Amazon Rainforest: Indigenous groups change ways to save forest

Gareno (Ecuador) (AFP) – The the indigenous peoples of the Amazon are far removed from the Paris conference rooms where politicians and technocrats in dark suits hashed out a historic deal on curbing climate change to close out the year.

But they are taking bold action of a different kind to save the rich biodiversity of the planet’s largest rainforest, whose survival is essential to limit global warming.

In Ecuador, one tribe has swapped hunting for growing cocoa. Another in Brazil has started managing its fish stocks. And one in Peru set up an indigenous local government to protect its environment from oil, mining and logging companies.

The Waorani barely seem to notice the stifling tropical heat in Gareno, a hamlet of wooden huts in the middle of the Ecuadoran jungle. Read Article