Is The Amazon River On The Brink Of Destruction?

paper was light gold in medieval times [Music] i want tobacco sugar [Music] that everything we thought we knew about the world might turn out to be completely wrong the amazon river is an extraordinary force of nature stretching over 6500 kilometers across the south american continent it feeds the largest tropical rainforest on earth [Music] its waters contain a greater variety of fish than the entire atlantic ocean [Music] not only is this the richest river on earth it is also the mightiest up to 100 meters deep and 40 kilometers wide it carries more water than any river in the world this precious resource has never been tamed by man from source to sea not a single bridge crosses its waters not a single dam holds its flow but while the river cannot be controlled it could be destroyed [Music] today commercial development is killing the wilderness which protects the amazon and its future hangs in the balance the crucial question now is how long can this great river continue to run wild [Music] the amazon river has immense power over everything that lives near its waters though it flows through one of the most remote regions on earth seven million people have made their home on the riverbanks [Music] from isolated village to bustling metropolis none of those who live near it can control the force of the amazon they have simply adapted to a life determined by the river the power of its waters and the remote landscape through which it travels have for centuries protected the amazon from man until recently this rainforest was believed to be one of the world's most stable environments but aggressive commercial development is destroying the jungle and the protection it offers is being stripped away today the delicate eco balance of the region is being pushed to the point of no return the amazon river its wildlife and its people are vulnerable as never before [Music] from its peruvian headwaters to its brazilian delta the amazon river cuts across south america its river basin the largest in the world is riddled with a thousand tributaries all flowing towards the main artery of the amazon itself while its glacial source lies high in the andean mountains of peru the amazon story proper begins here over one thousand eight hundred kilometers downstream where the uh rivers meet only at this confluence in the peruvian rainforest does the river take on the name amazon a few kilometers downstream mariscal castilla is one of the first villages on the amazon the peruvian name for these villagers is ribarenos literally meaning river people of spanish and indian descent the riborenos are not indigenous to the rainforest but have adapted to live at the water's edge and developed an intimate relationship with the natural environment coping with the shifting waters is part and parcel of life here particularly during the rivers seasonal floods in the wet season increased rainfall over the forest dramatically increases the amount of water in the river in a typical flood levels rise by up to 20 meters and the area covered by the river triples at this time the amazon carries so much extra water that the south american continent sinks several centimeters under the weight and rises again as the waters recede [Music] it is this immense fluctuation in flow which makes the amazon impossible to control and so the riberenos have no choice but to adopt a lifestyle which accommodates the river's extreme floods their houses are designed for this purpose built on stilts to allow flood water to flow beneath but this is not always enough to keep them safe for not only does the amazon flood it changes course so dramatically that a village could suddenly find itself at the bottom of the new river channel maria pazango has lived in mariscal castilla all her life in the last 10 years she has had to rebuild her home several times to avoid the roaming waters the river started to erode and erode the riverbank before this platform was washed away i ordered a new house to be built over there so i had to move there before my house disappeared with the riverbank the huge volume of water in the amazon means it can easily change its course through the flat terrain and soft soils when the river moves the people have no choice but to move with it yet the riberenos live here not despite but because of the river's ever-shifting flood patterns for it is this which makes the riverbanks or vasia as they are known the richest tracks of land in the whole rainforest here i've got the tomatoes the chicle and the potatoes which we eat here are the cucumbers we also grow yucca for food the magic ingredient which makes this land so fertile is silt washed down from the andes mountains suspended in the murky brown waters of the river when the amazon floods this mineral-rich silt is distributed over the earth rendering the ground remarkably productive these vasia floodplains can support continuous agriculture albeit on a small scale this year the river has replenished the mud and that's why my rice is over there last year that didn't happen and my rice failed to grow this time there was more mud it came up to here to irrigate the rice to maintain the fertility of the soil the river enos only clear small patches of land at a time and grow many different varieties of crops in the same area as well as providing fertile soil the river also provides fish to eat and the locals have developed unique ways of catching them these men are collecting leaves from the huaca plant for fishing first the juaka leaves are crushed to release their juices next the crushed leaves are transferred to a basket and dipped several times in one of the many river pools near mariscal castilla village as the huaca poison is released it depletes the oxygen in the water making the fish drowsy and forcing them to the surface for air once they are within reach of the river enos's spears they are easy prey to survive on the riverbank the river enos have come to develop a deep understanding of the river and to accept that it holds absolute power over their destiny but subsistence farming is a precarious existence and an increasing number of riberenios are leaving the seclusion of their barsia villages in search of a better life many end up here 125 kilometers downstream in the city of the quitos the jungle metropolis perched at the junction where the amazon meets two major tributaries iquitos has four hundred thousand residents today some seventy percent of the population of the amazon basin lives in cities like these even in the jungle urbanization is a growing trend surrounded by water and rainforest iquitos is the largest city in the world that can't be reached by road travel within the city is mostly by rickshaw travel to and from the city is by plane and boat even though it is over 3 700 kilometers from the sea iquitos is saved from total isolation by the water highway that is the amazon river this waterway provides the city with a precious commercial link to the outside world [Music] but this link comes at a price at just 106 meters above sea level the residents of aquitos have no means of controlling the waters which surround them life here is lived at the mercy of the river the suburb of belen is a perfect example during the wet season berlin can only be reached by boat many of the houses here are built to float on the rising waters houses that don't float are designed to be flooded families who live in these two-story homes move their possessions to the upper levels during the wet season allowing the ground floor to be swallowed up by water when the floods have receded the family claimed back that half of their home only to give it over to the river again next year most of the 40 000 people in berlin live in poverty many are migrants who have left remote river settlements in search of a better life in the city but with high unemployment and without land to grow their own food they struggle to feed their families living in cramped housing with no electricity and no running water under these conditions the damp and humid atmosphere of the amazon takes its toll malaria and respiratory diseases are commonplace [Applause] when people become ill their first port of call is pasaje paquito or medicine lane located in a part of berlin which doesn't flood this market street sells nothing but local plant and animal remedies blanca saldana owns her own stall on medicine lane selling homemade potions here i've got a poodle it's common in this area of the amazon it's not just the locals who recognize the health benefits of the local produce a quarter of all pharmaceutical drugs are derived from plants which only grow in the delicate ecosystem supported by the amazon river but unrefined remedies are no match for the killer diseases which blight the residents of belen when local medicines have failed their only hope is a charity run medical center [Music] is a doctor who works at this drop-in clinic for the poorest residents of belen there are always more patients than he has time to see he has been brought to the clinic by his mother who's worried about his persistent cough dr gonzalez believes that the child's condition is directly caused by living near the river the child has a chest complaint he's got acute bronchial obstruction syndrome asthma in short and so he will be given treatment this acute bronchial obstruction syndrome is more virulent when children live in very humid areas such as here close to the river excessive humidity in the morning and at night closes the bronchi so that he can't breathe easily but perhaps the greatest danger to people's health is not the air but the water itself as the river in aquitos is increasingly polluted in these shanty towns there is no sewer system to deal with the waste produced latrines empty into the river canals during the dry season people walk the plank along the wooden pathways to avoid the human excrement which flows beneath during the floods the waste gets carried by the river into people's houses what's more the poorest residents of aquitos have no pipe drinking supply they're forced to use the untreated river or rain water for their daily use to disastrous effect child mortality rates in berlin are shockingly high infections intestinal infections like dysentery and non-dysentery diarrhea are caused mainly because people have no access to clean water to drink bacterial viral and gastrointestinal infections are very common it's ironic that though the amazon carries more fresh water than the combined capacity of the next eight largest rivers on earth people who live on its banks don't have clean water to drink yet the river itself is largely to blame for the amazon floods and changes course so dramatically it can't be relied upon to provide a piped water supply in the last few years the river has moved away from the center of aquitos what was deep water one year became dry riverbed the next [Music] but where humans struggle to cope nature has no problem as it leaves aquitos flowing from peru into brazil the amazon runs more or less parallel with the equator where the earth receives maximum energy from the sun [Music] under these conditions wildlife thrives in many specialized forms [Music] the amazon's flooding creates a unique environment to which nature adapts in the most remarkable way the flooded forests are a great example these waterlogged jungles occupy swathes of land up to 20 kilometers either side of the river during the wet season the soil in which these plants grow is underwater the smaller trees are completely submerged to survive they grow roots up to 20 meters long anchoring themselves against the force of the floods some trees even grow new roots reaching down from their branches to absorb nutrients from the water [Music] what we know about the wildlife of the amazon just scratches the surface the area covered by the river basin is so vast that there are still tributaries which have yet to be explored and thousands of plants and animals which are uncatalogued scientists are continually working to understand the extremely complex ecosystem of this region one of the amazon's many wildlife research projects is based here at the piranha reserve in the middle reaches of the amazon working from a floating laboratory maria suarez is director of the operation we measure and weigh the fish first we weigh it then we measure it and remove the stomach so we have an idea of what its feeding habits are this information is very important as the main aim of the project is to compile and compare data the piranha reserve is home to a huge variety of fish perfectly adapted to living in this underwater jungle during the flood season lots of trees produce various types of fruit which provide an excellent source of nourishment for the many species of fish is a species fruit in the stomach of a sardine it's a long sardine a species of the trip or teos and it's a smart fish for eating charuma taruma is a very tasty fruit even people can eat it it's sweet and tasty and the tree itself is also beautiful in this symbiotic relationship the trees also benefit as the fish distribute their fruit seeds in their droppings the fish supported by the river are a crucial food source for the riberenios who live on piranha reserve in return for protected fishing rights they share their local knowledge with the researchers helping them track the migratory paths of fish and identifying new species it's priceless information in a place where only a fraction of the wildlife has been scientifically documented in the amazon basin there are currently 2 000 museum catalogued species but we can conservatively estimate that there are in fact some 3 000 species why is this a conservative estimate because there are still a lot of narrow river channels and river pools that have not yet been surveyed working in collaboration with local people research projects like this one discover some 50 new species of fish every year the knowledge gained helps the river enios both exploit and protect the ecosystem upon which their livelihood depends there is one animal however that the riverenios dare not hunt the legendary boto dolphin [Music] up to three meters long and weighing some 90 kilos the boto vary in color from grey to pink [Music] with a brain 40 larger than humans they are supremely intelligent and naturally playful [Music] is a fisherman who's had many a close encounter with the photo [Music] if the dolphin thinks you're afraid of it lots more dolphins will turn up and they will try and tease you if you're in a small canoe smaller than this one they'll try and drown you the dolphin's mischievous nature has fueled all kinds of local myths rumor has it at night the boater emerged from the river to court local women yes it appears like me like me in the form of a male a physical body it approaches women and believe me this is true it really happens even here it has happened they take advantage of women when they're vulnerable though they're not really able to walk on land these dolphins have evolved perfectly to suit their environment practically blind since there's not much to see in the murky river waters they hunt their prey with sonar detectors and have a flexible backbone to weave their way through underwater vegetation [Music] the amazon dolphins are not the only river dolphins in the world but they are one of the few types that are thriving protected by the untamed river in the remote piranha reserve the boto and the fishermen have developed an understanding but elsewhere on the amazon commercial development is placing animals and humans in direct conflict [Music] some four thousand kilometers downstream of its source the amazon approaches its largest tributary confluence here the dark and clear waters of the rio negro join the muddy flow of the amazon for 11 kilometers the black and brown waters flow side by side before finally mingling to create the largest river in the world over eight kilometers wide and a hundred meters deep at this point the amazon is a trade superhighway along which products can be exported from the heart of the rainforest directly to sea upstream of the confluence the city of manaus is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the river's commercial potential today manaus is a trading point for all kinds of cargo in the early 20th century however rubber was the key commodity to be exported through these stocks tapped from the rainforest the rubber was shipped down the amazon from a house to anywhere in the world [Music] in those days manaus was known as the paris of the tropics the ruined old buildings in the city centre are a reminder of the immense wealth which rubber once brought [Music] but the glory days were short-lived in less than 30 years the amazon rubber industry went bust as rival plantations opened in asia and synthetic rubber became available to help manaus reinvent itself the brazilian government have declared it a duty-free zone consignments in and out of the city are tax-exempt encouraging international investors to set up [Music] here today billions of dollars worth of goods enter and leave manaus every year this commerce attracts thousands of new migrants to the city all hoping to share in the wealth which the river brings to accommodate the growth manas's city limits are expanding further and further into the surrounding rainforest encroaching on the wilderness and its wildlife [Music] one of the most common animals here are caimans crocodilian reptiles unique to the amazon [Music] in the 1980s caimans were an endangered species but a project to save them has led to an explosion in their numbers some believe several million caymans now live along the amazon outnumbering and posing a real danger to the human population [Music] for those who make a living on the water the risks are deadly al del cimir cardoso is a fisherman who was attacked by a cayman a few years ago as i was removing the fish and sorting them out i didn't pay attention to this side and they came and jumped about a meter high straight at me was aiming for my head and so and five meters long and it started to drag me away in the 20-minute struggle that followed the cayman tried to drag our dal samir underwater by his arm broke in four parts this joint was severed here this finger was severed it was only attached here only by playing dead did al darsamir get away with his life but it's not just fishermen who are now at risk for as the number of caymans increase and as manaus expands animals and humans compete for living space the narrow river canals which flow through manassas suburbs are a great example here the caimans thrive among the urban waste but many people also live next to the canals it's a situation which is bound to lead to conflict cynthia martin owns a restaurant which backs on to one of the many river canals she arrived at work one morning to find a surprise visitor waiting for her when and live here too and we went over there to the gate with a rope and put it around its mouth cynthia had to try and drag the cayman back to the canal from which it had emerged it rained a lot that night i think the river canal filled up and it climbed out and we had to build a wall so that we could feel safer but dealing with the local wildlife is just one of the challenges of urban development for as its economic revival continues manaus's electricity needs are also increasing one of the greatest potential power sources in the entire amazon region is the river itself [Music] it's a force that developers would love to harness particularly in brazil where 80 of all the country's electricity is created by hydro power so far the amazon has not been damned it's too big to control and with a gradient of less than 100 meters over most of its course it's just too slow to produce electricity [Music] but many of the hundreds of tributaries which join the amazon have much faster currents and it's these arteries which are being clamped in the race to produce hydropower [Music] some 150 kilometers east of manhas on the watumia tributary of the amazon is balbina dam today the lake formed by the dam looks beautiful and tranquil but in the 1980s when it was built it caused so much environmental damage that balbina was dubbed one of the greatest errors ever committed in the amazon its story sounds a terrible warning of the dangers of damning a river in the rainforest before it was built the developers claimed that balbina would flood some 2 360 square kilometers of rainforest to produce 250 megawatts of electricity most of which would be fed to manhouse from the outset environmentalists were critical of how much jungle would be lost to produce such modest amounts of power more many indigenous communities lived in the area which was to be flooded their homes and livelihoods would be destroyed when the waters rose as opposition reached fever pitch the authorities decided to end the debate without warning closing the floodgates 30 days early the effects were catastrophic the engineers grossly underestimated the area which would be submerged when the floodgates closed the water spread out everywhere over the flat landscape animals and humans fled for their lives elidio da silva is one of the local people who witnessed the carnage acquaintance the monkeys died because in this large area as you can see there weren't many islands left as he watched tens of thousands of animals drown elidio joined a desperate mission to rescue as many as possible many more died mainly because we didn't have enough boats to collect all the animals not only was the habitat destroyed so too was the water for in the haste to fill the dam the area had not been cleared of jungle as the trees rotted down the reservoir became slick with scum killing the fish and poisoning the local drinking supply the water was so bad we couldn't drink it so the company provided some water wells but they weren't proper wells it was just a gesture to keep the people happy as the water pumps also began to draw toxic water the residents of old balbina were relocated to a purpose-built village on higher land here they remain today surrounded by modern amenities but deprived of their traditional way of life in the new balbina unemployment and alcoholism are high despite the lessons of balbina there are many more dams planned for the amazon basin as south america's energy demands increase but in recent years the region has seen dramatic changes in climate which threatened to put a halt to all hydropower plants [Music] downstream of bananas where the rio negro and amazon meet catalau is one of the many lakes formed by the roaming waters though they have no running water or electricity the community which lives here are used to coping with life on the river every house in the village is designed to float [Music] even the builders here work on water [Music] but in 2005 life changed in a way these villagers could never have imagined in the summer of that year the amazon suffered the worst drought on record wreaking havoc in the region on lake catalon the residents found themselves totally isolated raymunda viana remembers the effect it had on the community there was a lot of hunger because the fish died the floating houses were stranded there was no water and we had to walk to get to the river we had to carry water on our heads and bring it back for washing and drinking the villagers became desperate as the shrinking waters filled with dying fish when their food and water supplies dwindled to nothing the people congregated every day at the church to pray for an end to their suffering [Music] so we begged god to send rain and when the rain came people would be by the gutter collecting the water in little bowls from the gutter just for something to drink and to avoid carrying the water in the hot sunlight the situation was the same all over the amazon river waters receded so far that boats became stranded there were even stories of fish being cooked alive in the heat of the shallow waters as the river dried up the jungle suffered too transformed from wet sponge to tinderbox an area of more than a thousand kilometers square was lost to forest fires the smoke prolonged the crisis inhibiting the formation of clouds and making the drought worse [Music] you a spiritual song to see more when their prayers were answered and the rains eventually arrived the people of the amazon assumed the drought of 2005 was a once-in-a-lifetime event but a year later the droughts returned as a pattern emerges scientists are beginning to question why this river is suffering such unprecedented change [Music] many blame deforestation for the increase in droughts trees are the water towers of the amazon drawing moisture from the ground and releasing it into the atmosphere until it eventually falls again as rain but an area of jungle the size of six football pitches is cut down every minute destroying the water cycle which is the lifeline of this region what's more the burning of forests is increasing global warming and the likelihood of further droughts for though the trees of the amazon produce more than 20 percent of the oxygen on earth deforestation fires are now responsible for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions for the river the crisis is even more immediate as most of its water comes from precipitation [Music] without rain from the rainforest the amazon as we know it would cease to exist [Music] and the further the river continues on its eastwood course the greater the threat becomes [Music] 200 kilometers downstream of manaus is the city of santa positioned at the confluence of the tobaccos and amazon rivers and fed by thousands of kilometers of jungle highway santa rem is a vital export terminal for rainforest products from the city docks it's a straight 300 kilometers along the amazon river to see of all the cargo processed here the most profitable is sawyer ships laden with soya bean sale from santa rem directly to europe and the united states where the soya is used to feed animals destined for the supermarket and fast food chains but this seemingly inert cargo poses a deadly threat to the amazon and to the people for sawyer is now the main engine of deforestation in the whole region one million two hundred thousand acres of prime rainforest have been cut down to make way for the crop [Music] much of the jungle being cleared is home to indigenous tribes and traditional communities but the massive profits to be made mean that some developers will stop at nothing to get their hands on new land those who stand in their way risk being gunned down it's a fact which maria dos santos knows only too well as president of the workers union she has received several death threats for defending the rights of local farmers against the sawyer magnets for the last two years she's been protected by 24-hour armed guard my zucchini moves what moves me is knowing that people are slowly getting their rights it's about facing fighting maybe it wouldn't be dangerous if we didn't want to face the enemy but we decided this was the approach the union would take sawyer is a relatively new threat to the amazon the biggest cause of deforestation used to be logging and cattle ranching recently however developers realized that the vast tracts of land available here were ideal for the production of soya which is only profitable when grown in huge quantities the first region to be exploited was mato grosso in the far south but it was only a matter of time before the sawyer magnets arrived in santa rem 1999 or 2000 we'd already heard that they were on their way that the sawyer farmers would arrive in our region some people try to explain it to us but we never really knew what it meant we didn't prepare ourselves for this [Music] the most obvious symbol of sawyer's arrival in santa rem was the construction of the privately owned export station next to the city docks built without planning permission the legality of this station is still being debated in the courts the first santa rem's residents knew of it was when the city beach was suddenly replaced by an immense industrial platform soon after however the implications hit home as local farmers were forced to sell their land to the more unscrupulous soil magnets since most rural workers had no documents to prove they owned their farms making them sell was relatively easy [Music] so they would register the land and then they'd say to the people living on it look now we have this documentation either you accept our offer or you leave with nothing they threatened to call the police so the farmers would accept some five thousand ten thousand in ignorance they'd even say to him look you can go to the city and buy a house there and you'll have a better life you can watch tv and leave this wilderness which has no electricity and so the people would fall for this calm many of the rural migrants come here to santa m shanti town suburbs but they soon realize that ten thousand dollars does not go very far in the city [Applause] in the countryside they could grow their own crops for food and profit whereas here they have nothing to create an income these back streets are full of desperate families who have lost everything to the greed of the sawyer industry these are the kind of people maria tries to help among them is a woman who doesn't want to be identified for fear of her life five years ago she and her husband fled to the city when their rural village was burned to the ground by gorillas working on behalf of the soil magnets their boys and ships when we got to the city god gave us this place and the people here helped us this hut was built by the people after reaching the city however her husband took part in a compensation claim against the sawyer farmers now he has a price on his head when i used to walk through the city people would say to me they are making plans to kill your husband i was in such a state that i couldn't eat anymore when my husband came here i asked him to stop everything the poor can't challenge the rich because the rich have money to kill people you might as well already be dead i used to say to him for maria and for the people of santa rem the fight for justice continues meanwhile the threat from sawyer is increasing [Applause] several new roads are planned in the amazon which will cut through the rainforest establishing new trade routes and opening new areas to development [Music] in all this the river continues to be the most vital link of the export corridor from santa rem the heavily laden ships continue eastwards for another 1300 kilometers before the amazon finally meets the ocean more than 240 kilometers wide the river enters the sea with such power that it pushes the salt water back hundreds of kilometers from land [Music] in the incredible force of this flow the sawyer and other products of the rainforest are carried away to market but in forming a part of the commercial chain the river is a tool of its own destruction [Music] for the rainforest and the river are interdependent what destroys one will undoubtedly destroy the other [Music] today the amazon river still carries one-fifth of all the world's fresh water for the people who live near it the river still dictates the place and pace of life but it's clear that the amazon can no longer escape the influences of the modern world [Music] for how long the last great untamed river on earth will continue to run wild remains to be seen [Music]

Channel: TRACKS - Travel Documentaries

Views: 1,459,637

Keywords: Earth's water systems, TRACKS - Travel Documentaries, climate change effects, conservation challenges, ecology, environmental impact, environmental stewardship, flora and fauna, global perspective, nature appreciation, relationship with Earth, river ecosystems, river exploration, species extinction, sustainable development goals, sustainable practices, travel adventures, water conservation, water protection

Id: oXHTcEk8-Gk

Length: 51min 6sec (3066 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 23 2021