Has the Amazon Been Saved? Our World

Now it is time for Our World. We look at how the Brits -- the

Brazilian authorities are turning back the destruction of the

Amazonian rainforest. This is the refereeing, the story

of an environmental battle that is actually being one. -- the rare

thing. Battles do not get much bigger than this, this is the

battle to save the Amazon. TRANSLATION: You cannot go into

battle thinking that you are going to lose. For years, the received

wisdom has been that the remorseless tide of destruction in

the world's tropical forests cannot be stopped. Brazil is proving that

it can. These huge conservation gains have never been achieved in

the history of the world. The Amazon can cheap -- can achieve the

end of deforestation. Vast farms have already been cut out of the

Amazon, but in the last five years, Brazil has cut deforestation by

more than 70%. I am in the Amazon to discover how this remarkable

The reason it is so difficult to stop deforestation in the Amazon

jungle is really quite simple. Like so many things, it is a question of

economics. Leave the Foreign standing and it is worth nothing,

but cut it down, then you have lots to sell, and then you have got land

that you can farm on. For decades, that is what has been leading to

deforestation. You only have to look at than that

used to see that. Cleared land in the Amazon is worth many times

landed with Forest on. With economic logic is powerful, how on

earth can Brazil be winning? In a sleepy town on the edge of the

Amazon, officers from the Brazilian environmental agency relax minutes

before a jungle rate. Inside the HQ, the commander's plan the attack. He

says do not worry about guns. The guns they had are likely to be

hunting guns, nothing serious, nothing to worry about. For years,

there was only one story in the Amazon, destruction. In the decade

up to 2005, an average of 20,000 square kilometres of forest was

lost each year. It really is an area the size of Wales every single

year. Three-quarters of the country's carbon emissions were

from deforestation. Concern about climate change was crying around

the world, particularly in Brazil. -- was growing. In 2005, the

government realised it had a unique opportunity, it could go green, cut

carbon emissions, despite tackling deforestation, and crucially, it

would barely affect economic growth. Brazil promised a 40% emissions

reduction by 2020. It is the biggest voluntary commitment of any

country in history. In order to do that, it declared war on

deforestation, vowing to cut it by 80% in the same period. Many

commentators said that it was impossible. How confident are you

that Brazil can successfully protected the Amazon? Totally

confident. You cannot go into battle thinking that you can lose.

That is what Churchill thought. Brazil created vast new national

parks and protected areas, so there could be no doubt who the land

belonged to. So a barrier running along the arc of destruction.

Exactly. If people start cutting down trees in the protected areas,

the police are now able to act very forcefully to stop this. In the

past, they were cut down because the state wanted them cut down. Now

the state has decided it does not want that. Before that, policing

was not very effective. How do you police an area the size of the

Amazon? A big area has been cleared completely. I can see a logging

track in the clearing. There up the ball down there, looking up at the

helicopter. -- there are people. We have just landed the helicopter and

the officers are going over to the truck. It has had freshly cut logs

on it. The guys seem to have run off into the woods. They were here

a moment ago. As we landed, they were still here, so they must be

around here somewhere. IBAMA has only six helicopters and 600

offices in the field. It has to control the area or 400 -- 4

million square kilometres, the size of a continent. But new technology

has come to the aid of the Amazon. At the IBAMA headquarters in

Brasilia, they want to show me a powerful new weapon in their

armoury. We are about to enter the nerve centre of Brazil's operations

against deforestation. It is a little bit disappointing. It looks

like an insurance company. He says that new satellite monitoring

technology means that you cannot cut down the forest and expect to

get away with it. How often do you get satellite images? Each two days.

We send it to our Field people. you can literally watch a

deforestation unfolding, sitting at your desk? Yes. We can arrive there

and punish the people. So you stop them as they begin to cut the

Forest? At S. It has made IBAMA much more effective, but they still

do not get their man every time. They have run off into the forest.

What do we do now? So we are going to wait here for a bit and see what

happens. Now it is a waiting game. The

helicopter has taken off. We are hoping the people will come back to

get their equipment and then we will arrest them. I will be honest,

I did not think this was going to work.

But it is not just the attitude of the government that is changing.

This is a very unusual event. These guys are cowboys, they are cattle

ranchers and cowboys. They are here for the Amazonian farmer of the

Year award. Farming in the Amazon jungle sounds like a contradiction,

because you cannot farm in the forest, unless you cut the trees

down first. But the prizes they are giving out tonight are four good

land management and that means protecting the forest as well.

TRANSLATION: This is more than a trophy. In the past, we did things

that were not right. Our generation has the opportunity to prepare --

repair those mistakes. I feel the good work that I had been doing has

been recognised. I have a strategy for each of the adversaries. They

are members of a new alliance of farmers, they want to improve

environmental management on their land. The movement is inspired by

this man. John Carter is an ex-US special forces soldier turned

Amazonian rancher. He formed Alianca after squatters invaded his

ranch in the Amazon and burned down the 4,000 hectares of forest that

he had on his land. It inspired him to try and do something to stop the

destruction in the Amazon. I flew with John out to his ranch,

right on the Frontier with the rainforest. The law does not carry

much weight out here. When his right was invaded and the

police did not help, he came very close to taking the law into his

own hands. How close were you to picking up your rifle and heading

into the forest? Buried many times I did that. So you literally raised

your gun to your shoulder? Yes. I had the finger to the trigger. My

hand was shaking. What stop you? conscience. If I did that, I would

become one of them. It gave the emotion and energy to help me

consolidate what we build. But the only reason farmers endured

the chaos of life in the Frontier was because they want to make money,

and trees get in the way of that. So how can they be persuaded to

protect the forest? John took me to see one of the

members of his alliance. When Gilmar Burnier arrived here 26

years ago, this whole area was dense rainforest, the government

encouraged him to cut it down, to open up the land. TRANSLATION:

Farmers came here with a dream. Now we are told the way we are doing it

is wrong. We have cut down to much forest. We had authorities a riot

with helicopters and machine-guns. They treat us like baddies. All the

farmers were very upset about that. He is keen to work with John to

improve things on his farm. Lots of other farmers seem to be as well.

Alianca has been running for five years, it has almost 500 members,

with farms covering almost 3 million hectares. TRANSLATION:

John's idealism has been like a light to ours. I have planted new

trees. The attitude of the farmers has really changed. We want to do

the right thing. John believes the key to persuading

farmers to change is to appeal to their pride.

First, we say that they are a good person. He would do above and

beyond, just when they know that someone is watching them in a nice

John's powers of persuasion became apparent for me. We met a Ian black

caiman, the top predator in the Amazon. John hopes that in time

there will be financial incentives to do the right thing. Access to

the right markets for beef and soya. The aim is to produce something the

consumer can trust. You know the product is clean. You know they are

truly producing her life. There is already dramatic evidence the power

of the markets can change behaviour During the peak of Amazon

deforestation, a new home emerged. New strains of tropical soya meant

farmers were setting up some of the most ambitious agricultural

enterprises on the planet. They were growing huge amounts of soya

that was exported across the globe. The problem is some farmers were

not sharing. You can see soya in many of the farms from here.

Greenpeace used its planes to map these illegal farms and find out

who they were selling to. We showed the problem. We tracked it from

deforestation, through the chain, and found out that companies like

McDonald's were buying soya that came directly from the areas that

had been deforested. The idea was to recruit the power of the world's

consumers to persuade the industry to change its ways. It seemed to

work. TRANSLATION: We were coming under heavy criticism and realised

that unless we responded and came up with a plan we would not be able

to sell our products. This man is known as a persuader, a king of

soya. For many years he was the biggest soya farmer in the entire

world. Now he is an influential politician. TRANSLATION: When we

started to talk to the pressure groups, we started to reach a

compromise. Then I got annoyed. They would be charming to me in my

office and we would plan together. Then they would go as and say

horrible things. I called them and said, you are treating me like a

mistress. You hold me by the hand but on the street you are ashamed

of me. Either we go onto the streets and you hold my hand or it

is over. From then on, we got married and it has ended happily

ever after. Despite this lover's tiff the

threat of losing markets abroad proved persuasive. In 2006, he

agreed to a moratorium agreed that many companies would not buy soya

from deforested land. McDonald's This combination of different

pressures and improved monitoring and the changing attitudes amongst

farmers and successful campaigning by pressure groups has come

He is a little bit shocked to have been caught. We are just going to

see if the agents are going to catch the other one.

Last year saw the lowest level of deforestation in the Amazon are

since records began in the 80s. Just over 6,000 square kilometres

were cut. The underlying economics no have not changed. Does it worry

you are damaging the forest? TRANSLATION: I know it is wrong.

In one remote Amazonian state they found very unexpected ways to pull

the economics back in favour of the trees. It is 3am and I am being led

deep into the rainforest, wearing a bizarre traditional torch. We are

equipped for action, about to head into the jungle to see a project

that has achieved the Holy Grail of a forest conservation, reversing

the logic of deforestation. It will be more profitable for local people

like Tito to keep the forest standing than to cut it down. So

The Player 20 happens before dawn, just as the sap begins to rise. --

theme rubber tapping. This is the traditional method. It was one of

the first businesses to draw people into the Amazon 150 years ago. The

industry collapsed when a British adventurer stole scenes from the

forest and huge rubber plantations were set up in Asia, which produce

rather more cheaply. -- brother. So how have they managed to make wild

Amazonian rather profitable again? Here is how. They use it to make

these. The world's first rain forest friendly combines. Hundreds

of millions of them every year. -- condoms. So these are official

condoms? Yes. All of the activities here need subsidy? They would not

be proper double on their own? How will you find the money? We are

trying to avoid deforestation. If we do not have deforestation

In the past year, there has been a huge backlash from the rural sector

in Brazil. The Brazilian parliament has voted to cut the area of forest

farmers have to keep on their land from 80 to 50%. The change can only

be stopped if the President vetoes What are you doing? I am just

getting started. Dilma Rousseff is studying the effect of fire on the

forest. He is one of the world's leading Forest side to us. It feels

like playing with matches in the middle of the forest. But it is in

the name of science. Do I get the opportunity to set fire to the

rainforest? He believes it is not too late to save the Amazon. 80% of

the forest is still standing. He says the battle has reached a

crucial phase. In six years, deforestation has come down 60%

below its previous ten-year average. Brazil needs to be applauded. This

is a huge accomplishment. Whether they can keep it up, that is

another question. There is a theory that if the government becomes more

relaxed, there will be a free fall. The next few months will determine

the direction in which Brazil will go. There is only one way to

appreciate the beauty of the rainforest and that is from right

up in the canopy. It can be quite scary getting up there.

It may be hard getting up here but once you are here, you get an

incredible view of the canopy. For so many years, received wisdom has

been the world's tropical rainforests are doomed. Brazil is

demonstrating that the fire station can be tamed. Of course, its