♪ >> hello and welcome to global 3000 your weekly check on the global issues that shape our world. today we try to walk in the footsteps of indigenous people's. that's the term commonly used for tribes and whole societies who have often become minorities on their own ancestral lands. we discover how indigenous groups in various locations around the world manage to resist the growing pressure to abandon their traditional way of life. here's what we have coming up. how the people of vanuatu are fighting against drowning in the climate sins of the industrial world. why protected areas fail to save the awa from being chased off their homeland and why thousands of tons of

grain are rotting away in a country where millions are starving the small island nation of vanu-atu in the south pacific is a very young state- just over 30 years ago the country emerged from multiple waves of colonization. anglo-french rule ended in 1980 and most of the people who live here now are indigenous melanesians, one of around 5000 remaining indigenous peoples. one could think that these remote islands are a refuge from the blunt effects of globalization. but after the colonizers left, the country soon felt the tight grip of nature. climate change is putting increasing pressure on dwindling resources like fresh water and arable land. and while vanuatu's islands are out of sight from large scale co2 polluters, islanders like the people of pelee are fighting a daily struggle against the fallout of big industry around the world.

>> the nation of vanuatu is made up of 83 islands, not all of them inhabited. this is how the locals receive visitors to pele in costume and traditional make-up. perhaps this is how their ancestors defended this small island from hostile invaders? nowadays, they are struggling to defend themselves against the sun, which seems to beat down hotter each year, and the

sea, which is slowly but surely gaining ground. for fifty years, the sea level has been rising by six centimeters a decade, with dramatic consequences. >> nowadays the wells we dug in the past are salty, so we can wash in them but we have to rely on rain for drinking water. recently some charity organizations have been helping us to put some rainwater catchment systems in place to make up for the lack of water. >> but relying on rainwater isn't enough. by the end of the dry season, people have to go to neighboring islands for drinking water. the well water can only be used for washing. 400 people live here, and the population is growing. the reefs have been almost fished out. everybody here is self- sufficient, but the traditional

staple food, fish, is becoming a luxury good. people on pele have started to raise a new breed of pig. the animals' drinking water is captured in special tanks, they have roofs over their heads and they get healthier feed than most pigs raised in vanuatu. german specialists are supervising the pilot project. the new breed is adapted to the climate change here and is meant to be better able to cope with the heat. >> there are various aspects that will threaten the food supply of people here in the future. one is the sharp rise in the population, the second is the unsustainable use of resources, the third is improper disposal of waste, including human waste, and it's all compounded

by global warming, which could upset the entire system. >> the weather in vanuatu is becoming increasingly extreme. that's clear in the bay off the capital, port vila. storms have become more frequent and severe and temperatures have risen by about two degrees celsius per decade. >> it is too big for us, it's an enormous task for each individual country in the pacific. therefore we look to our development partners, to the global community, to assist us in whatever form they can. >> in 2005 the government had to resettle villagers in the interior of the islands because of rising sea levels. preservation of mangroves to protect the coasts is a high priority.

a pilot project on the island of efate works with village communities on the sustainable use of mangroves especially on not cutting them down for firewood. >> they are small steps. you achieve big things through little steps. and we believe that working with the community it is one of those little steps to help the generations that are to come. >> cultivating mangroves isn't easy. of a hundred seedlings planted last year, a mere six have survived. but there are also projects that have been more encouraging. in a highland village on efate, they've planted tamarind trees between rows of vegetables in a technique called alley cropping. their roots enrich the soil with nitrogen and their shade protects the crops. john iaput planted them six months ago, to keep his beans from drying out.

his garden now serves as an example. >> today we're holding a big workshop. a lot of farmers are going to come, and they can see the effectiveness of the work we have done on alley cropping. >> the ministry of agriculture even sent an advisor to explain the method. but the farmers are skeptical. won't the trees make extra work? sounds like a problem, and traditionally problems are solved here by dancing together. john has dressed appropriately for the occasion.

such rituals are important to village life. in the end, the village chief has a word to say. >> together with the other local village chiefs, i want to make clear that, no matter what families we come from, or what traditional farming methods we use, coping with climate change is a task we all have to face today. so we, too, have to think about whether to keep using our traditional farming methods. >> vanuatu is doing its best to adapt to climate change.

>> this week the united nations marks the international day of the world's indigenous people. the un has spearheaded many attempts to secure their rights. most prominently a un declaration which came into force in 2007 states what to many of us sounds obvious: that nobody should be allowed to take indigenous land, persecute or disposess them. and yet it took years for key nations like the united states, canada, new zealand and australia to sign up to the document -- despite or probably because of their large native populations. around the world there are estimated to be more than 370 million indigenous people, spread across 70 countries. most of them live in asia. in addition to their vast cultural diversity, a recent study by the world bank shows that indigenous people are key to protecting our forests. like the awa tribes in northeastern brazil, their

special relation to the use of their land often makes them key agents for environmental protection. the awa live isolated in the jungle and are therefore largely independent from the fast pace of industrial development brazil has seen over the past decades. but economic interests are eating into their land, despite legal protection for their rights. and out in the jungle the letter of the law is largely being ignored, with dramatic consequences. >> 1200 square kilometers of the densest jungle, an area half as large as luxembourg. here, hidden from the eyes of the world, live one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes on the planet -- the awá. about 450 indigenous people still live here. some have still had no contact to the outside world. >> sometimes i can see other aáa on the river. you find their tracks in the sand.

>> the awá have adapted perfectly to life in the jungle. to survive there, they need a large area of intact rainforest. they're always on the move, depending on what fruit is in season and on the movements of their prey. a protected area is meant to guarantee their traditional way of life. wolfgang kapfhammer is doing research at philipps university in marburg. his special field is the indigenous populations of south america. >> it's known that, ecologically, the amazon contrary to its entire appearance as a lush rainforest is actually an area with little food. the food resources it contains

are relatively widely strewn, making it necessary for them to wander through a relatively large area, which requires a lot of space and time. >> here the livelihood of an entire people is burning away. settlers are pushing ever deeper into the awá's protected area. they are destroying the forest to create grazing areas for their livestock. and that's not the only threat. >> loggers come and destroy the forest and we have to flee. >> illegal loggers have nothing to fear here. the protected area is far from the eyes of state supervision. a third of the legally guaranteed awá rainforest has already fallen victim to the timber industry, stock breeders and settlers.

now there are ten intruders for every awá. >> now, whenever i go into the forest, i worry that one day it will all be gone. i'm afraid even more people will come and fell the trees. one day we won't be able to hunt anymore. are they going to destroy our whole forest? are they going to sell all the trees to buy things for themselves? >> and the intruders aren't just depriving the awá of the forest. logging companies employ gunmen known as pistoleros to hunt the indigenous people. >> the outsiders came and killed my father out in the forest. they murdered my mother, too, and many others of us. >> survival international fears the awá will soon be wiped out and with them, their knowledge of a unique ecosystem. >> the way things look, in our western society, we won't be

able to avoid returning to values similar to those of indigenous societies in the coming decades. that applies to a connection with nature and questioning our consumerism. >> without government intervention it will soon be too late for that with the end of the rainy season, the loggers will return and the awá will have to retreat. >> brazil's government agency for the protection of indigenous people recently pledged to step up efforts to protect the awa -- let's hope this makes a real difference. we head to india now and a very different, but large minority -- the hungry. india is an emerging economy with a growing problem -- despite its breathtaking development in recent years, the world food program say its is still the home to about a quarter of the world's hungry poor. and as so often, children bear the brunt of this. now india is a vast country with an increasingy complex economy. but even taking this into account, sometimes there are facts that simply speak for themselves. currently thousands of tons of grain are going to waste while millions of people go hungry.

here's an example of government mismanagement that is rightly angering the indian public. >> we set off early in the morning. the watchmen are still sleeping somewhere in these 4 meter high piles of sacks, containing wheat and rice. the indian government set up this open air storage area in khamanon a good six years ago. tarpaulins are meant to protect the food supplies from rain and heat. but that hasn't helped much. altaf hussai is one of fifteen migrant workers employed by the government they're not exactly sure themselves what for. there's black mould everywhere. the stench is unbearable. >> these sacks must have been stored here for three or four years, maybe even longer. now their contents are all rotten. >> the storage area is as large as a football pitch. altaf and the other workers come from the state of bihar, one of the poorest regions in

eastern india. here in punjab they earn the equivalent of 2 euros a day. from that pittance, they have to feed themselves and their families. altaf can't understand why the government is letting a hundred thousand sacks of grain rot here. >> food has become expensive. on one hand, the government lets wheat and rice rot, and on the other, prices for our everyday food are skyrocketing. politicians should do something about that. the government compensates for its losses from the unsold wheat by simply raising the tax on wheat. >> when a guard comes, we leave the area. the men are there to make sure people don't just help themselves to the grain. we hope to find an explanation

for this situation from the municipal authority in khamanon. many of the desks are deserted. one official sends us to the next. but nobody wants to talk to us. it's not just in punjab that millions of tons of rice and grain are being stored in the open air. in the neighboring state of rajasthan it's the same. the farmers had a good harvest. now they're waiting for the government to buy their wheat, as promised. the entire harvest is lying on the grounds of the market in kota, where the first signs of the monsoon are becoming apparent. >> they're just stalling. they keep telling us the train is late. now it's supposed to be eight days before the wheat is loaded and taken away. half the harvest is already rotten. and the government hasn't paid us anything. >> back in punjab we go with altaf to the greengrocer. he wants to buy cauliflower and other food. and he has to dig deep into his pockets.

the price of vegetables has gone up 60 percent this year. a kilo of wheat costs half a day's wages. more and more indians can no longer afford these prices. and they can barely feed their families. >> if the grain was moving and reaching everyone who has a right to this food grain, we would not have a storage problem. the storage problem is a reflection of two deeper crises. the first crisis is the hunger crisis and the declining budgetary power of the people. the second is the ill will of government. >> india's government has repeatedly promised to build new storehouses. it has been looking for private investors to shoulder the costs. but little has actually been done. the food and consumer affairs minister seems unperturbed and says the government wants to assess the situation first.

>> i had a discussion with the minister of agriculture of punjab two days back. my report is they are managing all this. >> that's not the impression altaf has. it's noon and 47 degrees celsius in the shade. he's been allowed to take along a few sacks to burn as fuel. today, as always, lunch is roti, a traditional flatbread. by now altaf has heard what's to become of the rotting grain. >> i've heard the grain will be sold to indian wine growers to distill alcohol. it will also be used for animal feed. that's scandalous. it doesn't help us poor people at all. >> back home in bihar, altaf has seven children to feed. they don't have much to eat. and here in khamanon, the grain is rotting. >> now when clinical science meets belief, medicine enters a

grey zone. here in europe many people believe in homeopathy despite little hard evidence of its effects. in africa the medicine man is more than a doctor. he is believed to have insights into the spiritual world unreachable to us. that also gives him a special status. but society is changing, so medicine men like fatunde ojo in nigeria find themselves having to do some new style acquisition for an old style craft. as part of our series africa on the move, we discover how fatunde ojo merges magic with marketing. >> it's just before dawn. fatunde ojo got up early this morning.

in his shrine he prays for the help of the gods. ojo is a traditional healer. his first customers soon arrive. fatunde ojo spends a lot of time talking with his patients. he prepares his remedies right next to his treatment room. he got his knowledge of healing from his father. >> i use the herbs i've ground together here to cure stomach ache. but i still have to mix them with other ingredients. i either buy them at the market or look for them in the forest. >> fatunde ojo lives in kuruduma, a suburb of nigeria's capital abuja. he has to walk quite a distance from home to gather the ingredients for his medicine. many grow in the forests, but

the forests are dwindling fast. abuja is expanding into the surrounding area as more and more people come here seeking work. right now it's the dry season, and few trees and leaves are green, so fatunde ojo has to go to the market more often. most of the herbs he buys today come from far away, and that makes business more expensive for him, but he needs the money. he wants to invest. >> i want to modernize my business. i'd be happy if someone could help me package my products and enlarge the business. >> abuja is crowded. the traffic roars, but everything is drowned out by the clatter of generators.

because of the regular power failures, they run almost constantly in front of the shops and businesses, like that of elisha babalola. he, too, is a traditional healer. his business is going well. babalola has the money to package his remedies professionally. and he invests in radio and television commercials. it's paid off. >> the outcome and sales have increased tremendously -- honestly it has increased to a level higher than anyone expected, when we started packaging it this way. >> the nigerian agency for food and drug administration and control monitors the traditional healers as well as it can. it requires healers to adhere to specific practices if they want to expand their businesses. hauwa keri heads the department and is responsible for monitoring.

>> the moment we started the process of registration and encouraging them, a lot of them began to process and package their medicines either in cellophane bags or bottles, and bringing them properly presented, with labels and outer packets and all of that. so that has stepped up. >> fatunde ojo is working hard to keep up with these new developments. he knows his work as a healer will be more difficult if he sticks to the old methods. competition among the healers is fierce. to stay in business, he has to attract new customers. >> i want to become famous for my products. i want everyone to get to know my medicine.

that's why i'm distributing my flyers everywhere. >> fatunde ojo often spends the evening in his shrine, asking for help from the gods. he asks the oracle every day whether his future will be bright and when his business will become successful. he prays that will happen, because he believes only the gods can put him on the right path. >> i guess it's the result that counts, so good luck to him. and that's all we have time for on this edition of global 3000. thanks for watching and see you again soon. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--