This rallied the support of regional and national authorities who would ordinarily pay no attention to an indigenous community group. We managed to get funding to pay the park guards who had gone three months without compensation. While it seemed a disaster at first, this experience has actually been completely rewarding. It is one of the cases in which I can say, can actually see in fact, forest that has been saved as a result of our effort. I am amazed and inspired by the indigenous people.
Native people have a special affinity with the earth.
Their traditional dependency on natural resources has given them desire to protect these same resources. They are fighting for land rights to maintain their way of life and to preserve the land everybody seems to want to destroy. I want to involve these people in developing strategies to protect native lands and maintaining cultural identity. It's not just about development, saving trees and species. It's about providing these people with forgotten information about their own heritage, and offering them new strategies for advancement.