Saving the Awa Tribe with Justin Rowlatt

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: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