In the next few weeks we hope to visit some villages and meet indigenous people who depend on the rainforest for their existence and learn more about how they live. While many of these people's ancestors have lived in the rainforest for thousands of years, their habitats are currently in danger of not being available to them and their children in the future. We are here to meet these people and learn about the rainforest and share this with you. There are things you can do from home to help protect this amazing ecosystem.

Many of the tribes here live much as their ancestors did thousands of years ago. Their lives and cultures are organized much differently from ours. Everything they need to survive comes from the rainforest. Their food, clothing, and shelter all come from things found here in the forest and rivers. Their children don't go to schools like we have in the U.S., but they are educated to know a great deal about the plants and animals in the rainforest-they are taught how to hunt and fish and learn all about what plants can be used for medicine and food. These children probably know more about the plants and animals here than many scientists do! They live in harmony with the forest, not taking more than they need and not destroying the environment-it is called a 'sustainable' existence-they can go on for thousands of years this way. If these people lost their habitat, it would be very difficult for them to survive in a city where their vast rainforest survival skills are not very useful. Protecting the rainforest is more than just a nice idea for these people; it is about their very survival--day to day and in the future. When loggers are allowed to cut down trees and destroy the land, it endangers the existence of these people.

Yesterday when we were paddling, we came across a large manmade structure-huge cement poles and metal beams on the top. Warren told us it was an oil drilling platform. About 35 years ago it was used to drill for oil here, but the oil they found was just too hard to get to, so they stopped. The forest is slowly reclaiming this structure. Luckily the National Park status does some things to help protect the area, but is it enough? If the oil was easy to get, would they still be drilling here? Rainforests around the world are experiencing destruction--some much more intense than here in Peru. Why do loggers and oil companies want to destroy the rainforest? It is because there is a demand for the products they can get-because they can make money by selling these things? Who is willing to pay for these things? Unfortunately, a lot of the end users are consumers in the United States. Do you know anyone who ever bought anything made out of mahogany wood? It came from a rainforest!

You have some power to help protect the rainforest and the habitat of the people and animals who need it for their survival-by making sure you don't purchase items that are harvested unsustainably from the rainforest.

-Jennifer

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Warren shows us a rubber tree. Rubber was harvested sustainably without killing the tree.

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Jesse swings from a vine under the old oil drilling platform we found (next scene...vine breaks, Jesse splashes!).

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We discovered an illegally chopped mahogany tree.