Adventure in the Amazon

<<silently>><<set $startrek = $startrek + 1>><<set $biggovernment = $biggovernment + 1>><<endsilently>><html><div align="center"><img src="tree-in-village.jpg" alt="a tree in a village"></div></html>Lakeram tells you about the company as you travel - but by the time you arrive it's getting dark, and you head straight to the ecolodge.\n\nIn the morning, walking around the area and looking at all the pamphlets and brochures and signs in the ecolodge, you're not sure how much you really learn about the oil exploration, but you have some nice chats before you get [[back on the boat|back1]] - people tell you about farming, fishing, hunting, even local handicrafts.

You have a couple of days to get ready - you'll need food, gasoline for the boat - and then you'll be leaving from Kwatamang Landing [[just before sunrise]].\n\nMaybe it's lucky that the yelping wakes you up at 4:30, after all. What even could make a noise like that?\n\n"Howler monkeys," Lakeram says, and shrugs. "That’s our local alarm bell."\n\n<html><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="432" height="264" data="http://podcast-api.open.ac.uk/play/jm8BrrgRVleHsSfPGRVQzw" id="oupod:jm8BrrgRVleHsSfPGRVQzw">\n <param name="movie" value="http://podcast-api.open.ac.uk/play/jm8BrrgRVleHsSfPGRVQzw"/>\n <param value="true" name="allowfullscreen"/>\n <param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"/>\n <param value="high" name="quality"/>\n <param value="false" name="cachebusting"/>\n <param value="#000000" name="bgcolor"/>\n</object></html>

<<silently>><<$ecotopia = $ecotopia + 1>><<endsilently>>Bernie blinks and then walks away, with nothing more to say.\n\n"Don't feel bad," Lakeram says. "You’ve done well not to encourage this kind of stuff, it’s only brought our communities misery." But you see so much gold being bought and sold back home - does gold mining really bring so much destruction?\n\nYou feel confused as you head away to get [[onto the boat again]]. Maybe Lake's right. Maybe he isn't.

<html><div align="center"><img src="fire-medium.jpg" alt="a fire"></div></html>\nThe boat moves on, and on. You drift to sleep, then open your eyes to the sense that something's wrong.\n\nYou've grown accustomed to lots of different sounds and smells over the last couple of weeks, but as you look out one more time onto the water, you feel like something's different.\n\n"What's going on?" you ask.\n\n"A fire," Lakeram says. And he's right: you look into the forest and across the water and there's smoke.\n\n"It's okay," he adds, "it's miles away. But we should [[get a move on]]."\n

"Is this really a good thing?" you ask him. \n\n"Yeah," he says, and looks surprised. "They're doing good work. People get to talk to each other, find out what's going on. Plus it's a way for everyone here to talk about what's going on in the rainforest and make sure the rest of the world hears it, you know?"\n\nHuh. "That sounds [[great]]," you can say. "I'd love to help." you can say. Or "[[I don't know|Are you sure]], I think we should just keep going."

<<if $madmax gt $ecotopia and $madmax gt $startrek>><html><div align="center"><img src="smoldering-forest.jpg" alt="a black-and-white picture of a desolate forest after a fire"></div></html>\nFlash forward to 2050, and things don't look pretty. Bringing in alcohol to indigenous communities, funding the oil exploration industry through gas guzzling non-essential travel using aeroplanes and boats, supporting the destructive timber trade by buying cheap, unsustainable products from countries that do not have strong environmental regulations, and encouraging indigenous communities to participate in illegal and toxic gold mining within their own territories has taken its toll.\n\nAs a result of the overexploitation of natural resources in the Amazon, and the world as a whole, the region has gone past its tipping point. The fish - the fish the indigenous communities depended on for their sustenance - ran out first; then, the droughts and forest fires came more often. The rivers dried up.\n\nNow, the rainforest has been replaced by scrubby savanna. Most of the people from the indigenous community have moved to the growing slums of Georgetown, but life there is hell - disease is rife, law and order has broken down, and people are struggling to feed themselves and their families.\n\nA few people remain, in among the scrub and the dry riverbeds. Life here isn't much better. There are no visitors like you, not any more: like you, they came, and made their decisions, and went away. And this is what they left behind.\n\nOf course, if everyone had made different choices, things might have ended differently...\n[[Alternative Scenario A|star trek]] \n[[Alternative Scenario B|ecotopia]]\n\n<html><a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/expert-insight-amazonian-challenges-and-policy-responses">Visit OpenLearn</a></html> to read more about Amazonian challenges and policy responses.\n\n[[THE END]]<<else if $startrek gt $ecotopia and $startrek gt $madmax>><html><div align="center"><img src="star-trek.jpg" alt="a woman stocks a shop"></div></html>\nIntroducing non-indigenous lifestyles (such as travelling with vacuum packed foods rather than relying on local produce), building capacity to use computers, encouraging the adoption of western business models (such as commerce in gold and timber), and introducing resource intensive healthcare systems, are all decisions which encourage the contraptions of globalisation to take hold within indigenous communities. Just like in our societies, there are many advantages, and you can’t blame indigenous communities for aspiring to similar lifestyles, but there is also a lot to lose…\n\nFlash forward to 2050, and at first glance it's difficult to distinguish the North Rupununi from any other place: everybody's bought into the global cash economy and Walmart has just opened a megastore in Annai. Not many people think of themselves as Amerindian any more, though a few locals put on fake traditional acts for the tourists who flock to the area for the sports fishing (the majority of fish are grown in artificial tanks, and then released into the waterbodies just before the fishing season opens). \n\nA lot of species have gone extinct, many of them unable to cope with the new geo-engineering experiments used to 'control' climate change, but others have survived, albeit in genetically modified form. The mountains are green, but you wouldn't recognise all the sounds. \n\nAt least all the biodiversity has been saved! Every single species is now stored in a genetic bank deep in Antarctica.\n\nOf course, if everyone had made different choices, things might have ended differently...\n[[Alternative Scenario A|mad max]] \n[[Alternative Scenario B|ecotopia]]\n\n<html><a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/expert-insight-amazonian-challenges-and-policy-responses">Visit OpenLearn</a></html> to read more about Amazonian challenges and policy responses.\n\n[[THE END]]\n<<else>><html><div align="center"><img src="ecotopia.jpg" alt="a distant hut on a cheerful plain"></div></html>\nIt hasn’t been easy making decisions which encourage local traditions and lifestyles: showing that you’re keen to engage with indigenous jungle survival techniques; refusing to encourage a money-based economy by not handing over money for gold and timber. But carefully choosing how your finances are used by supporting ecotourism and indigenous cultural activities has encouraged the maintenance of a fragile status quo…\n\nFlash forward to 2050, and life is still a struggle in the North Rupununi - traditional livelihoods are hard work. Technological innovation was never able to deliver the promised miraculous future – whenever one issue was resolved through a technological fix, unintended consequences made things even more complicated. But with the exchange of information with other communities across the world, some low-tech, community driven solutions are being implemented to make things a little easier.\n\nSome local community members, now with more access to information about other communities in similar circumstances and the world outside the rainforest, appreciate the uniqueness of their situation and their tight relationship with their environment; they feel more confident to defend their community and environment from encroachment by the outside world, especially corporations and governments, but are able to engage with new visitors and ideas on their own terms. Life is not easy and it never will be – a lot of people just continue, much as they have for thousands of years, doing their best in difficult circumstances.\n\nOf course, if everyone had made different choices, things might have ended differently...\n[[Alternative Scenario A|star trek]] \n[[Alternative Scenario B|mad max]]\n\n<html><a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/expert-insight-amazonian-challenges-and-policy-responses">Visit OpenLearn</a></html> to read more about Amazonian challenges and policy responses.\n\n[[THE END]]<<endif>>

<<silently>>\n<<set $madmax = 0>>\n<<set $startrek = 0>>\n<<set $ecotopia = 0>>\n<<set $book = 0>>\n<<set $whisky = 0>>\n<<set $food = 0>>\n<<endsilently>><html><div align="center"><img src="amazon-view.jpg" alt="the Amazon river viewed from above"></div></html>"Adventure in the Amazon" is a choose-your-own-adventure story that explores the key challenges that are facing the North Rupununi region in the Amazon, and possible solutions to a sustainable future of the rainforest. If you are interested in this subject, you may wish to have a look at the <html><a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/qualifications/q19">courses</a></html> we have on offer.\n\nThe game takes around 10 to 20 minutes to complete. As you navigate through the North Rupununi, the game will build up an idea of how your decisions would have an impact on the future of the rainforest, and at the end of the game you'll see a future scenario of the rainforest based on your decisions.\n\n[[Begin the game|Gamestart]]\n[[How to play]]\n\n//The Open University is currently participating in Project COBRA, a research project which empowers local indigenous communities in the North Rupununi to promote their own community solutions to current and emerging challenges. Our aim is to promote local indigenous solutions to current and emerging challenges through the use of accessible information and communication technologies. Visit <html><a href="http://projectcobra.org">Project COBRA</a></html> to see how you can help support this initiative.//

You travel for eight hours, into the night, out of the smoke and ash and then on more. When you make camp, on the top of a small hill, you can see the fire burning through the forest far away.\n\nYou watch.\n\nAnd [[think|next page]].

<html><div align="center"><img src="boat-travel.jpg" alt="the boat moving along the river"></div></html>\n<<if visited ("The boat trip.") lt 2>>The boat moves through the water; you look down into the river, and around you, and down again.<<else>>You're back on the boat, looking around you, paying attention to the smell and the heat and the sweat and the movement of the river.<<endif>> \n\n<<if not visited ("oil exploration")>>Downstream Lakeram has told you about the explorations into the oil potential of the area: that could be worth having a [[look at|oil exploration]].<<endif>> <<if not visited ("logging")>> Further downstream there's a logging project going on not too far away: you could visit and see what's going on [[there|logging]].<<endif>><<if not visited ("gold mines")>> Upstream there are gold mines - you've heard about them but you could go and [[see them in person|gold mines]].<<endif>><<if visited ("The boat trip") gt 3>>It's time to leave. But as you pack up, you see a woman unpacking a computer, unfolding solar panels. Weird. You could stop and [[have a chat|VSO volunteer]].<<endif>>\n<<if visited ("The boat trip") gt 1>>Or you could [[just head back now|leave]], get out of the rainforest - maybe you've seen enough.<<endif>>

<<silently>><<set $madmax = $madmax+1>><<set whisky = 1>><<endsilently>>You set the food and the book aside - maybe someone here will be able to use them - and cram your bottle back into the bag.\n\nIf nothing else, a few swigs could help distract you from worrying about whether your [[tiny plane]] is going to make it - and the fact that there's no toilet on board...

<<silently>><<$startrek = $startrek + 1>><<endsilently>><<endsilently>>You'll buy plastic furniture, or something - you're not exactly sure how that's made, but there must be alternatives.\n\nAnd even if there aren't, it'll be fine. You can sit on the grass, you think, as you get [[back onto the boat|travel on]].

You couldn't find a whole book on the area you're visiting: just a page or two in a much larger guide. \n\n//The North Rupununi wetlands are situated in the southern interior of Guyana,// you read again, //comparable in area to the south-east of England. The wetlands contain some of the highest diversity of animal and plant species in the world.//\n\nAnd you'll be following in the steps of Sir Walter Raleigh and David Attenborough, you read, and other visitors who recognised the North Rupununi wetlands as a special place for [[people and wildlife]].\n\n

<<silently>><<$ecotopia = $ecotopia + 1>><<endsilently>><<endsilently>><html><div align="center"><img src="boat-distance.jpg" alt="a boat surrounded by trees"></div></html>You choose the design you're after from amongst the pictures; the man behind the counter, grins enthusiastically and runs you through the options.\n\nYou look at the trees around you as you [[travel on]], back in the boat. Astonishing to think that it's trees just like them that will be used in the furniture.

<<silently>><<set $startrek = $startrek+1>><<set $biggovernment = $biggovernment+1>><<set $food = 1>><<endsilently>>You set the book and the whisky aside and cram your rations back into the bag.\n\nTry not to worry whether you made the right choice. You've got plenty of other things to worry about: not least, the fact that there's no toilet on your [[tiny plane]]...

<<silently>><<$madmax = $madmax + 1>><<$biggovernment = $biggovernment + 1>><<endsilently>><<endsilently>><html><div align="center"><img src="boat-distance.jpg" alt="a boat surrounded by trees"></div></html>\nYou'll save money and avoid the hassle of having the furniture shipped back home - and there's a wider range of options available there, too. It all comes from the same forest, after all.\n\nYou look at the trees around you as you [[travel on]], back in the boat. Astonishing to think that it's trees just like them that will be used in the furniture.

<<silently>><<$startrek = $startrek + 1>><<endsilently>><html><div align="center"><img src="clinic.jpg" alt="a child lies on a bed in a health clinic"></div></html>\nThe decision's difficult, but you can't stop thinking about people dying from illnesses that nobody at home has to care about. You resolve to go to the health clinic on your way out of the rainforest, and donate the money you've got left. It's going to be the last thing you do in the rainforest.\n\nOf course, it's going to carry on without you - changing, growing, filled with all the sounds and smells and textures that you're almost used to, now.\n\nWho knows what lies in its [[future]]?

<html><div align="center"><img src="beach.jpg" alt="the banks of a river"></div></html>\nYou get to Kwatamang Landing. It’s the dry season so the sand banks are exposed and it looks like a tropical beach. Then a bite snaps you out of your contemplation - the sand flies are out in force.\n\nTime to jump onto the boat and [[head off|The boat trip]].

Back on the boat again, you scratch at a raised bump on your arm. You're used to itching and flies now, and you mostly try not to scratch, but it's been annoying you for a day or two.\n\nLakeram glances down at your scratching fingers, and then looks more closely.\n\n"Wait a moment," he says. "Let me..," and he looks more closely. "Ah. We'll have to do something about that."\n\n"[[What is it|what is it]]?"\t

<html><div align="center"><img src="man-and-child.jpg" alt="a man and a woman look out of the door of a small house"></div></html>\n//The Makushi people have made this region their home for hundreds of years//, you read, //and it’s also home to several endangered giants including the giant river otter, black caiman (a crocodilian that can reach up to 6 metres in size), the jaguar, harpy eagle and giant river turtle.//\n\nThere's one more paragraph. You [[read it again]].\n

<html><div align="center"><img src="village.jpg" alt="a small office-style building"></div></html>\nAnd in the offices there's a man who's lived in the forest his whole life, telling you about the logging process and the wood it creates, showing you pictures of the furniture they make. It's beautiful. There's even a hardwood garden set just like you've been looking for.\n\nYou could [[order it here]] and have it shipped home, the man says, explaining the features. Of course, you know you could [[buy it cheaper]] once you're back, using wood from one of the Chinese companies; or maybe you [[don't have the heart]] for the furniture at all, now, not after seeing where it comes from.

The plane burrs through the air and you sleep, on and off, waking up properly to put your seatbelt on and then once more when you hit the ground.\n\n[[Touchdown.|Touchdown]]

<<set $ecotopia = $ecotopia+1>><<set $book = 1>>You set the food and the whisky aside and cram your book back into the bag.\n\nMaybe you can brush up on your survival skills on the journey - if nothing else, it could help distract you from worrying about the fact that there's no toilet on your [[tiny plane]].

<html><div align="center"><img src="trees-cut.jpg" alt="several trees sliced vertically"></div></html>\nHe's brought you to a company run by one of the local communities that he knows. You get to step out onto the edge of a vast expanse of dirt and tiny plants, spreading out in front of you in a ragged circle. It's the most space you've seen at once since you came to the rainforest. It's remarkable. And hard to forget even when you've left and gone back into the forest: all this could turn into //all that//, so easily.\n\n"It's managed by the local community," Lakeram tells you, leading you away to the [[nearby offices]]. "They get much more control over it this way than when it's a foreign company."\n\n

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<<silently>><<$ecotopia = $ecotopia + 1>><<$madmax = $madmax + 1>><<endsilently>>Lakeram shrugs, and says it's up to you. "Not everyone thinks it's a good idea," he says. "They're worried about changes in cultural values, or government surveillance. So you're not the only one."\n\nThe volunteer isn't so happy, frowning at you and snapping the laptop shut - well, if that's the way she's going to react, maybe better that you didn't stick around.\n\nTime to move on: back [[on the boat|back on the boat]], and away from here.

Adventure in the Amazon

<html><div align="center"><img src="mosquito-worm.jpg" alt="a slightly alarming maggot"></div></html>"Just a little mosquito worm!"\n\nAfter Lake’s description you realize you have a botfly maggot in your arm. A fly that lays its eggs on mosquitos which go on to inject the egg into your flesh when they bite. “I’ll go off into the forest to collect a few medicinal leaves to kill it off. When it’s dead we’ll squeeze it out... otherwise you’ll have it grow on you for the next month until it hatches."\n\nIt's going to be fine, though. You caught it in plenty of time. Just [[carry on|The boat trip]].\n

<<silently>><<set $biggovernment = $biggovernment + 1>><<endsilently>>As it gets darker, the distant flames are [[brighter|next page]] against the sky.

<html><div align="center"><img src="caiman-close.jpg" alt="the caiman gets nearer"></div></html>\nOh. Right.\n\nWell, you did read about the black caiman before you came here, so in a way you've got nobody to blame but yourself.\n\n"What..." you say, gesturing at the water. "What should I do?"\n\nLakeram looks over at you, bemused. "You just [[keep going|The boat trip]]. And don’t dangle your hand over the side of the boat like that."\n\nYou bring your hand back into the boat sheepishly.\n\nWell, he's the expert. And, sure enough, after another few minutes, the massive caiman gets distracted by something more edible and disappears.

<html><div align="center"><img src="hammock.jpg" alt="a man sitting in a hammock"></div></html>\nYou're still figuring out what you're going to do here, but the first thing you've got to do is find Lakeram Haynes. Lakeram is Makushi and a local community leader to boot. He’s been working with researchers and tourists and development workers and he’s supposed to be guiding you around the area. You've arranged to meet him for [[lunch]].\n

Find out more about the <html><a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/qualifications/q19">courses on offer at The Open University</a></html>, or about <html><a href="http://projectcobra.org">Project COBRA</a></html>. If you're interested in the challenges facing the Amazon, you can also read about the issues <html><a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/expert-insight-amazonian-challenges-and-policy-responses">here</a></html>.\n\n\n//All images in this story provided by Andrea Borgarello under Creative Commons license except:\nBirds-eye view of Amazon: © Cosmopol from <html><a href="http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-amazon-river-aerial-view-as-meanders-rainforest-brazilan-columbian-border-image34341483">Dreamstime</a></html>\nBot fly maggot: provided by Samantha James with permission\nHowler monkey howling: © Sekarb from <html><a href="http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-howler-monkey-howling-image25634178">Dreamstime</a></html>\nPiranha: © <html><a href="http://www.wwtconsulting.co.uk/about-us/team-members/matthew-simpson/">Matthew Simpson</a></html>\nSmoldering forest: © Jerry Sanchez from <html><a href="http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-forest-fire-image25509469">Dreamstime</a></html>\n\nAudio:\nJungle night sound: Mikel RNieto from <html><a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/MikelRNieto/sounds/145202/">Freesound</a></html> under Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC 3.0)\nHowler monkey sound: RTB45 from <html><a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/RTB45/sounds/148422/">Freesound</a></html> under Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0)//\n

<html><div align="center"><img src="lots-of-sky.jpg" alt="a silhouetted building against the sky"></div></html>\nWell. That really is the end of the journey, then.\n\nIt's a strange, frightening end to a trip that's had some strange, scary moments - and some amazing moments as well. You think back to the people you've met, the things you've seen - and how distant home now seems and how long ago and far away it feels. You remember packing and wondering what the rainforest would be like, and it’s as if you were a different person.\n\nBut here you are.\n\nYou've got some money left from the trip, you think; you should figure out [[what to do with it]].\n

As you move through the story, you'll encounter different choices to make, indicated by a blue link Every time you click on one, it will lead to a [[new page]], so consider your options and make your decision.

<html><div align="center"><img src="plane-window.jpg" alt="a woman looks out of an aeroplane window"></div></html>\nYou've been on the plane for what seems like a long time now - but you've still got hours to go before you land. And that's when the journey really gets complicated.\n\nEven after all the days spent stocking up on vaccinations and pills and mosquito nets and water purifiers and everything else you might need, the journey is really just beginning.\n\n[[Besides, it's too late to turn back now|Still, at least you're on your way]].

<html><div align="center"><img src="fire-dark.jpg" alt="the forest is on fire and it is dark"></div></html>\nThe forest is no longer full of yelps and hoots and panicked cries; it's almost back to normal. But as you make your way up the hill to your camping spot, and look back behind you, you can see billowing smoke in the distance, and occasional flickering orange of the flames that are still burning. \n\n"What happened?", you [[ask]].

"Hey," she says, and smiles widely. She's with Volunteer Force Worldwide, she explains, and she's here to "help the local indigenous community to go from the Stone Age to the Cyber Age".\n\nRight. "What does that mean, exactly?"\n\nShe gestures at the laptop. "Just trying this out for now, testing that it's all working okay," she says, "but I'll be teaching people how to get online. How to connect with the rest of the world. It's such an amazing opportunity." Then she tilts her head to one side. "I'd love for you to help out," she says. "I've only just got here, and anyone who knows their way around a bit more could really help me get started."\n\n"That sounds [[great]]", you can say. Or "[[Are you sure]] that's a good idea?"\n\nOr maybe you want to see what [[Lake]] thinks?\n

<html><div align="center"><img src="oil.jpg" alt="a series of sheds in the distance"></div></html>\nA foreign oil exploration company has been given a licence to explore for oil in the wetlands. Lakeram tells you about them as you travel - but by the time you arrive it's getting dark. You're going to need to find somewhere to sleep.\n\nYou can either keep going [[up the river|rainforest]], seeing the area the explorations are taking place in, maybe getting to look at caimans, jaguars, river otters and who knows what else. It'll take more fuel, and a bit more of your budget.\n\nAlternatively you can just stay in an [[ecolodge|eco-lodge]] at Rewa village and explore around the village. You probably won’t get to see as many animals but there'll be plenty of people around.\n\n

<html><div align="center"><img src="caiman-dish.jpg" alt="a plate of food with a caiman head"></div></html>\nYou settle down to a plate full of rice, beans and... speckled caiman. If you can’t hunt, fish, gather or farm fresh food for yourself here, then you don’t really have much choice on what you get given for dinner. Maybe you can barter for a fresh papaya tomorrow and give the caiman a miss.\n\nStill, you get on well with Lakeram. And when he takes you down to the river to see his boat, it's... not luxurious, but hey: it looks like it’s in better shape than the plane and might [[not sink|not going to sink]].\n

<html><div align="center"><img src="fire-distant.jpg" alt="the fire among distant trees"></div></html>\nThe smoke thickens as you travel, and ash falls from the air. You try not to panic - but it's hard not to think about all the places you've been and the people you've seen. There are flakes of ash falling from the air, just occasionally. \n\n"Is it going to be all right?" you ask Lake, but he doesn't answer.\n\nThe [[boat moves on]].\n

Sometimes you'll have a couple of choices to pick from on a page. Sometimes you'll only have one path forward.\n\nOn this page you have two - you can either return to the [[how to play|How to play]] page, or you can [[begin the game|Gamestart]].

<<silently>><<set $startrek = $startrek + 1>><<endsilently>>As it gets darker, the distant flames are [[brighter|next page]] against the sky.

created for <html><a href=" http://www.open.edu/openlearn/">The Open University</html>

Lakeram shrugs. "Who knows? This kind of thing happens sometimes." \n\nMaybe it's just that; maybe it's [[natural]]. Nothing to worry about. These things happen. You'll get home and tell the story of your journey to your friends, and then talk about the fire, and say: //this kind of thing happens sometimes//.\n\nOr maybe it's not. Maybe our energy intensive, fossil-fuel-burning lifestyle has something to do with it, and we should [[live differently]], or [[lobby governments]] to impose emission targets and penalties.\n\nOr maybe it's [[too late]] to deal with it naturally, and our only hope is to find a technological solution.\n\n"What do you think?", you ask Lake, and he shrugs again.

<<silently>><<set $madmax = $madmax + 1>><<endsilently>>As it gets darker, the distant flames are [[brighter|next page]] against the sky.

<html><div align="center"><img src="star-trek.jpg" alt="a woman stocks a shop"></div></html>\nIntroducing non-indigenous lifestyles (such as travelling with vacuum packed foods rather than relying on local produce), building capacity to use computers, encouraging the adoption of western business models (such as commerce in gold and timber), and introducing resource intensive healthcare systems, are all decisions which encourage the contraptions of globalisation to take hold within indigenous communities. Just like in our societies, there are many advantages, and you can’t blame indigenous communities for aspiring to similar lifestyles, but there is also a lot to lose…\n\nFlash forward to 2050, and at first glance it's difficult to distinguish the North Rupununi from any other place: everybody's bought into the global cash economy and Walmart has just opened a megastore in Annai. Not many people think of themselves as Amerindian any more, though a few locals put on fake traditional acts for the tourists who flock to the area for the sports fishing (the majority of fish are grown in artificial tanks, and then released into the waterbodies just before the fishing season opens). \n\nA lot of species have gone extinct, many of them unable to cope with the new geo-engineering experiments used to 'control' climate change, but others have survived, albeit in genetically modified form. The mountains are green, but you wouldn't recognise all the sounds. \n\nAt least all the biodiversity has been saved! Every single species is now stored in a genetic bank deep in Antarctica.\n\nOf course, if everyone had made different choices, things might have ended differently...\n[[Alternative Scenario A|mad max]] \n[[Alternative Scenario B|ecotopia]]\n\n<html><a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/expert-insight-amazonian-challenges-and-policy-responses">Visit OpenLearn</a></html> to read more about Amazonian challenges and policy responses.\n\n[[THE END]]

<html><div align="center"><img src="woman-farming.jpg" alt="a woman drags a collection of plants along the ground"></div></html>\n//The traditional Makushi way of life has kept this region’s biological and cultural diversity intact, but more recently, development has brought positive change as well as challenges for even the most remote communities. Economic development, timber and mineral extraction, and global phenomena such as climate change are threatening the Makushi way of life and environment.//\n\nAnd that's it. It's not all you know, of course; you've spoken to people who've been there, you've watched videos, you've read different passages in different books. But it's still hard to believe you're almost there.\n\n[[Touchdown.|Touchdown]]

Of course, you're not allowed to see a real gold mine, or even to get too close to the sites... far too dangerous with all those guns, liquid mercury and malarial mosquitoes. Instead, you talk to locals and piece together what you can from their stories.\n\nA lot of young Amerindian men end up going to work in gold mines as "port knockers" or casual workers. Lakeram frowns - he doesn't like it, he says. It's bad for your health, the fish and the environment.\n\nOn the way to the mine you bump into Bernie, who’s on his way home from the gold bush. He explains it's fast money in a place where jobs are hard to find. He could get you a gold nugget for a fraction of the price you'd pay back home. "It's worth more," he says, "but it's a good deal and I need the money now."\n\nYou could [[help him out|buying cheap gold]], and get a bargain for yourself. Or you could get gold that's been [[certified Fairtrade|buying fairtrade gold]] while you're here, for a bit more but still cheaper than back home. Unless you want to [[swear off gold for good|never buying gold again]], of course.

<<silently>><<$startrek = $startrek + 1>><<$biggovernment = $biggovernment + 1>><<endsilently>>\n\n"Brilliant," the volunteer says, and starts explaining the equipment to you - it's simple to use, and sturdy, and works even in this astonishing heat. It's going to let people stay in touch with each other, and find out what's going on elsewhere, and talk to the outside world. You can see why Lakeram thought it was a good idea.\n\nThe next day, as you teach community members to use it, they're not all so taken with it; one woman asks whether the government will be able to use the equipment to watch them, and a man tells you his brother warned him about pornography, and to keep his children away from the computer. But others are excited, especially a teenage girl who talks about wanting to tell people outside the forest about her life; as you watch her face, and explain how the machine works, you feel like you've really accomplished something.\n\nAnd when you get [[back on the boat]], she waves to you from the side of the river as you sail away.

<html><div align="center"><img src="woodcutter.jpg" alt="a man with chainsaw stands over fallen logs"></div></html>\n\nThere are logging sites throughout the area, and a lot of different companies operating them: some are Malaysian, some Chinese, and some are local indigenous communities.\n\nLakeram pulls into the side of the river and starts pointing out different trees, explaining which types of wood are used for different things and [[leading you along the path]].

There's the local health clinic - a lot of people here die from issues that don't even exist back home. They'd be able to use the money to keep their generator running for a few months. There's no electricity network here, so a generator is to run the fridge, and stop the medicines and vaccinations from spoiling; even to keep the lights on so that the nurses can see what they are doing during emergencies at night.\n\nThere's the local cultural group - you could help them pass on their knowledge to the next generation. A donation could help pay for transportation costs for young people to come to workshops and learn about traditional culture and practices.\n\nIt's all so complicated, this web of intertwined people and plants and places. You watch the fire in the distance, and the stars above it. Maybe you should just spend all the money back at the Oasis Cafe on the biggest party you've ever thrown. \n\nMaybe you shouldn't even have come here, maybe the emissions from your flight will do more harm than you can do good. It's so hard to work out what's ethical - you might as well at least do something that you know is going to be //fun//.\n\nWell, it's your money - it's up to you. The [[health clinic]], the [[local cultural group]], or just one [[big party|throw a party]]?

<html><div align="center"><img src="tiny-plane.jpg" alt="a very small plane sits on a runway"></div></html>\nIt's such a tiny plane that it looks barely airworthy - a rickety six-seater, the only way to go on.\n\nA man in a blue shirt hefts your bag onto a scale, then opens it. "You can't take all this," he says. You packed a ten-pound bag, assuming that would be close enough to the nine-pound limit, but no: you'll need to throw something out.\n\nYou've got a few heavy things: a [[book]] on jungle survival techniques, some [[vacuum-packed rations]], a [[bottle of whisky]] (it seemed like a good idea at the time). You can probably take one of them.

<html><div align="center"><img src="sunlight.jpg" alt="lens flare and a forest"></div></html>\nYou've begun to recognise different types of plant, now. When you arrived the rainforest was one vast mass, but it's as if your eyes have started adjusting to a different range of colours. You know the different sounds - you don't always know what they //are//, but you've heard them before, you can make connections between them. //This happens at dusk. This happens in the night.//\n\nYou know the changing texture of the ground under your feet.\n\nYou know what everything smells like.\n\nAnd this means you notice quickly when something goes wrong - though not as quickly as Lakeram who, you realise, is moving the boat faster through the water than he ever has before. What's going on? A dense smell, so many sounds at once, something wrong with the quality of the light...\n\n...and [[smoke]].

<html><div align="center"><img src="landscape.jpg" alt="a view of the landscape below the plane"></div></html>\nAfter flying more than an hour over thick rain forest, you burst through the clouds and see open grasslands surrounded by mountains – finally, the Rupununi savanna!\n\nWith a bump and a puff of dust you land.\n\nYou disembark and look around the dusty airstrip. You're here. Annai.\n\nThere's the Oasis cafe, with wooden tables and two bright hammocks on the porch. There are houses and vegetable plots - you ask a woman tending them what she's growing, and she tells you about the cassava and the different foods she makes from it. There are thick astonishing trees, and such strange noises - which keep on when you eventually fall into a hammock at the Oasis Cafe, and try to sleep. Yelps, howls, and screetching wake you at 4:30. Strange noises you’ve never heard before. Or maybe it's just your own thoughts: it's all so strange and new to you.\n\n<html><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="432" height="264" data="http://podcast-api.open.ac.uk/play/0uQ0n5IYXiG42BZG2idfQA" id="oupod:0uQ0n5IYXiG42BZG2idfQA">\n <param name="movie" value="http://podcast-api.open.ac.uk/play/0uQ0n5IYXiG42BZG2idfQA"/>\n <param value="true" name="allowfullscreen"/>\n <param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"/>\n <param value="high" name="quality"/>\n <param value="false" name="cachebusting"/>\n <param value="#000000" name="bgcolor"/>\n</object></html>\n\nYou wait for the sun to [[rise|the decision point]].

<<silently>><<$madmax = $madmax + 1>><<endsilently>>You can tell Lakeram doesn't approve, but he doesn't say anything until Bernie has gone. Then he does: "You don't want to encourage this kind of stuff, it’s only brought our communities misery."\n\nBut you’re not the first person to buy up the gold cheap here, and you won’t be the last. Lakeram seems to have gotten over it by the time you get back to the [[boat|onto the boat again]].

<html><div align="center"><img src="ecotopia.jpg" alt="a distant hut on a cheerful plain"></div></html>\nIt hasn’t been easy making decisions which encourage local traditions and lifestyles: showing that you’re keen to engage with indigenous jungle survival techniques; refusing to encourage a money-based economy by not handing over money for gold and timber. But carefully choosing how your finances are used by supporting ecotourism and indigenous cultural activities has encouraged the maintenance of a fragile status quo…\n\nFlash forward to 2050, and life is still a struggle in the North Rupununi - traditional livelihoods are hard work. Technological innovation was never able to deliver the promised miraculous future – whenever one issue was resolved through a technological fix, unintended consequences made things even more complicated. But with the exchange of information with other communities across the world, some low-tech, community driven solutions are being implemented to make things a little easier.\n\nSome local community members, now with more access to information about other communities in similar circumstances and the world outside the rainforest, appreciate the uniqueness of their situation and their tight relationship with their environment; they feel more confident to defend their community and environment from encroachment by the outside world, especially corporations and governments, but are able to engage with new visitors and ideas on their own terms. Life is not easy and it never will be – a lot of people just continue, much as they have for thousands of years, doing their best in difficult circumstances.\n\nOf course, if everyone had made different choices, things might have ended differently...\n[[Alternative Scenario A|star trek]] \n[[Alternative Scenario B|mad max]]\n\n<html><a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/expert-insight-amazonian-challenges-and-policy-responses">Visit OpenLearn</a></html> to read more about Amazonian challenges and policy responses.\n\n[[THE END]]

<html><div align="center"><img src="cockpit.jpg" alt="the cockpit of a small plane"></div></html>\nThe journey is tumultuous, verging on terrifying. It doesn't help when one of your Brazilian travel companions - a lot more sanguine about his experience than you are - leans back and yells over the sound of the engine: "in Brazil we call these planes //flying coffins//, you know".\n\nRight.\n\n[[It's going to be okay.|It's going to be okay]]\n

<html><div align="center"><img src="caiman-splash.jpg" alt="a black caiman splashing into the river"></div></html>\nYou're feeling comfortable in the boat now, so it comes as a surprise when there's a sudden splash.\n\nWhen you look into the water, there's dark glossy motion underwater, welling up, reflective. For a moment you wonder whether something's gone wrong at the exploratory site behind you, sending oil spurting up through the river - and then you see [[the teeth]].

<html><div align="center"><img src="woman-wool.jpg" alt="a woman with wool on a stick"></div></html>\nThe decision's difficult, but you can't stop thinking that maybe it's not really yours to make. You don't live here; you should give the money to the people who do, make whatever small gesture you can to help them keep their traditional practices going. \n\nYou resolve to give the money to Lakeram to pass on to the workshops, to do what you can to help make sure that all the knowledge that the indigenous people have about the area continues into the next generation. It's going to be the last thing you do in the rainforest.\n\nOf course, the forest is going to carry on without you - changing, growing, filled with all the sounds and smells and textures that you're almost used to, now.\n\nWho knows what lies in its [[future]]?

Whatever happens, you won't be the only visitor - the rainforest will continue to be home to many, and a temporary home to more, to people like you, people who have to make the same sorts of decisions. Tourists, development workers, researchers, politicians, entrepeneurs, and the communities themselves. They'll be faced with the same sorts of problems you've addressed.\n\nIt's interesting to think about [[what would happen]] if they all made the same sorts of decisions as you...\n

<<silently>><<set $ecotopia = $ecotopia + 1>><<endsilently>>As it gets darker, the distant flames are [[brighter|next page]] against the sky.

<html><div align="center"><img src="fire-medium.jpg" alt="a fire in a dark forest"></div></html>\n"Fire," Lakeram explains tersely, and keeps the boat moving. "We need to get out of here."\n\nAlready the smoke is receding behind you, but the panicked sounds of the rainforest gets louder. Lakeram keeps the boat moving. It must be a few hours before he slows down. And more before he stops.\n\n"Here," he says, finally, and pulls the boat in to the side of the river. And he gestures upwards to where you can make out the rise of a small hill. "We'll go up [[here]]."

<<silently>><<set $ecotopia = $ecotopia+1>><<set $madmax = $madmax + 1>><<endsilently>>The forest is dense here, and full of animals that you heard but didn't see back in Annai. You get scratched up walking through dense foliage, and tired walking up and down hills, and you sleep badly, of course, but not as badly as your first couple of nights. You're beginning to get used to the sounds, and the heat, and the strange swing of hammocks.\n\nAnd you [[travel on|back1]].

<html><div align="center"><img src="tiny-plane.jpg" alt="a very small plane sits on a runway"></div></html>It's hot here, as you move from the small plane to the smaller twelve-seater that's going to take you on the next leg of the journey. \n\nA man in a blue shirt hefts your bag onto a scale, then opens it. "You can't take all this," he says. You packed a ten-pound bag, assuming that would be close enough to the nine-pound limit, but no: you'll need to throw something out.\n\nYou've got a few heavy things: a [[book]] on jungle survival techniques, some [[vacuum-packed rations]], a [[bottle of whisky]] (it seemed like a good idea at the time). You can probably take one of them.

Gatwick to Barbados, and now Barbados to Georgetown, and then once you get into Georgetown there's another leg still to come before you get to the wetlands.\n\nNinety minutes till you land, now. You could [[read up on the wetlands again|read up on the wetlands again, while you have the chance]], or you could [[nap]] - again, while you have the chance. The next plane is going to be a lot less comfortable than this one, so you'd better not depend on sleeping then.

<<silently>><<$biggovernment = $biggovernment + 1>><<silently>><<$startrek = $startrek + 1>><<endsilently>><<endsilently>>"Oh," Bernie says. "So you won't buy from me, you need me to dig up the gold and then you'll only buy it from someone else."\n\n"Don't worry," Lakeram says after he's left. "You don't want to encourage this kind of stuff, it’s only brought our communities misery."\n\nStill. Time to get [[onto the boat again]].

<<silently>><<$madmax = $madmax + 1>><<endsilently>>It's going to be great: you'll fill the cafe, buy all the food and all the drink, invite everyone in Annai, one last blowout before you leave. It's going to be the last thing you see of the rainforest.\n\nOf course, after you've left, the forest is going to carry on without you - changing, growing, filled with all the sounds and smells and textures that you're almost used to, now.\n\nWho knows what lies in its [[future]]?\n

<html><div align="center"><img src="fish.jpg" alt="several fish lie on a boat"></div></html>\nHalf an hour away, he stops the boat to fish. \n\n"What sort of fish are they?" you ask, looking at the water, quick sharp ripples flowing out from where the fish surface.\n\n"Piranha," Lakeram says. Oh. And when he hands you a fishing rod, it has a bloodied square of raw meat hanging from the hook.\n\nYou throw yours out tentatively, not really believing it's going to work - but it's only a few seconds before your rod bends and you pull up a ferocious looking fish with a jawful of razor sharp teeth.\n\nLakeram pulls it off the hook, then gives you a new piece of bait, but you're more nervous now that you've seen these predators close up, and as if they can sense you, the fish move away. Still, the one you got isn't a bad size, and later, when it’s roasted and eaten it tastes delicious.\n\nWhen the boat [[moves on|The boat trip]], and you look over the edge and once again see the sharp ripples in the water, you think about sharp teeth, wondering what else is down there.\n

<html><div align="center"><img src="smoldering-forest.jpg" alt="a black-and-white picture of a desolate forest after a fire"></div></html>\nFlash forward to 2050, and things don't look pretty. Bringing in alcohol to indigenous communities, funding the oil exploration industry through gas guzzling non-essential travel using aeroplanes and boats, supporting the destructive timber trade by buying cheap, unsustainable products from countries that do not have strong environmental regulations, and encouraging indigenous communities to participate in illegal and toxic gold mining within their own territories has taken its toll.\n\nAs a result of the overexploitation of natural resources in the Amazon, and the world as a whole, the region has gone past its tipping point. The fish - the fish the indigenous communities depended on for their sustenance - ran out first; then, the droughts and forest fires came more often. The rivers dried up.\n\nNow, the rainforest has been replaced by scrubby savanna. Most of the people from the indigenous community have moved to the growing slums of Georgetown, but life there is hell - disease is rife, law and order has broken down, and people are struggling to feed themselves and their families.\n\nA few people remain, in among the scrub and the dry riverbeds. Life here isn't much better. There are no visitors like you, not any more: like you, they came, and made their decisions, and went away. And this is what they left behind.\n\nOf course, if everyone had made different choices, things might have ended differently...\n[[Alternative Scenario A|star trek]] \n[[Alternative Scenario B|ecotopia]]\n\n<html><a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/expert-insight-amazonian-challenges-and-policy-responses">Visit OpenLearn</a></html> to read more about Amazonian challenges and policy responses.\n\n[[THE END]]