I set my trip in motion earlier this year after watching the most recent documentary by Jean-Michel Cousteau titled "Return to the Amazon", and after reading scientific reports that warn of the imminent peril that the Amazon is in, estimating its demise by as early as 2050.

My trip of the Amazon began in Leticia. Leticia is the southernmost town of Colombia, with an estimated 35,000 inhabitants. The countries of Colombia, Peru and Brazil border each other at this geographical point of the Amazon River. The last twenty minutes before landing in Leticia were exhilarating. All I could see was a green carpet of trees that seemed to go on forever. I was filled with optimism after seeing that the jungle, as far as I could see, was all there. Gradually I began to see patches of clearings and trails of smoke in the distance. I was now nearing Leticia. I would soon find out that under this seemingly endless canopy of trees there is a relentless and destructive army busy at work.

I did not expect to arrive at such a large city. Leticia, together with its neighboring Brazilian city of Tabatinga and Peruvian city of Santa Rosa, make up a population estimating 100,000. Nevertheless, I could hardly contain my excitement. I was ready to move on from the city and begin my incursions into the jungle to admire in astonishment the beautiful wildlife that I had read about in books for so long.

Port at Leticia

Trash litters the river bank

As soon as I arrived, I was on my way down the Amazon River on a motorized canoe that would take me into the Brazilian side of the Amazon to a jungle reserve that would be my home for the next few days. I intentionally avoided the nearby neatly-pruned tourist sites for the more remote camps.

Despite a eight hour canoe ride into the Brazilian jungle, a five-day stay, and arduous night and day trekking in the jungle, I did not encounter any monkeys, Macaws, Toucans, snakes, turtles or mammals. I began to realize that the green canopy of trees I saw from the airplane was not much more than a skeleton of a once grandiose place.

Much of what I had been seeing since my arrival was starting to fit together to form a bigger picture: Large numbers of people, logging, sprawling settlements, farms, cattle, fishing, hunting, missionaries building camps and churches wherever possible. It was alarming and saddening.

Ubiquitous lumber yards along the river

Regretfully this area of the Amazon basin is very exploited. Sure, the river is there, and small growth trees are there, but the animals, the large old growth trees and primary forests have long been gone from here. Little regulation, no government oversight, no forest rangers; just, hunt, fish, and cut at will.

One of many towns along the river

Settlement that had already deforested large surrounding area

Barges loaded with exotic woods

More startling are the lamentable responses I heard from people living there and others including, to my consternation, members of my own family when I tried to enlighten them to the severity of the situation.

The main responses I got were of an adverse nature:

"You cut your forests, why can't we? Don't tell us what to do!", "The animals are hiding further in the jungle", "The jungle is too big, it could never get all cut down".

Indifferent they refuse to conjecture that, "further in" is another settlement exploiting the forest the same way.

It seems that unless we control our insatiable consumption of beef, exotic animals and exotic woods originating from the region little can be done to slow this down. Often brought to my attention was that much of the destruction is solely for sustenance. But as one of my guides told me, she has often seen indigenous people trading turtles and turtle eggs, presently on the brink of extinction, for items like Coca-Cola and Cheetos. Soft drinks are a phenomenon here and the bottles litter the landscape wherever one goes.

The indigenous communities play a part as well. Many indigenous communities have long been "civilized" by missionaries and the local governments; today they are dependant on a system of money and taking more than what is needed for trade and export. On one of my excursions into the jungle I came across two members of a nearby indigenous tribe. They carried a bag with them which they opened to show me. What I did not realize was that this would be the only wild creature that I would see on my week-long trip. It was a bloody opossum or large rat they had killed for their lunch. They told me "everything is food" as they continued on their way.

Christian missionaries who have the unique opportunity to quell some of this destruction appear to be indifferent to this dire situation. They contribute to the problem by clearing land to build camps and churches in the most remote of indigenous sanctuaries, and appear to be unwilling to initiate an agenda that would promote the conservation of the jungle and the animals that live in it.

The problem is much too large and urgent and grassroots efforts have often resulted in tragedy. This is clear by what happened to Chico Mendes in 1988 (Click for details) and Sister Dorothy Stang in 2005. (Click for details)

Action needs to be immediate or the Amazon will be reduced to fragments in the very near future. While unrealistic to expect, one solution is to make key areas of the Amazon Rainforest inaccessible for human settlement and for a coalition of progressive governments to come together and protect the forest and relocate all the people living there. Dramatic as this may sound, it is no guarantee that the jungle could ever heal itself as many species have long vanished or been hunted to extinction.

In the meantime, we can do our part by not purchasing exotic fish, birds, snakes, and turtles that are often exported from these sensitive areas of the world, and halt the purchase of beef and exotic woods from the region, including wood for musical instruments. As musicians and dealers, requiring CITES for instruments made with exotic woods must be standard procedure.

On my last day, disheartened by what was clear to me to be the irreversible fate that awaits the Amazon jungle, I received one last blow when I learned that one of my own personal guides had alone sold over two thousand monkeys to the labs of the pathologist Manuel Elkin Patarroyo, for experiments on a vaccine for malaria.

It is truly shameful and distressing to witness when a preventable and unnecessary catastrophe takes place. This is that time for the Amazon Rainforest.

Chico Mendes: "At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees,
then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest.
Now I realize I am fighting for humanity."

If you would like to comment on this article, please e-mail me at sales@lacg.net

Further viewing:

Greenpeace you tube video about Amazon Click to view

BBC news video Click to view

Amazon cattle problem Click to view

More insight into the Amazon problem Click to view