04/01/2012 Newsnight

Blin's biggest police force has promised to atone for past sins and

try to put more of the racists who killed Stephen Lawrence in jail.

The police are, they say, a changed, improved service, there for the

benefit of all. Just getting searched at the moment.

This happens quite frequently. yet many young black men's

experience of the police, seems significantly different to that of

many young white men. We will discuss just how you create

confidence when perceptions of peacekeeping and prejudice collide.

How did a few prordors in a collection of tents shake --

protesterors in a collection of tents shake some of the pillars of

the Church of England. We will speak to the Canon Chancellor of St

Paul's who quit his job because he was so bothered by the issue.

And deforestation by force. We have just landed the helicopter, and the

officers are going over to the truck, which has freshly cut logs

They were sentenced to 14 and 15 years in jail for what the judge

called a terrible and evil crime. And yet there was an incompleteness

about the conclusion of the trial of Stephen Lawrence's murderers. No

finality because Nair co- conspirators remain free, -- their

co-conspirators remain free. The police say they are massively

changed since the time Stephen Lawrence's murder. But as we report,

plenty of people think there is still a way to go.

Stephen Lawrence's murder has altered the police landscape in

Britain. Officers seemed to think he was a gang member, not innocent

victim, as he lay bleeding to death. The bungled investigation prompted

the Macpherson Inquiry, which branded the police, institutionally

racist. But how much has really changed. What's up with your mates,

why have they got the hump. I don't know mate. How are you doing. Now

we are going to stop you. For black and ethnic communities this is the

acid test, stop and search. We were given this video of a police search

carried out last week in Brixton. Would the female like to search me?

The police were suspicious because three of the group ran away, they

were looking for knives. My name is PJ Taylor.

Is that your full name? Yeah. Just getting searched at the moment.

This happens quite frequently. When people have done nothing.

We caught up with the man being searched, he runs his own start-up

media company in Brixton. The only thing he was carrying was a camera.

So PJ, what is going on here? I got stopped on Friday night, I

was filming a music video for a couple of guys in Brixton. A bully

van of officers, apparently from Bromley Station came and they just

searched us for no reason. Why do you call it a bully van? I don't

know, I'm being honest, I'm 22 years of age, I have grown up with

the term bully van, the only thing I can break it down, bullies come

out of the van. The officers or the police they are a gang. Because

they are all together, and they go out doing what they are doing.

Young black men are disproportionally stopped and

searched. Back in 1994, when Stephen Lawrence was murdered, 11%

of stops and searches under section 1 of the Police and Criminal

Evidence Act were black people. These require reasonable suspicion.

In 2010 the figure was 18%, in the same year in Britain the figure was

33.5%. But PJ was stopped under a different law. Section 60, brought

in to tackle football violence. These stops do not require

reasonable grounds for suspicion. In London, 48% of section 60 stops

in 20 09/10, were against black people. The police tend to trouble

a lot of black youths. I don't want it to sound racist, I'm half white

and black. They stereotype people because they see a black boy with

aed hood up. They automatically go with the stereotype and stop and

search them. These debates have a long history,

it was ainger at police tactics which were blamed -- ainger at the

police tactic that is were blamed for the Brixton riots. We caught up

with a community leader who witnessed the civil unrest in the

1980s and has a long view. When I was a young person involved in the

social unrest in 1991 in Leeds, a lot of the issues we had against

the police, the anger with the stop and search, and the general very

negative aggressive approach by the police, I don't believe that has

stopped. If anything it has got worse. You think it has got worse?

I think it has got worse. Bringing race into it is irrelevant, what is

important is you target the people committing the offences. If that

means that some police officers start to use stop and search in an

indiscriminate manner, they should be dealt with for doing that. At

the same time you don't want to frighten police officers from doing

their duty. Some blame ainger at the police for

the most recent -- anger at the police for the most recent riots in

the summer. Some say there are too few black police officers to

But senior black police officers acting as role models are scarce.

In its way, this youth engagment agency, called Liberty, is designed

to help correct this problem. Here young people have opportunities to

work on a commercial magazine called Live, helping to shape

tomorrow's leaders, perhapsment you think there is an issue that

there are very few senior black police officers in the Metropolitan

Police? There just aren't that many very senior people? I think if the

issue at the moment is that, but it won't stay an issue. People are for

getting us being here at Live Magazine, what we're doing is

building a future for ourselves, the same as any other young black

person here. Not everyone is on the streets. That is the picture that

everyone has painted of us. And actually, there is a more of of us

changing that picture. There is a bit of racism, a lot of black

people do get stopped and searched, also because you are young and

depending on what you wear, you get stopped and searched.

The police have made progress, but there is still a surprising lack of

trust. Even from the man who helped shape the Met as drive to recruit

more black officers. Roger Noel had high hopes when he

modelled for this advert. I was very happy to do it. But I was in

the East End of London, but this time it wasn't just the white cop,

it was the black and white cop. So I was stopped, they slowed the car

down and asked me questions in a derogatry man, I replied, I said to

the black cop do you realise you got this job because of me, because

of my advertisment, or me representing the police. He thought

I wased mad. He didn't realise what I was talking about. The Lawrence

case was a watershed moment, not just for police but society. The

police have better policies now, implementing them systematically is

the big problem. With us is Rod Jarman, Acting

Deputy Commissioner with the Metropolitan Police until last year.

Cindy Butts a member of the Metropolitan Police authority, and

Madix, a former gang member, who has served time in prison and now

works with young gang members. The police have changed to all

intents and purposes, haven't they, since the days of Stephen Lawrence,

why is there still such a significant problem with a

significant section of the black community? I think for a range of

different reasons, actually. I think that a lot of the black

community actually do recognise the changes that have occurred. The

fact that policing now is much more professionlal, the way in which the

police investigate critical incidents and murders, the

introduction of family liaison officers. All of these very

positive things that have happened as a result, actually, of the

tragic murder of Stephen Lawrence and the subsequent Stephen Lawrence

inquiry. That said, I think there are still a number very key

challenges that the organisation still needs to face, not least, as

was said in the report, in terms of stop and search, and the

disproportionate numbers of young black men who are still stopped and

searched on the streets of London. That is a very corrosive issue,

that actually affects the trust and confidence that people have in the

police service. How corrosive is it, this question of stop and search?

It depends. You have got someed bad officers that just do it the wrong

way. They see it as a green light to have an opportunity to just

victimise people, you know, like there is some bad officers out

there. You might not believe it, but there is bad officers out there,

giving a bad namer for the rest. you think they are a minority, the

bad officers? Nowadays they are a minority. These days they will get

moved to somewhere elsewhere they are not a problem, you know. So the

police have changed? The police have change. I'm 37, from a very

young age I was getting arrested and police now, because they have

gotten younger, they have got new recruits coming in, because they

are younger they are more down to earth, more diverse, more

acceptable to other people and other cultures. But they still have

the hierarchy, which are the old set mind people, who basically

control everything. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?

If a good officers, good in his heart, wanting to do his job, he

can't tell a bad officer that you can't behave like that towards the

youth, he has to back up his colleague, everybody ends up

looking bad, you lose trust in the police, everybody ends up doing

their own thing. How does it look to you? All of the research over

the past few years shows that feeling that you are treated fairly

and properly is a major issue around confidence. If parts of the

community don't feel they are treated fairly, that impacts on of

confidence in policing and the ability of the police to deliver

their job. I think Madix touch on something really important. There

are a number of officers who use stop and search frequently, they do

a lot of stop and search, but they do it in a way which is is seen as

acceptable and proper, with the people they are working with. They

do it in a way that is open, they understand the dynamic of what's

happening, and they work with people to carry out their search.

There are some others who aren't as God at it. It is a really difficult

thing to do -- good at it, it is a really difficult thing to do. And

there are some, as Madix describes, are those who shouldn't be on the

streets doing these things. The mix of all that together, particularly

with the way we police in London, means for some people, for some

communities, there is a real feeling of unfairness. How big an

issue is this question of the ethnic nature of the police?

Clearly the proportion of ethnic minority police officers has gone

up. Still at the very top of the police, there are 117 senior

officers, three of mem belong to black and the nick comue -- them

belong to black and ethnic communities? I don't think it

matters if you are white, black or blue, to be a police officer you

have to be a certain frame of mind and mentality, if you have that you

will get into the police force. It is a mentality, I don't think

putting 1,000 black officers in the police will change them. I disagree.

I really think it is important that our public. It is good to see them

there, but it doesn't change anything. It is crucial that they

reflect the population they serve. The black police officers that are

there do show they are able to change from the inside. If you look

at the work, First Minister, of the Black Police Association, and other

key individual -- for instance of the Black Police Association, and

other key individual, not just trying to cajole their white

officers to be better, but working as a key conduit between the black

community. They play a dual role inside and outside the the figures

that we see, the increase that we see in BME officers, is good, but

it isn't nearly as good as what it ought to be. All too often the

police's argument is it takes time to get there. That is partially

true. But actually, given that we have taken, it has taken so long, I

mean, I think that there needs to be a more radical solution to this.

Positive discrimination? absolutely not. I chaired the race

and faith inquiry, we delivered our report in 2010, one of our key

recommendations that the Government introduce multipoint entry, so

people can enter the service at different levels. I think that will

be a key aspect in solving the representation issue. There is a

thing which I think we mustn't miss, the police service over the past

ten years has put an awful lot of for the into changing what it looks

like.S focus on getting black and the nick minority people to join

the force. -- ethnic minority people to join the force. People

weren't joining ten years ago. We are now in a position where people

are joining and coming through. I think Cindy is right, the race and

faith inquiry and all the inquiries to date have really failed to

galvanise the movement of black and ethnic minority officers through

the ranks into the positions of senior leadership. Something

different needs to be done. But what I have seen in the last few

years something different, in the way that people are being held up

and brought along, and in the way that Liberty group we are talking

about, actually given the power to get through themselves, rather than

to be forced or shoe horn into a new post. How much -- shoe horned

into a new post. How much of the rioting we saw in the summer was

about the chasam between some young people and the police?

personally, firstly, about these black officers, sorry, I have to

say this, these black officers that are in the police and in the

communities, usually, yeah, nine times out of ten, they are the ones

that step out of the van first, and be rude, because they are black, do

you understand. They will force themselves. That is one heck of a

generalisation? I have seen it, street level, I have seen it many

times, do you understand, don't get me wrong, there is black officers

that are good and doing what they are supposeded to be doing, a lot

of the time, a lot of these ethnic minorities are coming out at these

at black people, because they are black. Thinking they have got the

right to be extra, because they are black. I'm not talking from figures,

I haven't seen no figures or statistics, I'm talking about me

being on the street and talking to the youth, I deal with them every

day. How much do you think the riot that is we saw this summer were to

do with the chasam between some young people and the police?

think it was an aspect, but it wasn't, I think we need to be

careful not to rayify what happened, the riots took on different forms

in different places at different times. Some of it was opportuneism,

some of it is relate to poverty and desperation. Some of it was mass

hysteria, jumping on the bandwagon. Some people had the opportunity to

have the most exciting experience of their life, and they have said

so. It is important to keep it into perspective, and don't run away

with the idea that the riots were as a result of police community

relations. That may have been the case in 1981, it wasn't the case in

2011. Thank you very much.

The people camp outside St Paul's Cathedral have a minimum of seven

days before they discover whether the courts are going to let them

stay there. Their effect on global capitalism so far hasn't been

noticable, their effect on the Church of England has been enormous.

Two senior clerics have fallen on their swords or out of their pulpit,

whatever the expression. The church as a whole seems highly

discombobulated about the situation and what it has to say about

western capitalism. It was an unholy row.

The combination of Wren's masterpiece, anti-capitalist

demonstrators and church politics, proved to be a volatile mix. It led

to the voluntary defenestration of Giles Fraser, he resigned as Canon

Chancellor at St Paul's, this a pre-emptive measure against the

forcible eviction of people in this camp, that hasn't happened, at

least not yet. On the night the protestors arrived, last October,

Mr Fraser had personally intervened with the police to prevent them

being removed. We are very happy for people to exer size their right

peacefully to protest. That is what they are doing. The Parson has come

down from the Cathedral and the police, and they did, there was no

damage. The authorities of the Channel Tunnel were clearly willing

to agree to the -- of the church were clearly willing to agree to

the forcible eviction of the protestors, it comes a point where

every person, church leader or not has to decide which side of the

line they stand. There are different elements within the

church, different political stands within Christianity, and Giles, I

think, is an example of someone who has taken a stance that other

people in the church will disagree with. That is only healthy.

But some voices in the church say events at St Paul's have been a PR

disaster. And that the Clergy should pay more attention to

spreading the lessons of the Bible rather than taking up issues in the

news. The folk who are, in my opinion,

getting it entirely wrong, are what I would describe as those who are

utterly liberal, and anything goes, and we pick anything up from the

local press, the newspapers, anything that is going in the media,

and building it into the church and saying this is what we do now, we

are now in 2012, everything is different, we have moved on. Wrong,

we haven't. The Bible is still the Bible, the authoritative word of

God, and we should be, I believe, living by that word, and that

standard. We should be speaking out into the nation, into the world

about God's word, about what Jesus said, and not taking on the world's

view to our lives. Which is not going to do us any good.

It is the routine, isn't it. Negotiate the deal. Close the deal.

Celebrate the deal. Get slaughtered on 82Pomeron. The hit sitcom of the

year follows the fortunes of doggedly conscientious London

Clergyman, what with Rev and the argument at St Paul's, vicars find

themselves in the unusual position of being in the public eye. Because

I spilt my guts up there, Lehman's, the bank, very little came back,

very little back, I don't think he they get it. It has turned out very

well for the church, according to one historian. The church has found

itself a for yum for debate, and because of what's happened, and

because of the all awkwardness and the different ways the church is

talking p it, people have paid far more interest in what leaders of

the church have to say about economics, and politics, in this

area, than they would do, simply if an Archbishop had addressed it in

his Christmas ceremony Monday. what of the St Paul's camp itself,

a judge will rule next week on an application by the Corporation of

London, which would like to see the back of it. I think we are

reasonable people. But very strong willed people. We will have to wait

and see what happens. There are discussions happening in terms of

what our response would be to that. But whatever happens the fight will

continue. Both sides seem well dug in over

the battle for the Cathedral. Barring an unexpected Pauline

conversion. Giles Fraser is with us now for his

first extended television interview, since he resigned. What do you

think should happen to the Occupy camp? It is up to them to decide

what they should do. If they want to stay there they should be

allowed to? I think they need to think about, they raiseded an

important issue, they have raised a really important issue. What would

you like them to do? I would like them to keep on raising that issue.

By staying there? I don't want to be in the position of saying for

them to move on. I understand there are people who do want to say that.

But I think the issue they have raised is sow important, and has

actually galvanised a huge and important conversation, that though

I understand there are very practical problems with the camp

being there, and there are practical problems. There really

are, aren't there? They are not insurmountable, but there are

practicable problems. I think the bigger picture is the questions

that they are raising. So I'm just staying with the bigger picture,

and I'm going to duck some of the more practical, difficult, local

issues. Because you don't know what the

answers to those are? I don't know what the answers are, but they are

doing such a valuable job in raising a big question about what

is the nature of ethical capitalism. Can they do it in any other way

than having a camp outside St Paul's? This is a global movement

and very successful in generating precisely the conversation they

have wanted to. So, to some extent I think it has been a very

successful thing. So, despite the fact that many of the church

authorities, and the Corporation of London, think that this is a

nuisance, which should be removed, you just don't take a position

either one way or the other? I just want to see the value in this

situation. It is absolutely right that there are a sort of, there are

practical problems with the camp being there. But actually, the

practical problems can be overstated. I live 100 yard or so

from the camp. Not for much longer? Not for that much longer. But I

have done throughout its time there. I understand, I see it every day.

People can walk through, there is no problem with people getting past

that area. I actually think the problem most have with it is it is

some sort of eyesore, that is actually the problem they have with

it. As far as you are concerned it can stay there indefinitely?

think there needs to be a well worked out exit strategy by the

protestors themselves. They can't stay there for of. Actually they

probably would have gone -- forever. Actually they probably would have

gone by now had the Corporation of London not decided to take out the

legal action. They misunderstood the psychology of protest, pushing

against a protest means it will push it back. A nice cup of

Anglican tea and warm embrace might have...they are raising important

issues, I want to stay with the important issues. You are on the

side of the people who are protesting? I believe in the right

of people to peacefully protest, yes. Despite the fact that it

inconviences others? Yes. You're quite right to say that my position

is uncomfortable. It is not a position? It is, I think they are

raising important issues, and...But When you were at the Cathedral, and

you were what chairman of the Finance Committee, and the finances

of the Cathedral were seriously affected by the presence of this

camp, that was an impossible position to be in, wasn't? I don't

think it was, really. I think the key issues are theological ones, it

it is not about money, the question is what do we stand for as a

church? As St Paul's Cathedral. What do you stand for as a church?

What were the reasons for which the Cathedral was built. One has to go

back to our founding ideas, go back to the Bible, as Alison said in

your piece. If you look there you will see issues of economic justice

are the number one moral issue in the Bible. It it is more than the

obsession with sex and those sorts of things, that is what the Bible

regularly goes on about. When the church is saying this is a real

embarrassment to us, we are being deprived of an income of what

�20,000 a day? Who is saying that. What church figures are standing up

and saying that. One has to be very, very careful that we distinguish

between the needs of a national icon, a building, and the church as

an organisation that spread the gospel. There are times when those

two things are in tension. My word, there is loads of tensions around

preaching the gospel in a place like St Paul's Cathedral. You are,

Jesus said some incredibly hard things about money, and you are

saying them in the boiler room of global capitalism, it is obviously

a hugely tense place into which to negotiate all of that difference.

How much money are you spending a year on keeping St Paul's clean?

lot money. Millions? Yes, we cleaned it over the last ten years

and it was �42 million to clean the Cathedral. So absolutely right. You

have to ask yourself about extraordinary compromises and

balances between the needs of having this great, I believe in

having church buildings, I do believe in having church buildings.

But I believe you have to recognise the reasons for which those church

buildings were built. Are you uncomfortable with the position the

church has taken or failed to take so far on this whole crisis in

western capitalism? I think the church was pretty slow out of the

blokes in 2008, I think it had -- blocks in 2008. It had a pretty bad

credit crunch. The church is beginning to realise it has to get

its act together. There used to be very few sermons I can remember

about money. Now I did a little bit of a survey on bishops' sermons

over Christmas, and Occupy and issues of economics are more up

there, good. If I say to you you are an old lefty, you used to be a

member of the SWPE, you are carrying a similar sort of church

in the Church of England, you would accept the distinction between

constructive capitalism and predatory capitalism like Ed

Milliband? I am not against capitalism, I used to be a Marxist

in my youth, I am not any longerment I think we need a

version of capitalism that works for a greater number of people.

Have we got it now? I don't think we have it now. I don't think we

know how to get it either. That is part of the problem. I don't I

don't think the people. Taxation normally the way? As a way of

redistributing it. That is one way of doing it, the problem is that

the City is so powerful in terms of how much money that it generates

through taxation, is that it ends up being itself too big to fail,

too important in our economy, and so actually it tends to be able to

have a sort of muscle which is very difficult for a Government to deal

with. That's part the problem. It is the size and importance, it is

not in balance, in proportion to other things. It would be lovely to

see that. What would you do with it? The very interesting thing

about the protestors, people criticiseded the protestors for

saying they don't really know what they want, they don't know what to

do with the situation. I have been to meetings of very distinguished

merchant bankers and people involved in it, and I would say the

same question, they would say they don't know either. The level of

question about what ethical capitalism looks like is one that

we are just beginning to grapple with. There are all sorts of

technical things. The separation of casino banking from high street

banking, the Vickers report, but actually economics used to be, with

people like Adam Smith, it used to be a moral, it was part of morality,

it was part of ethics, that is how it originate. It became something

too techle kal, that most of us -- originate. It became something too

technical for most of us to understand it. It wasn't the

church's fault that we were fingers and thumbs about what a Credit

Default Swap was. You and I wouldn't be able to explain that

properly. We became distanced from it because it was too complicate.

He has flickered not shone, that is the less than glowing report on one

of -- from one of his advisers. There is a doctrine of Blue Labour,

and using an article in the New Statesman to offer a critque of

Labour at the moment. He said he was trying to be helpful. I spoke

to the BBC's deputy political editor earlier.

What has Lord Glasman had to say? Once you have waded through the

article and the quotes and extraordinary phrases like "the

frat ternisation of the impossible", when he gets to his critque of Ed

Milliband he's explicit. He said Ed Milliband's leadership has no

strategy, no narrative and little energy. He says Mr Miliband has not

broken through. He has flickered rather than shone, and he has

nudged not led. He also goes on to criticise Labour's economic policy

at the moment. Specifically referring to old faces are from the

Brown era, who are stuck in defending Labour's record in all

the wrong ways. We didn't spend too much money, we will cut less fast,

but we won't tell you how. Labour tonight are saying, look, Lord

Glasman has had no official role within the Labour leadership. He's

just a free-thinking backbench Labour peer and an axe dem you can.

But this is a guy who -- academic, this is a guy who was given a

peerage by Ed Milliband last year. He is one who has had Ed Milliband

to write a forward for one of the books he has written. He has given

advice to Ed Milliband in the past. It can't just be dismissed as

Labour want to tonight. He has claimed he's merely wanting to be

supportive, is he? He does say he supports Mr Miliband, and he does

praise, in particular, Mr Miliband's campaign against what he

calls called predatory capitalism. But this document will launch a

thousand Conservative leaflets and posters, it will feed a lot of

ammunition to Mr Cameron in Prime Minister's Questions in the days

and weeks ahead. It gives voice to concerns shared by others in the

Labour Party. Not just about Ed Milliband's leadership and people

who want him to put vim into it. But also the debate taking place in

Labour about its economic record in the past and how it gets into the

economic debate into the future. How does it start taking the

argument to the coalition, talking about growth, talking about deficit

reduction. If as a party it has yet to face up to its own record in

Government. That is what Lord Glasman is putting his fringeer on.

It is a debate going on largely behind the scenes, tonight it is

centre stage. Time to think about the rainforest. It is received

wisdom that these enormous and enormously important expanses of

the earth's surface are being destroyed as never before. Them

Amazon rainforest has become the focus of intense national concern,

as the Brazilian economy powers ahead to overtake our's. As Justin

Rowlatt reports now, things are changing.

In a sleepy town on the edge of the Amazon, officers from the Brazilian

Environment Agency relax in the minces before a jungle raid.

Inside their HQ, the commanders plan the attack. What he says is

don't worey about guns, the guns that they have are -- worry about

guns, the guns they have are likely to be hunting guns, nothing serious,

nothing to worry about. For years the forest frontier was out of

control. In the decade to 2004, an average of almost 20,000 square

kilometres of forest was lost each year. That is really an area the

size of Wales every single year. What has changed is the attitude of

the Brazilian Government. Eight years ago Brazil realised had

a unique opportunity. It could go green, cut carbon emissions, just

by stopping the destruction of the forest, and crucial low, it would

barely affect economic growth. Brazil decided to declare war on

deforestation. How confident are you that Brazil can successfully

protect the Amazon? Total. TRANSLATION: You can't go into

battle thinking you will lose. That is certainly what Churchill thought.

In the past Brazil's forests were cut down because the state wanted

them cut down. Now the state has decideded it doesn't want that any

more. -- decided it doesn't want that any more. A key problem has

always been the sheer size of the Amazon. There is a big area cleared

completely. I can see a logging truck there in the clearing.

We have just landed the helicopter and the officers are going over to

the truck here, which clearly has been with freshly cut logs on it.

The guys have run off. The guys seem to have run off into the woods.

They were here a moment ago. As we land they were still here. They

must be around here some where. IBAMA has only six helicopters and

600 officers in the field at any one time. Has to patrol an area of

four million square kilometres, the size of a continent.

But new technology has come to the aid of the Amazon. At the IBAMA

head quarters Brasilia, they want to show me the powerful new weapon

in their army. We are about to enter the nerve

centre of Brazil's operation to stop deforestation. This is it?

situation room. I have to say it is a little bit

disappointing, it looks to me a bit like a call centre in a bank or

insurance company, all these guys behind desks.

But the new satellite monitoring technology they are using means it

is now almost impossible to cut down tracts of the forest without

being spot. How often do you get satellite images? Each two days we

receive the images and send to our field people.

So you can literally watch deforestation unfolding sitting

here at your desk in the middle of Brasilia? We can arrive there and

punish the people that are doing it. So you stop them just as they begin

to cut the forest? Yes. It has made IBAMA muchp more effective. But the

environment -- much more effective, but the Environment Agency still

doesn't get its man every time. They have run off? Yes. They have

run off into the forest. What do we do now? So we're going to wait here

for a bit and see what happens, see whether they come back.

I will be honest, seemed like a very long shot to me. Because it

isn't just the attitude of the Government that is changing. John

Carter is an exUS special Ops soldier, turned Amazonian rauncher.

Raunchers and farmers have traditionally been the baddies in

this daughter. Relentlessly cutting down forest for cattle or crops.

But John had a change of heart. He took me out to a project he has set

up to project river turtles. That is amazing. Amazing, today is the

day they are supposed to be hatch. They are quite strong these little

things. He was about ten feet away from me, ten years ago, it

epitomises the Amazon to me, and also the frontier wild wilderness

that still exists. It was one thing I always tell my wife. If there is

ever a day when there is no Jaguar left in the region, that is when I

want to move. John leads an alliance of ranchers and farmers

who want to improve environmental management on their farms. That

means protecting the forest too. John took me to see one of the

members of his alliance. He arrived here 26 years ago, this

whole area was dense rainforest then. He has cut most of it down to

grow soya. But the combination of tough new

Government rules and John's silver- tongueed persuasion, have made him

change his ways. John's idealism has been like a light to us. I have

3% forest now, I have planted new trees by my streams, the attitude

of the farmers has really changed, he now we want to do the right

thing. John's powers of persuasion became

apparent when I found myself agreeing to a dip in the river near

his ranch. Together with a black caiman, the Amazon's top predator.

He just popped up out of the water and got him. The alliance has been

running for five years now, and has 500 members, with farms covering

almost three million hectares. John hopes in time there will be

financial incentives for farmers to do the right thing too, access to

new markets, maybe a premium price for their beef and soya. Our whole

desire is to produce something the consumer can trust hands down.

There will come a time when we have enough volume that we can supply

McDonalds for all of Latin America. You know it is clean and truly

producing right. This combination of different pressures, improved

monitoring and enforcement by the Brazilian Government, the

beginnings of a change of attitude among Amazonian farmers, and

successful campaigning among pressure groups, have come together

to remarkable effect. (gun shots)le

The loggers did come back, here is one of them. He's a little bit

shock to have been caught by us, and the helicopter is now coming

back, we will go and see if the agent will catch the other one.

(Last year saw the lowest level of deforestation in the Amazon since

records began in the 1980s, 6,000 square kilometres were cut. It

seems the underlying economics haven't really changed. Does it

worry you that you are damaging the forest? TRANSLATION: I know it is

wrong, I have seen on TV, but what can I do? It I don't work I don't

eat. But in one remote Amazon state, they found a very unexpected way to

begin to tilt the economics back in favour of the trees.

It is 3.00am, I'm being led deep into the rainforest, wearing a

rather bizarre traditional torch. Tito and I are equipped for action

and about to head into the jungle to see a project that has achieved

the Holy Grail of forest conservation, reversing the logic

of deforestation, so it is more profitable for local people like

Tito to keep the jungle standing than to cut it down. How have they

done it? It's hard, oh, oh. This is rubber-tapping done in the

traditional way, from rubber trees growing wild in the jungle. So how

have they managed to make wild Amazonian rubber profitable again?

Here is how, they use it to make these, the world's first

rainforest-friendly condoms! Hundreds of millions of them every

year. This is a condom testing area. These ladies are officially condom

testers. It is a funny job. He yes. But all of the activities here need

subsidy, they wouldn't be profitable on their own. Where will

you make them get that money from? All of our policies are trying to

deforestation, if we protect the forest, we don't have the

deforestation, if we don't have that we have carbon emissions. We

can have carbon credits that we can Those carbon credits could soon

have real value. At last month's international climate conference in

Durban, there was preliminary agreement on a scheme to

fundamental cash, up to $-- funnel cash, up to $100 billion of it,

into projects like this. But in the past year, there has

been a huge backlash from the farming sector in Brazil.

The Brazilian parliament has voted to cut the area of forest Amazon

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

be stopped if the Brazilian President vetos it.

So, Dan, what are you doing? Well, we're just putting out a little

kerosene, so the fire can get started. Dan Nepstad is studying

the effect of fire on the forest, and the long-term future of the

Amazon, he's one of the world's leading forest scientists. It

doesn't feel right playing with much matches in the middle of the

rainforest, but if you say it is in the name of science, you are the

scientist. Do the honours. That is kind of you. Do I get the

opportunity to set fire to the rainforest, to the Amazon.

Incredible as it sounds, he believes it is not too late to save

the Amazon. Almost 80% of the forest is still standing. 80%, but

he says the battle has reached a crucial phase.

In six years deforestation has come down 70% below the previous ten-

year average. So Brazil really needs to be commended and applauded,

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

is the big question. There is an alternative pathway

that says the Government becomes more lax, the market signal

disappears and it becomes a free- for-all, decisions made over the

next few months will probably determine which direction Brazil

goes. For years, the received wisdom has

been that the world's tropical forests are doom. Well Brazil is

demonstrating that deer forestation can be tamed. -- deforestation can

be tamed. The achievements are fragile, but it is a cause for hope.

Hope that this place, the Amazon rainforest, the greatest ecosystem