:00:00. > :00:00.is no evidence to suggest Alice has come to harm, but it has been three
:00:00. > :00:00.weeks and despite huge media attention, her parents are still no
:00:00. > :00:11.closer to finding out where she is or what has happened to her.
:00:12. > :00:16.The Awa are reckoned to be the most endangered tribe in the world. Their
:00:17. > :00:24.ancestral lands in the Amazon have been invaded by illegal loggers and
:00:25. > :00:30.farmers. Their traditional existence is being destroyed. But now, the
:00:31. > :00:47.Brazilian government is taking action.
:00:48. > :00:56.Mobilising its forces to try and save the Awa. So you are going to
:00:57. > :00:58.destroy the whole place? So is this a turning point for the
:00:59. > :01:04.Awa? Will the Brazilian government be
:01:05. > :01:40.able to save the tribe? We are flying over the edge of the
:01:41. > :01:46.Amazon. I am with an officer from Brazil's FUNAI, the Indigenous
:01:47. > :01:47.Affairs Department. They are responsible for looking after tribal
:01:48. > :02:03.communities. The Awa tribe live in the last bit
:02:04. > :02:07.of forest left in the region. Beneath the edge of the jungle, they
:02:08. > :02:11.are some of the most isolated people in. Many of them grew up without any
:02:12. > :02:12.contact with the outside world. A few small groups still live
:02:13. > :02:25.completely separate. We are in an area now where they are
:02:26. > :02:30.uncontacted people. There is a community of 40 to 50 people here.
:02:31. > :02:36.There is a spiderweb of logging tracks in the forest. We know that
:02:37. > :02:40.the loggers are here. These are illegal loggers who are rapidly
:02:41. > :02:43.destroying the remaining forest. Putting the 350 plus Awa in such
:02:44. > :02:45.peril that they have been described as the most endangered tribe on the
:02:46. > :03:30.planet. I first visited the Awa four years
:03:31. > :03:37.ago. Last time I was here, they took me on a hunt. I am not going to
:03:38. > :03:43.dress like that! This is their traditional hunting gear. Even then
:03:44. > :03:45.with so much of the forest gone, the leader wanted to show me how hard it
:03:46. > :04:19.was to find food. Hunting in the jungle is hot work
:04:20. > :04:26.and we all take a well earned dip. Maybe I had lost my inhibitions.
:04:27. > :04:30.They wanted to initiate me with their traditional adornment. Despite
:04:31. > :04:42.their troubles, the Awa clearly haven't lost their sense of humour.
:04:43. > :04:50.Four years later and I can't wait to see the tribe again.
:04:51. > :05:02.Just coming back to the village, it is amazing to come back. I never
:05:03. > :05:10.thought I would, actually. Hello. I remember you. Do you remember me? We
:05:11. > :05:13.came here before, swimming. I remember you as well. From last
:05:14. > :05:19.time! Do you remember? And my hunting buddy certainly
:05:20. > :05:38.remembers me. I can't believe he remembers it,
:05:39. > :05:40.four years ago. Not again, I have been tricked once and it is not
:05:41. > :05:52.happening again. But life has gotten much worse for
:05:53. > :05:56.the Awa. They tell me that these days, they can sometimes hear the
:05:57. > :05:59.chainsaws from their village. It is a familiar sound, many Awa have
:06:00. > :06:03.spent their lives fleeing the loggers. Not only do they destroy
:06:04. > :06:10.the forest and drive away animals, they have been known to kill
:06:11. > :06:13.Indigenous people. When he was a child, this man lived in an
:06:14. > :06:37.uncontacted community and had many close escapes.
:06:38. > :06:54.He and his family managed to escape, others did not. I remember you from
:06:55. > :07:00.last time. We came before. And we went in the forest. Until 15 years
:07:01. > :07:07.ago, this man lived as a nomad in an uncontacted community in the forest.
:07:08. > :07:10.While trying to escape the loggers, he was separated from his family and
:07:11. > :07:42.finally settled in this Awa village. He hasn't seen his son since. Last
:07:43. > :07:44.year, FUNAI officers organised an expedition to try and find his
:07:45. > :08:27.family. This year, Brazil is hosting the
:08:28. > :08:32.World Cup and in 2016 it will stage the Olympics. The events have helped
:08:33. > :08:35.drive a building boom, creating a massive demand for timber and have
:08:36. > :08:44.made Indigenous forest reserves like the Awa's more attractive to
:08:45. > :08:48.loggers. But it is not all bad news. Things are changing for the Awa.
:08:49. > :08:51.After years of neglect, the government has finally decided to do
:08:52. > :09:09.something and it literally has sent in the army. We are flying into just
:09:10. > :09:12.outside the Indigenous reserve. It is called Operation Awa and is
:09:13. > :09:25.organised by the office of the Brazilian president. And they mean
:09:26. > :09:27.business. The army, air force and military police are working
:09:28. > :09:28.alongside the Indigenous Affairs Department and Brazil's
:09:29. > :09:49.environmental protection service. We arrive at a small farming town
:09:50. > :09:58.inside the Awa's land. This is one of the poorest regions of Brazil.
:09:59. > :10:04.The people here scrape a living from small farms they have cleared from
:10:05. > :10:08.the forest. This town was established 18 years ago but it is
:10:09. > :10:15.on Awa land and the settlers are here illegally.
:10:16. > :10:22.The team from Operation Awa are here to tell them it is time to leave. So
:10:23. > :10:26.all of these people are going to be moved out of the town and they have
:10:27. > :10:29.come here to ask how the preparations are going, whether they
:10:30. > :10:32.are packed, whether they need help with transport. The idea is these
:10:33. > :10:43.guys will be given another plot of land somewhere else in Brazil where
:10:44. > :11:23.they can farm. This man is in charge of Operation Awa.
:11:24. > :11:51.After so long here, it is not surprising that the settlers are
:11:52. > :12:39.upset to leave. The people may not want to leave...
:12:40. > :12:50.But at least they will have full legal ownership of their new farms.
:12:51. > :12:59.Stopping the loggers is a much bigger challenge. Loggers destroy
:13:00. > :13:09.habitat and open up the forest with tracks, bringing in settlers behind
:13:10. > :13:14.them. Tackling the loggers is the job of the environmental protection
:13:15. > :13:17.service, Ibama. Ibama agents say they suspect that this mill has been
:13:18. > :13:35.taking from the indigenous reserves in the area.
:13:36. > :13:41.Maria and Roberta are in charge of this rain.
:13:42. > :13:52.They run operations like this all over Brazil.
:13:53. > :14:21.She says that the mill is operating illegally.
:14:22. > :14:26.She says that four people have run into the forest when they saw the
:14:27. > :14:29.helicopter coming and she thinks that they are almost certainly the
:14:30. > :14:34.guys who own or at least run this place. There are not many choices in
:14:35. > :14:36.poorer regions like this, the workers do not own much, and the
:14:37. > :14:49.profits are taken by the bosses. Now, it seems that the bosses want
:14:50. > :15:28.to know what is happening. The Ibama agents document what they
:15:29. > :15:49.have found. They set the mill workers to break the machines. And,
:15:50. > :15:51.they release a rare bird. But, they also want to try and catch the
:15:52. > :16:11.loggers red`handed. There! There! We have landed in the helicopter and
:16:12. > :16:19.we are hiding and hoping that the loggers will come back, we have just
:16:20. > :16:35.seen a couple of people over there. The Ibama agents are watching them.
:16:36. > :16:44.It turns out that these are neighbours of the Awa tribe. They
:16:45. > :16:48.have set up a roadblock on a key route into the jungle to stop
:16:49. > :16:51.loggers coming in. It seems that here, like elsewhere in the Amazon,
:16:52. > :17:06.the Indians are beginning to fight back. Back at the mill, they have
:17:07. > :17:09.account books. In one day, almost 37 account books. In one day, almost 37
:17:10. > :17:18.square metres, and then 55 square metres! The accounts give a
:17:19. > :17:28.remarkable insight into the business. Oh my goodness, look at
:17:29. > :17:32.this! They have got the total value, 4700, and then there is a fee, 200
:17:33. > :17:40.to pay the police, leaving them at 4500. It is extraordinary, this book
:17:41. > :17:43.is like the diary of the business and we have got payments to
:17:44. > :17:46.policeman, how much money they are putting in the bank, and it's a lot,
:17:47. > :17:49.we are talking ?20,000, $30,000 they are making here, only in February.
:17:50. > :18:17.The officers decide that there is only one thing for it.
:18:18. > :18:33.With fire? She is going to burn it down. This mill may have been
:18:34. > :18:43.destroyed but there are many others operating all over the Amazon. As
:18:44. > :18:46.long as illegal timber finds its way into the market, loggers will
:18:47. > :18:59.continue to try to take trees from tribal lands.
:19:00. > :19:03.The Indigenous People's Department, FUNAI, wants the Awa to know that
:19:04. > :19:19.after all of these years they are finally getting their ancestral land
:19:20. > :19:26.back. It has decided to show two of the tribe Operation Awa in progress.
:19:27. > :19:28.That means my friend Pira'l making his second trip out of the jungle
:19:29. > :19:36.and his first in a helicopter. The helicopter takes them to one of
:19:37. > :19:57.the villages that has been cleared. They would like Pira'l and Hamo to
:19:58. > :20:12.see what happens next. It seems that even the most stubborn
:20:13. > :20:21.settler communities have decided to call it a day.
:20:22. > :20:30.There were people in this town who said that they would never leave.
:20:31. > :20:31.Back in the village, Pira'l and Hamo cannot wait to tell the others what
:20:32. > :21:30.they have seen. This is a wonderful moment for the
:21:31. > :21:37.tribe but it would not be possible if the Awa people themselves had not
:21:38. > :21:41.shown such incredible resilience. Who are the heroes of this story? Is
:21:42. > :22:23.it FUNAI fighting on behalf of the indigenous people?
:22:24. > :22:32.This is a rare thing, a good news story from the Amazon. Once the
:22:33. > :22:35.troops have gone, the loggers and farmers will be back. The big
:22:36. > :22:39.question is whether Brazil is willing to invest the resources
:22:40. > :22:41.necessary to keep them out. Only then will the Awa, the world's most
:22:42. > :23:17.endangered tribe, be safe. Big changes for many of us this
:23:18. > :23:21.weekend. We lose the low cloud and the mist and we lose the storms, but
:23:22. > :23:24.the risk is still there for the next 12`24 hours. But the storms will
:23:25. > :23:28.ease through Saturday. Then we will see the cloud lifting, initially in
:23:29. > :23:32.the north. It will turn fresher again, initially in the north, but
:23:33. > :23:33.for all of us by Sunday. Storms continue through the night. That