat.
The Amazon can produce it cheaper than anywhere else, but the forest is rapidly disappearing to satisfy this growing demand.
With such vast opportunities for exploitation, Para State has become a magnet for some of the wealthiest landowners in the world who are making massive profits from the destruction of the forest.
At the forefront of this assault are the illegal loggers.
They're backed by powerful elites who take advantage of corruption and the lack of authority to sell their timber to legitimate markets.
I'm on my way to the town of Altamira to meet the Goverment agency responsible for policing the forest.
I'm at the IBAMA offices and today we're gonna go on a raid.
Not sure what, exactly.
It's kept quiet to the last minute.
I hear it might be a sawmill.
But just arriving in the offices, one of the first things I see is lots of confiscated wood.
I'm with Roberto Scarpari, head of the local IBAMA team.
They've got a tip-off that there's a sawmill some way ahead of us here dealing in illegal logs.
It looks like the sawmill operators have been told we're coming.
The place is deserted.
So what are you looking for here? Suddenly, one of the officers starts shouting from the gate.
Two lorries have arrived at the sawmill, loaded with freshly-cut timber.
This is a bust, you know.
It seems their paperwork's not in order from their perspective, at the moment.
Just as the IBAMA officials are busy dealing with the first two trucks, another one appears with yet more logs.
These two are now three trucks, full of allegedly illegal wood, so the guys are going through the motions now of checking out the paperwork and it doesn't look good for the drivers.
BRUCE: With all of these discrepancies with the paperwork, who is to blame? Is it the driver, or the person that sent them? Gentlemen, you've just been stopped by IBAMA.
Tell me, from your perspective, what is going on here? You guys drive logs for a living.
In your opinion, how much of the wood that is being taken is illegal? It'll take the IBAMA team weeks of painstaking paperwork to mount a prosecution.
In the meantime, all the trucks and the timber will be impounded and the team go back to shut down the sawmill until the investigation is complete.
The next morning, we head off on another IBAMA operation, this time from the air.
It's only from up here that you start to get a sense of the sheer scale of deforestation.
I've been lucky enough to go up in the air quite a few times on my journey so far.
I've always been rewarded with an extraordinary view.
But this is completely different.
Never have I seen it looking like this.
The Amazon now is nearly all grass and it's quite shocking.
In the last 40 years, almost 20% of the Amazon has been cut down.
Para State alone has lost an area of forest eight times the size of Wales.
We're flying over one of the last remaining areas of intact forest in this aggressive logging frontier and already it's chequered with clearings.
So, this is where they're bringing the logs down, all the way to the river.
Wow.
That's properly going on there.
And all of this is illegal, yeah? We've just flown over a number of areas of completely illegal clear felling, where there's been big machinery used, whole areas completely bereft of trees.
All illegal activity and all seen really clearly from the air.
It's extraordinary, looking out the window here.
Straight lines, lots and lots of straight lines, which just have no place here in the Amazon.
We've just come across this barge with all these logs on it.
We're gonna land and we're gonna, well we're gonna go and have a word.
OK, we can get out now.
He just said, ''Have you got any documentation for this wood?'' He goes, ''Nothing.
'' One thing I've noticed, just in my short time here with IBAMA is that there's so much bureaucracy, red tape, everyone's got an excuse, everyone's got some sort of paperwork that covers something along the line and it just takes for ever to get to the bottom of it.
The most interesting thing I've gleaned from today is that although this looks like a massive operation, big boat, big barge, machinery, lots of logs, in actual fact, just finding this is like a needle in the haystack compared to the vast areas of forest that we've flown over, just to get here.
If they hadn't been tipped off to this particular area, we'd never have found this.
There's places like this all over Para State.
This is one of the most expensive woods in the world.
It's so expensive.
Completely illegal to chop down.
You couldn't really get a more red-handed capture, yet statistically, notoriously, still this goes on and people aren't really being brought to justice.
Brazil's environmental laws may be amongst the most progressive in the world, but even IBAMA admits that only 10% of their fines are paid, due to corruption, red tape and lack of resources.
Scarpari has only 15 officers to cover an area the size of France.
The logging, soya and cattle industries are part of a wider wave of development sweeping through the Amazon.
Vast potential wealth is stored in the forest and in its rivers.
Brazil's growing economy is hungry for energy.
Controversial plans are now in place to harness the power of the Xingu River, by building a series of large dams.
But the dams will flood huge areas of forest and affect the lives of thousands of people.
(CHANTING) The Indians of the Xingu River have declared war on the project.
They say it threatens their whole way of life and they've come to Altamira to make their voices heard.
It's been over two weeks since I first arrived here in Altamira.
Tony's ranch is somewhere over there, the IBAMA offices are behind me just in town.
But before I leave to go onto the next phase of my journey, there's one thing I simply could not miss.
Today is the largest gathering of indigenous peoples in Brazil for the last 20 years and they're here on a protest.
Several tribes have joined forces for a week-long demonstration to take their fight to the authorities.
Teams of heavily armed military police have been drafted in to keep order.
The atmosphere is highly charged, as some of the Indians have a reputation for aggressively defending their rights.
(MAN TALKS THROUGH PA SYSTEM) I've seen a number of tribal meetings before in my time, but I've never seen anything like this.
The company behind the dam, Electronorte, say it will supply clean energy to the industries across the south of the country, but the people of the Xingu say they are paying the price for Brazil's economic growth.
There's an extraordinary energy in the air here.
People have been arriving by the coach load for the last few days, from miles and miles around.
There's over 1,000 indigenous peoples here.
The largest group is the Kayapo.
But also other indigenous groups - Caboclos, Ribeirinhos, all of whom are going to be affected by this dam if it goes ahead.
Tensions are running high and already, blood has been spilt.
On the first day of the protest, before we arrived, an engineer from the electricity company was attacked with a machete.
The moment was caught by a local TVcrew and shown across Brazil and beyond.
The battle for the Amazon is raging in Para State.
These dances are not for entertainment, they're a declaration of war.
A long day's demonstration and I, for one, am on their side.
On its final day, the protest moves to the bank of the Xingu River.
Imagine this is because your lives are about to change for ever and it's like a plea, a plea for help, a plea to be listened to.
And that's why the atmosphere here today is so strong and powerful.
At the centre of the action are the Kayapo Indians, considered one of the strongest and most politically active tribes of the Amazon.
As the protesters head back to their villages, it seems that first blood has gone to the Indians, but the battle for the Xingu River is far from over.
The industrial development of the region is going full-steam ahead, but there's a hidden face to the Amazon's economic success story.
I'm back on the Transamazônica highway heading deeper into cattle country to a town called Maraba.
I've heard that Brazil's farming business harbours a dark secret.
Much of its wealth is built on the backs of hidden workers who are trapped in a modern form of slavery.
It's unbelievable, but there's an estimated between 25,000 and 100,000 modern-day slaves here within Brazil and many of them are in Para State working at clearing away the forest.
This is the darkness at the heart of the Amazon.
The people I'm hoping to meet are some of the worst casualties of this war.
It's 6.
30am and I'm off on a raid with the government's mobile anti-slavery team.
They've had a tip-off that there are slaves working on a cattle ranch a couple of hours east of Maraba and are hoping to liberate the workers, and if possible, prosecute the farm owners.
Really close now, the federal police are just up in front.
I saw them get their weapons ready.
It looks like this is the farm.
This is the right place, but the workers are in the fields so opening the gate, and that's where we're going now.
The police go in first in case there's any retaliation from the farm manager.
We've just come to what might be the residency for the workers.
When we arrive, the boss is nowhere to be seen.
Now that we're here, the anti-slavery squad can do its work which is interview the people who are the oppressed.
The workers are lured to these remote farms from poorer parts of Brazil on the promise of good wages and working conditions.
But they soon find themselves trapped in constant debt as they're charged a fortune for their transport, food and lodgings.
And their living conditions are appalling.
Just like here, which I thought was an outside loo is actually someone's accommodation.
More people arriving, guns being found, mattresses ripped out, everyone's got a different job to interview them about different aspects of their living conditions.
The more that we're here, the more we're uncovering and people are relaxing and beginning to say more as well.
Despite working up to 16 hours a day, with all the various costs they have to pay, the workers are in debt-bondage to the farm managers and can never get away.
Have you ever been physically mistreated? The enforcement team say that on many farms, the workers are kept under armed guard in case they try to escape.
Human Rights groups have documented more than 1,200 murders of slave-workers, which are often recorded as just farming accidents.
How do you feel now that the mobile unit has come today? And inside, you're happy? Slavery was officially abolished in Brazil in 1888, but from our experience on this farm, it's clear that it's still thriving today in these remote areas of the Amazon.
We get so desensitised to poverty with all of the images we have of Africa and other parts of the world, these days on television, but coming here now and speaking to these people, this might not look like a starving group, but it certainly is.
Unbelievable, the conditions that these people have to live in.
They've come from miles away, they're never given enough of their money so that they can leave.
They're charged for the basic necessities and they can never afford to get home, they can never afford to break their bonds of staying here, and this is right to be called slavery because no-one deserves this.
The team make a crucial discovery in one of the bedrooms, concrete proof of how the debt bondage system works.
What is this book that you found? How does this compare to the other places you've seen? The hard bit now is the logistics.
Some of these people have come from distant parts of Brazil and they've got to be taken home, so some will be taken now and others will be put up in town until they can get back to their homes.
But for the people involved, a happy day.
It seems that everything here is connected.
The gangs taking the land, the illegal loggers, the slaves clearing the forest and the ranchers, all working to make an easy profit for the wealthy elite.
And there's one final group I want to visit on my journey who also have a large stake in the outcome of this war.
Been driving all day, this extraordinary scenery.
As far as the eye can see, it's grassland and cattle but ahead of me, somewhere there is still one refuge where the forest is intact.
And the only reason it's intact is because it belongs to the indigenous group the Kayapo.
The Kayapo I met at the dam protest in Altamira have given me permission to visit them in their home territory.
They live just inside the Kayapo Indigenous Reserve, a vast area of three million square hectares, in the middle of cattle country.
Their forest home is supposed to be protected by law, but it's under constant attack from cattle ranchers and illegal loggers.
Ah, Pedro Paulo.
Nice to see you again.
Ah, really nice to see you again.
The Kayapo are renowned for elaborate body paintings and though I've only been here two minutes, I'm already being branded with a traditional Kayapo design.
Wow.
That is beautiful.
Do you use painting at all times or is it only when you're feeling good? Last time I saw the members of this community, they were stomping around by the river.
This is just so tranquil.
Everyone's just slowly coming up to me, introducing their family, introducing themselves, all saying good afternoon.
Great start.
(SINGING) It's my first morning in the village, and I've been woken up by the sound of chanting, and asked to join the Kayapo for their morning ritual.
(SINGING CONTINUES) We've been up doing this since 4.
00 this morning, 4.
30.
Great way to start the day.
(SINGING CONTINUES) They wanted to paint my face yesterday, but they couldn't because I had a bit of a stubble, so hopefully, after a little shower and now a shave, I'll get the full body paint job.
The Kayapo have a close relationship with the natural world.
Their body paintings represent the various animals of the forest and also help to reinforce their identity as a tribe.
I'm getting a maddening itch, but if you scratch your face, you've ruined an hour's work.
It's not just me getting a full paint-job, lots of other people are preparing themselves for some form of ceremony which is about to take place.
(SINGING) The people of Krinu are giving me a formal welcome to their village.
They're part of a wider group of Kayapo numbering between 6,000 and 7,000, most of them still living a traditional life in the forest.
Even though I don't know the words, it's just really powerful being in the group and doing the stomp and the movement and they all agree, they were like, ''Yeah, this is why we do it.
It's to bind us.
'' It's really strong.
(CHANTING) The Kayapo seem to have a foot in both worlds.
They're obviously committed to their traditions, yet they're tackling the modern world head-on and are acutely aware of the power of the camera.
They're a strong nation, with a clear message for us to take to the outside world.
Yesterday, when I arrived, I asked the community to speak with a clear voice, to give me a message to take away, and they're certainly doing that today.
It's been a really powerful evening, beautiful, emotional, and now, one by one, they're telling me about how they feel about what's going on in their world, and this is exactly what I wanted.
The next day, Ireo takes me downstream through the reserve to go and harvest a special crop at the heart of Kayapo culture.
Off getting Brazil nuts, quite a long journey down river because all of the nut trees near the village were burnt by the local farmers, and so now, they've got to go such a long distance, just to get what previously used to be right on their doorstep.
BRUCE: Wow.
This is about the hardest thing there is to find here, and look, that's what you should have in your Christmas stocking.
Like you've never tasted a Brazil nut before.
Brazil nuts are essential to the Kayapo as a form of food and as a cash crop.
But Ireo says the cattle ranchers clearing pasture on the edge of their land have destroyed many of their trees, despite the fact that they're protected by law.
(HE SINGS) This morning, I'm helping the women to dig up sweet potatoes - a staple food of the Kayapo.
Ah! I've picked up an ants nest on my back.
I think that they must be crawling all over this Ah! this basket.
- Ah! - (THE WOMEN LAUGH) The potatoes are cooked over hot stones on the fire.
Then, we discover that fresh meat is on its way.
Can I help? My God! That's heavy, man! What have you got in it? Had an all day, really busy day with him, out collecting brazil nuts, I was knackered, I go to bed, wake up in the morning and hear that he's been out hunting all night.
It's now midday, he's only just got back, the guy doesn't stop! Wild boar.
Oh, my God.
Piranha.
Andrear end and ribs.
It's perfect.
The Kayapo I met at the dam protest were fierce media-savvy warriors, but now I've been here a few days, I'm seeing a different side to this gentle family-based community.
During my stay, Ireo and the other elders take me to the top of a hill to show me the view across their territory.
This is, this isn't just, this isn't just any old paint, this is war paint, because for the people here, this is a battle, this is their lives, this is their homeland, this is their families, their futures, their medicinal plants, the animals, everything, it's a proper battle and that's the real impression that I'm getting here for these people and, it's everything, it's everything to them.
Whoa, think it could be Tell me why is it important, from your perspective, to keep the forest as it is? Powerful, powerful words from really wise men at the end of my long journey.
And to be here now on this hillside looking at pristine forest, and knowing why it's pristine, and it's thanks to these people, is a fitting end to this trip.
Tomorrow morning, I leave really early, and they said, before you go, can we say goodbye to you in our traditional way? That's so special.
Thank you.
Muito obrigado.
(SINGING) They've given me the name Mryprire, which means ''tree full of flowers''.
(EXCITED CHATTER) (SINGING) Looking around at the faces of the people I've met here, I can't help but be deeply moved by their warmth and kindness, but also by their strength and determination.
They've chosen to stay in their world here in the forest, but they have to defend their territory from the dangers of modern development if their culture is to survive.
I couldn't think of a more wonderful way of finishing my Amazonian epic.
The power here of this group is overwhelming.
And right now, at the end of my journey it's too much.
Yeah, I remember you.
Come on, girls.
You of all people have really made it special for me, you've brought me into the bosom of your family and made my whole time here so meaningful.
Your wisdom is extraordinary and you've taught me a lot.
The Kayapo speak with a powerful voice.
For me, they represent many of the people I've met on my journey down the Amazon.
Their traditional way of life is still based on a system of sharing and genuine sustainability - values that our society would do well to remember.
Many scientists believe that the Amazon is approaching a tipping point.
If much more forest is destroyed, the effects on the ecosystem will be irreversible.
This all begs the question, why should we care? It's got nothing to do with us.
But of course it does.
Because this does affect all of us throughout the world.
I came here thinking I wouldn't ever rant about this, but I've become so impassioned because I've met so many wonderful people that care so much and whose lives will be affected by this and that's why I want to really tell this story - because it is important and we should care.
I'm at the end of the world's longest river.
It's been an amazing eight-month journey spanning thousands of miles, from the high Andes to the Atlantic Ocean.
It's been exhausting and at the same time, exhilarating.
This place is magic! I've witnessed the wars over cocaine, oil and gold.
And I've seen that the destruction of the forest is not only the fault of the people who live here.
It's hard work.
It's global demand for the Amazon's resources that is driving deforestation.
We are all responsible.
It may be that the last great hope for the Amazon is the world's growing awareness of climate change.
As a global community, we all need to change the way we look at the Amazon, so that it's worth more to us alive than dead.
Finally, I've reached the Atlantic Ocean and I can't go any further.
It's an amazing feeling.
Honest truth? I'm knackered, but I'm so happy.
I've had just the best trip of my life and it's all just come to an end.
I'm done.
Ah! If you want to know more, visit our website - bbc.
co.
uk/amazon
This is the front line in the conflict over the Amazon's resources.
I ride out with the cowboys driving Brazil's booming cattle industry.
I go on a raid with the environmental police as they try to combat illegal logging.
Seems that their paperwork's not in order.
I meet the modern-day slaves, hidden in the shadows.
No-one deserves this.
I hear from the Kayapo Indians, fiercely defending their territory from invasion.
This is war paint, because, for the people here, it's a proper battle.
I've been travelling for seven months.
This now is the final stage of what's become quite an epicjourney.
I can't quite believe that the end is almost in sight.
All the way through Brazil so far, I've been in Amazonas State, living with Coboclos, Ribeirinhos, loggers, fishermen, farmers.
But now, it's completely different.
What started as a tiny trickle in the high Andes has become this vast body of water.
The main river has been joined by the Madeira and the Negro, two of the longest rivers in the world.
But these are mere tributaries of the mighty Amazon.
Here, as I enter Para State at the end of the river, the forces of global commerce are now starting to dominate the landscape.
As the river now is just getting bigger and bigger, the stories are getting bigger and bigger, too.
In this part of the Amazon, vast swathes of rainforest have been destroyed to make way for agriculture.
Brazil has now become the world's largest exporter of beef and soya.
But Brazil's emergence as a global agricultural powerhouse comes at a huge cost to the environment.
And this is the dilemma at the heart of the Amazon.
It's home to a quarter of the world's known species and provides a fifth of the Earth's oxygen.
But it's also rich in land, gold, oil and timber.
At this point, I'm heading inland, away from the river, to see the damage to the forest, firsthand.
Oorgh! Obrigado.
OK.
Adios! I'm driving into the Amazon's new agricultural frontier where cattle ranching has taken over the jungle.
Not so long ago, all of this was pristine forest.
But, now that all the logs have gone, one of the biggest uses of this sort of land is for cattle ranching.
And I'm now right in the middle of cow country.
I've come south of the Amazon River, to the heart of Para State, to a region called Altamira, where the beef business is booming.
I'm travelling on the Transamazônica Highway, on my way to a cattle ranch, where I'll be spending a few days, experiencing life out on the range.
Bruce.
Wow! What a place! Hey! (SPEAKS PORTUGUESE) (LAUGHS) You're not gonna let me get too close.
Valdo is the head cowboy on the farm and he takes me to meet the rest of the gang.
Wow.
OK.
Nice to meet you.
So, tomorrow amanha I'll be helping you guys on the farm? You might have to give me some lessons.
I'm not very good at all this stuff.
It's my first morning on the ranch and my first task is to mount up.
They've found me a good horse.
This one's pretty placid, I can tell.
Not a slight quiver from a novice on its back.
This is a fattening farm.
It has roughly 4,000 head of cattle, covering roughly 70,000 hectares.
But it's a minnow compared to others in the region.
(SHOUTING) It takes a full day's riding across this vast farm before we round up the last of the cattle.
Two medium-sized herds that we've had to round up and drag through hedges and across streams and finally got them into this pen.
They're going to be fed up a little bit before they're sent for export.
(CATTLE LOWING) My thighs are aching this morning, after a long day on horseback, but now, I'm facing a whole new challenge.
Today it's the turn of the calves, only it's gonna be a little bit different, because these guys are gonna have that as well.
This morning, the farm manager, Big Tony, is here to help with the branding.
What's the fate of these young ones now? My first job is to catch the calves, which may sound easy as they look quite small, but they're very strong and pretty quick.
Each calf is branded so the cowboys know exactly when it was born.
These are tough zebu cattle, originally bred in Africa and now thriving on the new grasslands of the Amazon.
(CALF BELLOWS) Grappling with the calves is a muddy business and makes me realise just how hard these guys work.
I'm absolutely knackered with all this heat.
It's overpowering.
This dude, about to lasso these huge calves - how cool is he? When the rope's handed to me, all I manage to catch with the lasso is one of the cowboys, Chico.
That's who I was trying to get.
What are you talking about?! (LAUGHS) My word.
I'm bushwhacked.
Obrigado, Tony.
Obrigado.
After a good morning's work, what could be better than a load of meat? I have to say that I'm really enjoying my time on the ranch.
I know that this beef comes at a cost to the environment, but it's wonderful to meet such friendly and hospitable people.
(WHOOPING) The sorting of the cattle is a never-ending task.
Just had a buyer turn up today who wants just white cattle.
So what we're gonna do is separate them here in the corral and then weigh them and he's then gonna take them away on his truck for export.
Minero is a typical entrepreneur in the region.
He's a cattle dealer, a middleman, buying from Tony's farm to sell to the big exporters.
Cattle is big in Brazil.
How is it for you? And what do you say to those people that accuse the ranchers of destroying the forest? What is your answer to those people? We've weighed them and we've sorted them.
All that remains is for the ones that we want to be branded and then put on the truck for taking away.
While we're waiting for the next truck to appear, some of the younger cowboys rope up a bull for practice as the rodeo season is about to start.
Vanderley is a budding rodeo star and makes it look deceptively easy.
They just saddled up a rodeo show for themselves and then some bright spark looked at me and said, ''Oi, do you want to have a go?'' Hand in here.
OK, and then? Squeeze here? And squeeze here.
And then just (LAUGHS) Well, just Stupid question, really, isn't it? What are you supposed to do? Grip, hold on and grip! Well, there you go.
OK, OK.
Right, here? And when I fall off, which I will Just let go.
And fall, then Ah, ah, ow! That hurt! (LAUGHS) Argh! That properly hurt.
That was about two seconds on the rodeo.
Whoo! That hurt! Ow! My last day of being a cowboy and I think Good way to leave it, really.
Leave it to the big boys, the real cowboys.
The trucks are eventually loaded and we all head off to the cattle port of Victoria on the Xingu River.
From here, the cows will be shipped all the way to the end of the Amazon and out to sea.
As a meat-eater, you always know that the transporting of animals goes on, but when you're here and you see it, it really does make you reevaluate.
Brazil has over 200 million head of cattle and last year sold more than $4 billion worth of beef.
As economies grow and lifestyles improve, more people around the world want to eat meat.
The Amazon can produce it cheaper than anywhere else, but the forest is rapidly disappearing to satisfy this growing demand.
With such vast opportunities for exploitation, Para State has become a magnet for some of the wealthiest landowners in the world who are making massive profits from the destruction of the forest.
At the forefront of this assault are the illegal loggers.
They're backed by powerful elites who take advantage of corruption and the lack of authority to sell their timber to legitimate markets.
I'm on my way to the town of Altamira to meet the Goverment agency responsible for policing the forest.
I'm at the IBAMA offices and today we're gonna go on a raid.
Not sure what, exactly.
It's kept quiet to the last minute.
I hear it might be a sawmill.
But just arriving in the offices, one of the first things I see is lots of confiscated wood.
I'm with Roberto Scarpari, head of the local IBAMA team.
They've got a tip-off that there's a sawmill some way ahead of us here dealing in illegal logs.
It looks like the sawmill operators have been told we're coming.
The place is deserted.
So what are you looking for here? Suddenly, one of the officers starts shouting from the gate.
Two lorries have arrived at the sawmill, loaded with freshly-cut timber.
This is a bust, you know.
It seems their paperwork's not in order from their perspective, at the moment.
Just as the IBAMA officials are busy dealing with the first two trucks, another one appears with yet more logs.
These two are now three trucks, full of allegedly illegal wood, so the guys are going through the motions now of checking out the paperwork and it doesn't look good for the drivers.
BRUCE: With all of these discrepancies with the paperwork, who is to blame? Is it the driver, or the person that sent them? Gentlemen, you've just been stopped by IBAMA.
Tell me, from your perspective, what is going on here? You guys drive logs for a living.
In your opinion, how much of the wood that is being taken is illegal? It'll take the IBAMA team weeks of painstaking paperwork to mount a prosecution.
In the meantime, all the trucks and the timber will be impounded and the team go back to shut down the sawmill until the investigation is complete.
The next morning, we head off on another IBAMA operation, this time from the air.
It's only from up here that you start to get a sense of the sheer scale of deforestation.
I've been lucky enough to go up in the air quite a few times on my journey so far.
I've always been rewarded with an extraordinary view.
But this is completely different.
Never have I seen it looking like this.
The Amazon now is nearly all grass and it's quite shocking.
In the last 40 years, almost 20% of the Amazon has been cut down.
Para State alone has lost an area of forest eight times the size of Wales.
We're flying over one of the last remaining areas of intact forest in this aggressive logging frontier and already it's chequered with clearings.
So, this is where they're bringing the logs down, all the way to the river.
Wow.
That's properly going on there.
And all of this is illegal, yeah? We've just flown over a number of areas of completely illegal clear felling, where there's been big machinery used, whole areas completely bereft of trees.
All illegal activity and all seen really clearly from the air.
It's extraordinary, looking out the window here.
Straight lines, lots and lots of straight lines, which just have no place here in the Amazon.
We've just come across this barge with all these logs on it.
We're gonna land and we're gonna, well we're gonna go and have a word.
OK, we can get out now.
He just said, ''Have you got any documentation for this wood?'' He goes, ''Nothing.
'' One thing I've noticed, just in my short time here with IBAMA is that there's so much bureaucracy, red tape, everyone's got an excuse, everyone's got some sort of paperwork that covers something along the line and it just takes for ever to get to the bottom of it.
The most interesting thing I've gleaned from today is that although this looks like a massive operation, big boat, big barge, machinery, lots of logs, in actual fact, just finding this is like a needle in the haystack compared to the vast areas of forest that we've flown over, just to get here.
If they hadn't been tipped off to this particular area, we'd never have found this.
There's places like this all over Para State.
This is one of the most expensive woods in the world.
It's so expensive.
Completely illegal to chop down.
You couldn't really get a more red-handed capture, yet statistically, notoriously, still this goes on and people aren't really being brought to justice.
Brazil's environmental laws may be amongst the most progressive in the world, but even IBAMA admits that only 10% of their fines are paid, due to corruption, red tape and lack of resources.
Scarpari has only 15 officers to cover an area the size of France.
The logging, soya and cattle industries are part of a wider wave of development sweeping through the Amazon.
Vast potential wealth is stored in the forest and in its rivers.
Brazil's growing economy is hungry for energy.
Controversial plans are now in place to harness the power of the Xingu River, by building a series of large dams.
But the dams will flood huge areas of forest and affect the lives of thousands of people.
(CHANTING) The Indians of the Xingu River have declared war on the project.
They say it threatens their whole way of life and they've come to Altamira to make their voices heard.
It's been over two weeks since I first arrived here in Altamira.
Tony's ranch is somewhere over there, the IBAMA offices are behind me just in town.
But before I leave to go onto the next phase of my journey, there's one thing I simply could not miss.
Today is the largest gathering of indigenous peoples in Brazil for the last 20 years and they're here on a protest.
Several tribes have joined forces for a week-long demonstration to take their fight to the authorities.
Teams of heavily armed military police have been drafted in to keep order.
The atmosphere is highly charged, as some of the Indians have a reputation for aggressively defending their rights.
(MAN TALKS THROUGH PA SYSTEM) I've seen a number of tribal meetings before in my time, but I've never seen anything like this.
The company behind the dam, Electronorte, say it will supply clean energy to the industries across the south of the country, but the people of the Xingu say they are paying the price for Brazil's economic growth.
There's an extraordinary energy in the air here.
People have been arriving by the coach load for the last few days, from miles and miles around.
There's over 1,000 indigenous peoples here.
The largest group is the Kayapo.
But also other indigenous groups - Caboclos, Ribeirinhos, all of whom are going to be affected by this dam if it goes ahead.
Tensions are running high and already, blood has been spilt.
On the first day of the protest, before we arrived, an engineer from the electricity company was attacked with a machete.
The moment was caught by a local TVcrew and shown across Brazil and beyond.
The battle for the Amazon is raging in Para State.
These dances are not for entertainment, they're a declaration of war.
A long day's demonstration and I, for one, am on their side.
On its final day, the protest moves to the bank of the Xingu River.
Imagine this is because your lives are about to change for ever and it's like a plea, a plea for help, a plea to be listened to.
And that's why the atmosphere here today is so strong and powerful.
At the centre of the action are the Kayapo Indians, considered one of the strongest and most politically active tribes of the Amazon.
As the protesters head back to their villages, it seems that first blood has gone to the Indians, but the battle for the Xingu River is far from over.
The industrial development of the region is going full-steam ahead, but there's a hidden face to the Amazon's economic success story.
I'm back on the Transamazônica highway heading deeper into cattle country to a town called Maraba.
I've heard that Brazil's farming business harbours a dark secret.
Much of its wealth is built on the backs of hidden workers who are trapped in a modern form of slavery.
It's unbelievable, but there's an estimated between 25,000 and 100,000 modern-day slaves here within Brazil and many of them are in Para State working at clearing away the forest.
This is the darkness at the heart of the Amazon.
The people I'm hoping to meet are some of the worst casualties of this war.
It's 6.
30am and I'm off on a raid with the government's mobile anti-slavery team.
They've had a tip-off that there are slaves working on a cattle ranch a couple of hours east of Maraba and are hoping to liberate the workers, and if possible, prosecute the farm owners.
Really close now, the federal police are just up in front.
I saw them get their weapons ready.
It looks like this is the farm.
This is the right place, but the workers are in the fields so opening the gate, and that's where we're going now.
The police go in first in case there's any retaliation from the farm manager.
We've just come to what might be the residency for the workers.
When we arrive, the boss is nowhere to be seen.
Now that we're here, the anti-slavery squad can do its work which is interview the people who are the oppressed.
The workers are lured to these remote farms from poorer parts of Brazil on the promise of good wages and working conditions.
But they soon find themselves trapped in constant debt as they're charged a fortune for their transport, food and lodgings.
And their living conditions are appalling.
Just like here, which I thought was an outside loo is actually someone's accommodation.
More people arriving, guns being found, mattresses ripped out, everyone's got a different job to interview them about different aspects of their living conditions.
The more that we're here, the more we're uncovering and people are relaxing and beginning to say more as well.
Despite working up to 16 hours a day, with all the various costs they have to pay, the workers are in debt-bondage to the farm managers and can never get away.
Have you ever been physically mistreated? The enforcement team say that on many farms, the workers are kept under armed guard in case they try to escape.
Human Rights groups have documented more than 1,200 murders of slave-workers, which are often recorded as just farming accidents.
How do you feel now that the mobile unit has come today? And inside, you're happy? Slavery was officially abolished in Brazil in 1888, but from our experience on this farm, it's clear that it's still thriving today in these remote areas of the Amazon.
We get so desensitised to poverty with all of the images we have of Africa and other parts of the world, these days on television, but coming here now and speaking to these people, this might not look like a starving group, but it certainly is.
Unbelievable, the conditions that these people have to live in.
They've come from miles away, they're never given enough of their money so that they can leave.
They're charged for the basic necessities and they can never afford to get home, they can never afford to break their bonds of staying here, and this is right to be called slavery because no-one deserves this.
The team make a crucial discovery in one of the bedrooms, concrete proof of how the debt bondage system works.
What is this book that you found? How does this compare to the other places you've seen? The hard bit now is the logistics.
Some of these people have come from distant parts of Brazil and they've got to be taken home, so some will be taken now and others will be put up in town until they can get back to their homes.
But for the people involved, a happy day.
It seems that everything here is connected.
The gangs taking the land, the illegal loggers, the slaves clearing the forest and the ranchers, all working to make an easy profit for the wealthy elite.
And there's one final group I want to visit on my journey who also have a large stake in the outcome of this war.
Been driving all day, this extraordinary scenery.
As far as the eye can see, it's grassland and cattle but ahead of me, somewhere there is still one refuge where the forest is intact.
And the only reason it's intact is because it belongs to the indigenous group the Kayapo.
The Kayapo I met at the dam protest in Altamira have given me permission to visit them in their home territory.
They live just inside the Kayapo Indigenous Reserve, a vast area of three million square hectares, in the middle of cattle country.
Their forest home is supposed to be protected by law, but it's under constant attack from cattle ranchers and illegal loggers.
Ah, Pedro Paulo.
Nice to see you again.
Ah, really nice to see you again.
The Kayapo are renowned for elaborate body paintings and though I've only been here two minutes, I'm already being branded with a traditional Kayapo design.
Wow.
That is beautiful.
Do you use painting at all times or is it only when you're feeling good? Last time I saw the members of this community, they were stomping around by the river.
This is just so tranquil.
Everyone's just slowly coming up to me, introducing their family, introducing themselves, all saying good afternoon.
Great start.
(SINGING) It's my first morning in the village, and I've been woken up by the sound of chanting, and asked to join the Kayapo for their morning ritual.
(SINGING CONTINUES) We've been up doing this since 4.
00 this morning, 4.
30.
Great way to start the day.
(SINGING CONTINUES) They wanted to paint my face yesterday, but they couldn't because I had a bit of a stubble, so hopefully, after a little shower and now a shave, I'll get the full body paint job.
The Kayapo have a close relationship with the natural world.
Their body paintings represent the various animals of the forest and also help to reinforce their identity as a tribe.
I'm getting a maddening itch, but if you scratch your face, you've ruined an hour's work.
It's not just me getting a full paint-job, lots of other people are preparing themselves for some form of ceremony which is about to take place.
(SINGING) The people of Krinu are giving me a formal welcome to their village.
They're part of a wider group of Kayapo numbering between 6,000 and 7,000, most of them still living a traditional life in the forest.
Even though I don't know the words, it's just really powerful being in the group and doing the stomp and the movement and they all agree, they were like, ''Yeah, this is why we do it.
It's to bind us.
'' It's really strong.
(CHANTING) The Kayapo seem to have a foot in both worlds.
They're obviously committed to their traditions, yet they're tackling the modern world head-on and are acutely aware of the power of the camera.
They're a strong nation, with a clear message for us to take to the outside world.
Yesterday, when I arrived, I asked the community to speak with a clear voice, to give me a message to take away, and they're certainly doing that today.
It's been a really powerful evening, beautiful, emotional, and now, one by one, they're telling me about how they feel about what's going on in their world, and this is exactly what I wanted.
The next day, Ireo takes me downstream through the reserve to go and harvest a special crop at the heart of Kayapo culture.
Off getting Brazil nuts, quite a long journey down river because all of the nut trees near the village were burnt by the local farmers, and so now, they've got to go such a long distance, just to get what previously used to be right on their doorstep.
BRUCE: Wow.
This is about the hardest thing there is to find here, and look, that's what you should have in your Christmas stocking.
Like you've never tasted a Brazil nut before.
Brazil nuts are essential to the Kayapo as a form of food and as a cash crop.
But Ireo says the cattle ranchers clearing pasture on the edge of their land have destroyed many of their trees, despite the fact that they're protected by law.
(HE SINGS) This morning, I'm helping the women to dig up sweet potatoes - a staple food of the Kayapo.
Ah! I've picked up an ants nest on my back.
I think that they must be crawling all over this Ah! this basket.
- Ah! - (THE WOMEN LAUGH) The potatoes are cooked over hot stones on the fire.
Then, we discover that fresh meat is on its way.
Can I help? My God! That's heavy, man! What have you got in it? Had an all day, really busy day with him, out collecting brazil nuts, I was knackered, I go to bed, wake up in the morning and hear that he's been out hunting all night.
It's now midday, he's only just got back, the guy doesn't stop! Wild boar.
Oh, my God.
Piranha.
Andrear end and ribs.
It's perfect.
The Kayapo I met at the dam protest were fierce media-savvy warriors, but now I've been here a few days, I'm seeing a different side to this gentle family-based community.
During my stay, Ireo and the other elders take me to the top of a hill to show me the view across their territory.
This is, this isn't just, this isn't just any old paint, this is war paint, because for the people here, this is a battle, this is their lives, this is their homeland, this is their families, their futures, their medicinal plants, the animals, everything, it's a proper battle and that's the real impression that I'm getting here for these people and, it's everything, it's everything to them.
Whoa, think it could be Tell me why is it important, from your perspective, to keep the forest as it is? Powerful, powerful words from really wise men at the end of my long journey.
And to be here now on this hillside looking at pristine forest, and knowing why it's pristine, and it's thanks to these people, is a fitting end to this trip.
Tomorrow morning, I leave really early, and they said, before you go, can we say goodbye to you in our traditional way? That's so special.
Thank you.
Muito obrigado.
(SINGING) They've given me the name Mryprire, which means ''tree full of flowers''.
(EXCITED CHATTER) (SINGING) Looking around at the faces of the people I've met here, I can't help but be deeply moved by their warmth and kindness, but also by their strength and determination.
They've chosen to stay in their world here in the forest, but they have to defend their territory from the dangers of modern development if their culture is to survive.
I couldn't think of a more wonderful way of finishing my Amazonian epic.
The power here of this group is overwhelming.
And right now, at the end of my journey it's too much.
Yeah, I remember you.
Come on, girls.
You of all people have really made it special for me, you've brought me into the bosom of your family and made my whole time here so meaningful.
Your wisdom is extraordinary and you've taught me a lot.
The Kayapo speak with a powerful voice.
For me, they represent many of the people I've met on my journey down the Amazon.
Their traditional way of life is still based on a system of sharing and genuine sustainability - values that our society would do well to remember.
Many scientists believe that the Amazon is approaching a tipping point.
If much more forest is destroyed, the effects on the ecosystem will be irreversible.
This all begs the question, why should we care? It's got nothing to do with us.
But of course it does.
Because this does affect all of us throughout the world.
I came here thinking I wouldn't ever rant about this, but I've become so impassioned because I've met so many wonderful people that care so much and whose lives will be affected by this and that's why I want to really tell this story - because it is important and we should care.
I'm at the end of the world's longest river.
It's been an amazing eight-month journey spanning thousands of miles, from the high Andes to the Atlantic Ocean.
It's been exhausting and at the same time, exhilarating.
This place is magic! I've witnessed the wars over cocaine, oil and gold.
And I've seen that the destruction of the forest is not only the fault of the people who live here.
It's hard work.
It's global demand for the Amazon's resources that is driving deforestation.
We are all responsible.
It may be that the last great hope for the Amazon is the world's growing awareness of climate change.
As a global community, we all need to change the way we look at the Amazon, so that it's worth more to us alive than dead.
Finally, I've reached the Atlantic Ocean and I can't go any further.
It's an amazing feeling.
Honest truth? I'm knackered, but I'm so happy.
I've had just the best trip of my life and it's all just come to an end.
I'm done.
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