Saving the Awa Tribe with Justin Rowlatt Our World

is no evidence to suggest Alice has come to harm, but it has been three

weeks and despite huge media attention, her parents are still no

closer to finding out where she is or what has happened to her.

The Awa are reckoned to be the most endangered tribe in the world. Their

ancestral lands in the Amazon have been invaded by illegal loggers and

farmers. Their traditional existence is being destroyed. But now, the

Brazilian government is taking action.

Mobilising its forces to try and save the Awa. So you are going to

destroy the whole place? So is this a turning point for the

Awa? Will the Brazilian government be

able to save the tribe? We are flying over the edge of the

Amazon. I am with an officer from Brazil's FUNAI, the Indigenous

Affairs Department. They are responsible for looking after tribal

communities. The Awa tribe live in the last bit

of forest left in the region. Beneath the edge of the jungle, they

are some of the most isolated people in. Many of them grew up without any

contact with the outside world. A few small groups still live

completely separate. We are in an area now where they are

uncontacted people. There is a community of 40 to 50 people here.

There is a spiderweb of logging tracks in the forest. We know that

the loggers are here. These are illegal loggers who are rapidly

destroying the remaining forest. Putting the 350 plus Awa in such

peril that they have been described as the most endangered tribe on the

planet. I first visited the Awa four years

ago. Last time I was here, they took me on a hunt. I am not going to

dress like that! This is their traditional hunting gear. Even then

with so much of the forest gone, the leader wanted to show me how hard it

was to find food. Hunting in the jungle is hot work

and we all take a well earned dip. Maybe I had lost my inhibitions.

They wanted to initiate me with their traditional adornment. Despite

their troubles, the Awa clearly haven't lost their sense of humour.

Four years later and I can't wait to see the tribe again.

Just coming back to the village, it is amazing to come back. I never

thought I would, actually. Hello. I remember you. Do you remember me? We

came here before, swimming. I remember you as well. From last

time! Do you remember? And my hunting buddy certainly

remembers me. I can't believe he remembers it,

four years ago. Not again, I have been tricked once and it is not

happening again. But life has gotten much worse for

the Awa. They tell me that these days, they can sometimes hear the

chainsaws from their village. It is a familiar sound, many Awa have

spent their lives fleeing the loggers. Not only do they destroy

the forest and drive away animals, they have been known to kill

Indigenous people. When he was a child, this man lived in an

uncontacted community and had many close escapes.

He and his family managed to escape, others did not. I remember you from

last time. We came before. And we went in the forest. Until 15 years

ago, this man lived as a nomad in an uncontacted community in the forest.

While trying to escape the loggers, he was separated from his family and

finally settled in this Awa village. He hasn't seen his son since. Last

year, FUNAI officers organised an expedition to try and find his

family. This year, Brazil is hosting the

World Cup and in 2016 it will stage the Olympics. The events have helped

drive a building boom, creating a massive demand for timber and have

made Indigenous forest reserves like the Awa's more attractive to

loggers. But it is not all bad news. Things are changing for the Awa.

After years of neglect, the government has finally decided to do

something and it literally has sent in the army. We are flying into just

outside the Indigenous reserve. It is called Operation Awa and is

organised by the office of the Brazilian president. And they mean

business. The army, air force and military police are working

alongside the Indigenous Affairs Department and Brazil's

environmental protection service. We arrive at a small farming town

inside the Awa's land. This is one of the poorest regions of Brazil.

The people here scrape a living from small farms they have cleared from

the forest. This town was established 18 years ago but it is

on Awa land and the settlers are here illegally.

The team from Operation Awa are here to tell them it is time to leave. So

all of these people are going to be moved out of the town and they have

come here to ask how the preparations are going, whether they

are packed, whether they need help with transport. The idea is these

guys will be given another plot of land somewhere else in Brazil where

they can farm. This man is in charge of Operation Awa.

After so long here, it is not surprising that the settlers are

upset to leave. The people may not want to leave...

But at least they will have full legal ownership of their new farms.

Stopping the loggers is a much bigger challenge. Loggers destroy

habitat and open up the forest with tracks, bringing in settlers behind

them. Tackling the loggers is the job of the environmental protection

service, Ibama. Ibama agents say they suspect that this mill has been

taking from the indigenous reserves in the area.

Maria and Roberta are in charge of this rain.

They run operations like this all over Brazil.

She says that the mill is operating illegally.

She says that four people have run into the forest when they saw the

helicopter coming and she thinks that they are almost certainly the

guys who own or at least run this place. There are not many choices in

poorer regions like this, the workers do not own much, and the

profits are taken by the bosses. Now, it seems that the bosses want

to know what is happening. The Ibama agents document what they

have found. They set the mill workers to break the machines. And,

they release a rare bird. But, they also want to try and catch the

loggers red`handed. There! There! We have landed in the helicopter and

we are hiding and hoping that the loggers will come back, we have just

seen a couple of people over there. The Ibama agents are watching them.

It turns out that these are neighbours of the Awa tribe. They

have set up a roadblock on a key route into the jungle to stop

loggers coming in. It seems that here, like elsewhere in the Amazon,

the Indians are beginning to fight back. Back at the mill, they have

account books. In one day, almost 37 account books. In one day, almost 37

square metres, and then 55 square metres! The accounts give a

remarkable insight into the business. Oh my goodness, look at

this! They have got the total value, 4700, and then there is a fee, 200

to pay the police, leaving them at 4500. It is extraordinary, this book

is like the diary of the business and we have got payments to

policeman, how much money they are putting in the bank, and it's a lot,

we are talking ?20,000, $30,000 they are making here, only in February.

The officers decide that there is only one thing for it.

With fire? She is going to burn it down. This mill may have been

destroyed but there are many others operating all over the Amazon. As

long as illegal timber finds its way into the market, loggers will

continue to try to take trees from tribal lands.

The Indigenous People's Department, FUNAI, wants the Awa to know that

after all of these years they are finally getting their ancestral land

back. It has decided to show two of the tribe Operation Awa in progress.

That means my friend Pira'l making his second trip out of the jungle

and his first in a helicopter. The helicopter takes them to one of

the villages that has been cleared. They would like Pira'l and Hamo to

see what happens next. It seems that even the most stubborn

settler communities have decided to call it a day.

There were people in this town who said that they would never leave.

Back in the village, Pira'l and Hamo cannot wait to tell the others what

they have seen. This is a wonderful moment for the

tribe but it would not be possible if the Awa people themselves had not

shown such incredible resilience. Who are the heroes of this story? Is

it FUNAI fighting on behalf of the indigenous people?

This is a rare thing, a good news story from the Amazon. Once the

troops have gone, the loggers and farmers will be back. The big

question is whether Brazil is willing to invest the resources

necessary to keep them out. Only then will the Awa, the world's most

endangered tribe, be safe. Big changes for many of us this

weekend. We lose the low cloud and the mist and we lose the storms, but

the risk is still there for the next 12`24 hours. But the storms will

ease through Saturday. Then we will see the cloud lifting, initially in

the north. It will turn fresher again, initially in the north, but

for all of us by Sunday. Storms continue through the night. That