Catherine Jacob Frontline

Catherine Jacob Frontline Blog

We arrived in the rainforest village of Tinkereni 3 days ago and since then, while the tribes people may have been fascinated by our cameras, we've been just as mesmerised by the way they live.

You often hear the Amazon being referred to as the 'Pharmacy of the World', but for the Ashaninka, it's not just medicines the forest provides; they depend on it for every aspect of their lives.

Local food may currently be fashionable in the UK, but for the Ashaninka tribe, it's been the norm for thousands of years.

Everywhere you turn, children are plucking fruit from trees, sorting through coffee, or sucking the pulp from cocoa beans to make chocolate. The men are hunting and fishing in the River Ene, while the women spend much of their day preparing a constant stream of fresh forest dishes.

We've discovered that everything tastes different here. The lemons are sweet, and taste more like oranges, the bananas are plump and pink, with some of them tasting salty. And they don't eat potatoes or bread. Instead, their main carbohydrate is manioc, a powdery root vegetable they have with every meal.

Perhaps what's most surprising about the Ashaninka diet is that they barely drink any water. Instead, they make huge, cooling vats of manioc beer. It's bright pink and smells distinctly malty. I can't say it's my cup of tea, but both adults and children here love it.

And that's the point about the Ashaninka, and so many tribes across the Amazon: they relish this simple way of life, living at one with nature, conserving the trees, and protecting their land for future generations. Sounds idyllic, doesn't it? But there's a shadow hanging over this Garden of Eden.

Companies are arriving, tempting the poor indigenous people with money in return for chopping down their trees.

The threats from oil and logging companies conflict violently with the tribe's existence. If the tribes succumb to the illegal loggers, and their land is fragmented, then how long can their paradisal lifestyle survive?

So many indigenous people across the Amazon are fighting a losing battle with big business. The choice: modernise or flee. The 2000 or so Ashaninka we've visited in the Cutivereni valley have had some welcome respite from their agreement with Cool Earth. Long may it last.

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