Word: forests
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Davi Kopenawa Yanomami cures ailing tribal brothers with incantations given to him by a fearsome anaconda spirit that slithers up from Amazonian waters. At least that's the way Davi describes it. Like other native medicine men in the Amazon rain forest, Davi relies on hallucinogenic powders to reach the spirit world, but this leader of the Yanomami Indians also wields a more modern means of communication: a two-way radio. When an otherworldly voice squawks through the speaker, Davi wraps up his shaman's crown of toucan feathers, dons uncomfortable city clothes and walks to a clearing...
...airports and international assemblies as skillfully as he roams his spirit realm of giant anacondas. When Davi, in his 40s, speaks about the plight of the estimated 22,000 Yanomamis left alive in northern Brazil and Venezuela, he's a visionary who sees his people and their rain-forest gods being swept toward extinction. "When I go to the big city, I see hungry people, without anywhere to plant crops, without drinking water, without anywhere to live. I do not want this to happen to my people too," he says...
...aggressively sell ecotourism, while few foreign-aid programs are complete without an ecotourism element. Two years ago, Brazil unveiled a $200 million program to develop ecotourism in the Amazon region. A project to build a visitors center, upgrade trails and construct canopy walkways has saved Ghana's Kakum rain forest from logging and other depredations. The park now employs 2,000 local people and attracts 40,000 tourists a year. Receipts from about 1,600 visitors each day are keeping afloat the Xcaret ecopark in Yucatan, Mexico--and also funding the 50 scientists who work there. Off Zanzibar, the island...
...other region of the world, the Matsiguenka tribe is gambling with its future. After centuries of dependence on hunting, gathering and small-scale farming, the isolated native community of 300 people has entered the tourist business. Last year the tribe opened a $120,000 ecolodge, built from rain-forest materials in traditional bamboo-stick and thatched-roof style. The lodge sleeps 24 people in four huts equipped with some amenities like bathrooms and solar-powered electricity. Cost: around $40 per person a night...
...much ecotourists are truly willing to pay to keep the environment unspoiled. The government of the Seychelles has backed away from the $100 environmental fee it proposed to levy on each traveler this year to fund preservation efforts such as protecting the Vallee de Mai, a unique palm forest. In a recent study, 80% of Germans said an unspoiled environment was important to them, but only 40% were prepared to pay even $1 extra a day to help protect the environment of their holiday destination...