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tv   Global 3000  PBS  November 4, 2016 7:30pm-8:01pm PDT

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>> this week, global 3000 heads to ghana where we meet a man willing to move mountains to save frogs. in belize, conservation can be a dangerous activity. rangers there tell us why. but first, we take a look at the philippines where many people are in fear of their lives. 58 countries around the world still have the death penalty. the punishment was actually abolished 10 years ago in the philippines. but its new president is now determined to bring it back. as part of his anti-drugs campaign, rodrigo duterte has made public calls for dealers to
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be assassinated. since then, over 3000 people have been murdered on the country's streets. reporter: this little girl in this coffin had nothing to do with drugs. danica garcia was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. the 5-year-old from dagupan died from a bullet wound to the head. she is the youngest victim in the philippines' so-called war on drugs. gemma reys garcia: danica was sitting in the courtyard, when suddenly, two armed men came and shot at my husband. they got him in the stomach. he ran out back, and they followed him. that's where danica was shot and killed. reporter: the local river flooded and the family home is still under water. danica's grandfather, maximo, survived the floods and now lives in hiding. his name is apparently on a police watchlist.
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the hunt for presumed drug dealers goes on. since the end of june, more than 3,000 people have lost their lives in extra-judicial killings by police and what amount to private death squads. orders come from the very top. the recently-elected president rodrigo duterte made his intentions clear during his election campaign. rodrigo duterte: you drug dealers, you lousy scum. i will kill you. i have no patience for it. either you kill me, or i will kill you, you idiots. reporter: but are all those being killed really linked to drugs? it's not clear that the police are always acting in self-defense. some ask if authorities and politicians are also involved in the drug trade. jean enriquez: on the first day
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since the president was sworn into office, an environmental activist in bataan was also killed. and there are now threats against other human rights defenders, including indigenous people's leaders in different parts of the philippines. reporter: the bloody work of vigilantes has spread across the country. the victims are often very young. this photograph shows one of the newly dead. the placard behind this woman grieving for her dead friend gives a chilling warning to drug dealers, don't do this. but police in pasig city and elsewhere in the country are under pressure to deliver results to president duterte, who says he wants to eradicate drugs from the phillipines within six months.
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this police colonel is going through a list. he says the deaths couldn't be avoided. >> those killings were justified. they were killed because they fight back and they place the life of the policeman and other people in danger. so instead of us being killed, they should be the ones to go first. reporter: in addition to the brutal campaign, the authorities are pursuing other measures. some addicts have to take an oath, and sign a committment to go clean. this young man is asked how long he has been using drugs. he replies, more than 3 years. when asked which drugs he uses, he replies, crystal meth. he says he's not a dealer.
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he's afraid the men who killed his grandaughter will come back to get him. he admits that he did take drugs, until he had a stroke one year ago. but he says he didn't sell any . maximo garcia: i don't understand why i suddenly appeared on a list of drug dealers, people that they have now killed. i felt safe when president duterte took over because i'm no dealer. reporter: garcia says he voted for duterte. he shows us scars from bullet wounds. the so-called anti-drug war is creating fear and suspicion. no one knows whom to trust anymore, or who might be
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informing on others. are the people arrested really the ones producing and selling the drugs, including crystal meth? many filipinos are actually volunteering to go to prison. they give themselves up to save their own lives. hundreds of thousands across the country are beating a path to the authorities' doors. the addicts and dealers are hoping they'll be safer in jail. the surge in prisoners is unsustainable at this city jail in qezon. it was built to house 800 inmates, but with 4,000 people here, overcrowding has lead to the spread of disease. rosielyn carta: as of now tb is 200 plus. last month we also had incidents of diarrhea, the highest was 500 of our inmates. but with the help of the international committee of the red cross it was abated.
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reporter: beyond the prison walls, more than 40 people are being shot dead every day. president duterte says the campaign will continue until all drug bosses and dealers are behind bars or dead. the killings look set to continue. ♪ >> and now, on to our global ideas series, where we meet people determined to preserve and protect our planet's most endangered species. this week, we head to belize, a country with huge nature reserves. but these protected areas are still subject to poaching which threatens the diversity of local forests. our reporter, katja dohne, met up with belizean rangers who are risking their lives. reporter: this anteater knows it's being watched and is trying to scare off its audience.
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we're in the jungles of belize , home to a rich variety of wildlife. a frog locked in a deadly battle with a snake. it doesn't stand a chance. here in chiquibul forest, the name of the game is eat or be eaten. the 1700 square kilometers of jungle is often called the jewel of belize. it's a treasure that's protected by national park rangers. they're armed because they have a dangerous job. we're not allowed to show their faces. only their leader is willing to talk to us. derek chan: yeah, i have been fired at. in many cases, i was patrolling with soldiers or with rangers and people fire at us in the jungle. sometimes you see them, sometimes you don't.
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you come here to protect wildlife and you encounter yourself in a situation that could be really dangerous. yeah. reporter: we're just 10 kilometers from guatemala. the border runs through the middle of the jungle. poachers from the neighboring country, who are often armed enter belize illegally to plunder the forest. the intruders kill and steal local flora and fauna, pan for gold, and operate illegal marijuana plantations. derek chan: the idea is to see if there is any human activity on this track. once we know that nobody is here then we don't really need to monitor this trail again. freshly chopped branches indicate that someone's been here recently. there are footprints, too. they look deep, which suggests
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that whoever walked down this trail was carrying a heavy load. probably illegal pickings from the jungle. today, the rangers fail to track the culprit down. crime in this natural paradise is a serious problem. a young guatemalan boy was killed here in a recent shooting incident. a few weeks earlier, a policeman was shot at an ancient mayan archaeological site. the government has invested heavily in protecting the forest but it's clearly still not enough. here at the belize zoo, visitors can admire the country's biodiversity at close quarters. the zoo houses indigenous animals only among them the tapir, the national animal of belize. there are jaguars here too which otherwise live wild in the country's forests. hannah st. luce martinez: it fills you with pride. knowing that you have these beautiful creatures where you
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live. reporter: hannah st. luce martinez works in the forest management division of the country's environment ministry. but she also works for biofin, the biodiversity finance initiative. this was set up to establish the cost of a biodiversity action plan for belize. hannah st. luce martinez: protecting them isn't cheap. we have never placed a price figure on protecting their habitat in the wild. biofin intends to do a cost analysis that will help us reach our biodiversity goals and targets. reporter: chiquibul forest is a key region for the project. today hannah's on the road, investigating the financial state of conservation projects already up and running. she's on her way to las cuevas, a research institute and a breeding station for parrots.
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over a dozen scarlet macaws have been bred here. in the jungle, their nests are often plundered by poachers. chico is one of their full-time keepers. he looks after the birds until they're released into the wild. chico: i think of them like my kids, i will say it. you know, because i wake up so early to feed them, i wake up at 5:00 in the morning. when it is time to release them, i am so sorry but i am feeling so sad. reporter: las cuevas is the first stop on hannah's itinerary today. the project is run by friends of conservation and development. hannah is impressed. >> it's a beautiful cage. who built it? >> myself.
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reporter: but the cage is only a stopgap solution. if the birdnests in the jungle were better protected, it wouldn't be neccessary. chico: if we have the enough funds, yes, we could try to keep them more in the wild. i know that it is very difficult to find the funds, but it's not impossible to get it, you know. reporter: these scarlet macaws will soon be leaving their comfortable home. then they'll have to look after themselves. protecting wildlife in the chiquibul forest makes not just environmental, but also economic sense. hannah st. luce martinez: anything that occurs or affects our national resources, affects our economy. because tourists are attracted to the green and the biodiversity that we have as a country. reporter: next, hannah pays a visit to the park rangers. she asks them about working conditions. park manager derek chan says the team could really use a helicopter, arguing that it could save lives. derek chan: you know a ranger would sometimes say, what if i die out here? if you get a snake bite or a gun
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shot, you need to be extracted in an hour or two. and that is a concern. it's obvious that lack of funding is a problem everywhere. what's not obvious is where more financing should come from. hannah st. luce martinez: we need to be very innovative. as to how to identify where money has been coming from and where will money will come from for biodiversity management. reporter: the chiquibul forest is only the start. 40% of belize is a conservation area. and protecting it all is a costly business. >> next we head to ghana. here, too, in the sui river forest, conservationists are working hard to protect wildlife. our reporter, mabel gundlach, met up with a biologist involved in reforestation projects there. his priority is to recreate a
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habitat where local animals can thrive. especially the frogs. reporter: trekking through the sui river forest reserve in ghana is tough going. but these conservationists are on a mission. researcher gilbert adum is here with some american colleagues on a quest to find a particular species of frog which he first discovered a few years ago. not this one. but the giant squeaker frog. gilbert adum: it's thought there are only about 30 of them left. i have to be careful. chelsea: have you seen this frog today? gilbert: no. that is lovely. the same genus, but it is a different one.
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but it is a forest one. it is a good find. it is a great find. gilbert: we spent sometimes a whole week or two weeks every month here looking for it. for instance we started from june and it was not until the beginning of this month, so it took four months and then we found one. here. reporter: adum has devoted his career to the giant squeaker frog. his work on its behalf has sent him to distant countries. gilbert adum: that is the sound of the giant squeaker frog. i love frogs and this love for frogs brought me to germany, brought me to berlin. reporter: to be precise, to the city's natural history museum where adum spent 18 months conducting research. the museum has a collection of west african amphibians. and the ghanaian biologist also learned to use a geographic information system to produce maps.
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how are the giant squeaker frog and other frogs native to ghana coping with climate change? adum received a fellowship grant from the humboldt foundation to find out. gilbert adum: my knowledge has improved drastically. there are about 80 frogs that occur in ghana. almost all of them, they have the specimens. and i have studied all of them. and now with the maps that i have developed, i know where each frog occurs. so i have really benefited so much, i have never benefited from anything more than this fellowship. reporter: now adum is back in ghana, continuing his research in the sui river forest reserve. this time, he doesn't manage to find a giant squeaker frog. but he does find a few pits left by illegal gold prospectors. gilbert: even for the tree frogs, they cannot come out because they will need things like this.
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and if there is a predator there, the frog will not be able to escape. reporter: the frogs' natural habitat is also threatened by logging. gilbert adum shows his colleagues from the u.s. ngo save the frogs the damage that's been wreaked by the timber industry. loggers are allowed to fell just three trees per hectare here. but in fact, they chop down a lot more, leaving devastated landscapes in their wake. gilbert adum: it has been a war for us. we cannot fight them. what we have been doing is to educate the local people that this forest is not for any timber company. it is not for the government, it is for them, the local people. the village of yawkrom is located on the edge of the reserve. if the sui forest and the frogs that live in it are to survive, the inhabitants have to do their
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part. they depend on cocoa cultivation for their livelihoods. and also on honey production. here they're being taught how to build beehives and manage the bees. the project was initiated by the frog conservationists. in the past, locals harvested honey in the wild with fire but would burn down trees in the process. the new beekeeping system is designed to protect the forest. change is afoot in yawkrom. in another project, ground that was cleared to make way for farmland is being replanted. in just a few years, gilbert adum and his organisation have managed to enlist the support of locals in protecting the forest. initially, they didn't take his work seriously and didn't see
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the point of saving the frog and its habitat. but now they've helped plant 15,000 seedlings. gilbert adum: the forest is so vast, so, so vast, and there are so many places degraded. see how far we came into the forest and see the farms that have been made. and now the local people have agreed that they will work with us. we could do the planting on their farms so later the trees will take over. reporter: today the village of yawkrom is welcoming the community chief. schoolchildren are reciting poems to mark the occasion. >> i am here to recite a poem. title, "types of frogs." there are many different types of frogs. reporter: the celebration revolves around the frogs and the frog conservationists.
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gilbert adum is even awarded a special honour. gilbert adum: they have made me the chief of the environment. environmental chief. i have never heard of an environmental chief in ghana, or even in west africa. so maybe i am the first environmental chief across all west africa. and this all because of nothing else but frogs, and the giant squeaker frog in particular. reporter: the frog has become a
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symbol of the community's commitment to protecting their environment. >> this week we have another global snack for you. this time from bella italia. reporter: bologna in northern italy, a city of arched walkways called porticoes. they stretch over 38 kilometers through the old town. in the middle of the historic city center you'll find the zamboni snack bar. every day, silvia acerbi and her co-workers make fresh panzerottis here. panzerottis are a specialty from puglia in southern italy.
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made from pizza dough, they're filled with ingredients, shaped into small turnovers and dropped in the deep fryer. silvia acerbi: panzerotti are small, but you know, but they're amazing, packed with so much flavor. tomato, mozarella, and a variety of natural ingredients, it's impossible not to enjoy them. ♪ reporter: silvia acerbi studies bio-engineering. but she'd rather spend her time behind the counter than in a lecture hall. she can even imagine opening her own snack bar some day. silvia acerbi: well, maybe someday, since i've learned so much here over the years. why not?
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i'm a real panzerotti girl. [laughter] reporter: the shop sees lots of tourists as well as locals. one regular is businessmann fiore manzo. fiore manzo: i come here because it's one of the best places in bologna for a classic panzerotti. matteo depalo: it's kind of funny, but where i'm from in puglia, panzerottis are less expensive than they are here. that's because we eat so many of them. it's one of our favorite dishes. here, panzerottis cost 2 euros 50 apiece. no matter whether they're filled with spinach, assorted veggies or ham. enjoy. silvia acerbi: grazie. buon appetito.
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>> hello. this is us with a new facebook name, global society. join us to start discussing the topics that touch us all. like respect, committy, fair play. follow us on facebook and join our global society. ♪ that's all for this week but don't forget, you can watch us online anytime. and do write to us too at global3000@dw.com. see you soon. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]
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