I'm on a huge journey.
I'm travelling the length of the Americas -
the two continents that, together, form more than
a quarter of Earth land surface.
On this adventure, I'm travelling down through South America.
We're in such a remote part of planet Earth.
It's a journey of more than
4,000 miles, through some of
the world's greatest landscapes.
Encountering spectacular wildlife.
The cat is on the move.
From its iconic cities
to the Andes Mountains,
it's a continent of dramatic extremes.
Down.
LOUD EXPLOSIONS
Along the way, I meet the inspiring...
Yolanda!
..and the surprising people...
These guys are Mennonites.
..who make South America so extraordinary.
CHEERING
There's Wi-Fi here.
Nowhere else for miles around, apparently.
We do our own thing.
We're happy here, man.
The Amazon, the greatest rainforest on planet Earth.
On this, the second part of my journey down through South America,
I was travelling to visit an isolated Amazonian tribe
in one of the most remote and still relatively unspoilt
parts of the whole continent.
Oh, God, we seem to be running out of runway.
HE EXHALES I hate flying.
I was heading deep into the Amazon, in Northern Brazil,
but first, I had to stop off at a small frontier town
called Pedra Branca.
So, we're going into a remote indigenous community,
and we're going to have another health check before we do.
We had a health check, all of us,
before we came out at the start of this journey,
but I think another one is in order, given what's happening in the world,
and we're off to see the doctor.
Around the planet, alarm was spreading about a new virus.
Clusters of cases and outbreaks had been reported
in Asia, Europe and North America.
Simon. Yes, sir. What do we do now?
We have to... No, we have to do...
We have to do the foot bump,
don't we? Or the...on the elbow.
It's a whole new world.
The first few cases of what we now call Covid
had just been reported in Brazil.
But thousands of miles away...
..Brazil's indigenous communities
have been particularly vulnerable to new viruses and infections,
so it was crucial my team and I got the all-clear.
Thank you, doctor.
I could get used to that.
I headed deep into the Amazon
to meet the Waiapi people.
This is a crucial time for the rainforest.
Around 10,000 acres of the Amazon
are being deforested every day.
The Waiapi live inside a huge, protected reserve of more than
one and a half million acres but, in recent years,
the whole region has been targeted by industry.
Although large areas of Brazil are protected for conservation
and for indigenous groups,
the current government here is trying to open many of them
for mining or dams and for huge developments.
So, this road is being upgraded by a mining company.
HONKING
This is the road to the Waiapi people.
Clearly, industry is coming this way.
The Waiapi are known as the Guardians of the Forest.
Wow.
Village and football.
DRIVER: And football.
It is Brazil.
SIMON GREETS THEM
I love the mobile phone tucked in the waistband there, you notice?
They want to do some protesting for us, to show us what they're
concerned and worried about.
THEY PROTEST
300 indigenous tribes still live in Brazil's forests,
totalling nearly one million people.
After centuries of oppression and annihilation,
the Brazilian Constitution recognises their rights
to live in their traditional territories, according to
their culture. But in this vast country of more than 200 million,
there's now also powerful support for loggers
and farmers promising jobs and food.
Tribes like the Waiapi feel they're facing a mortal threat.
Viseni is one of the leaders of the tribe.
Destroy.
Destroy is a strong word.
Is that what it feels like?
Do you think it might come to a situation where you do
feel the need to step up
and use your weapons, in anger?
Indigenous communities have previously fought back
against attacks and incursions.
They've also killed road builders
and soldiers by using blow pipes and poison arrows.
I got the anger,
and I got the sense of community love as well.
I went to meet the Chief Viseni's mother, Nazare.
Wari. Wari. Wari. Wari.
Thank you for letting us come and visit the village.
Nazare, is it unusual for a woman to be a chief,
or is it very normal in your culture?
Well, that's very kind.
We're very honoured. Thank you very much indeed.
This Waiapi community was isolated from modern Brazil for decades.
Outsiders first made real contact only in the early 1970s.
Nazare was a child and still remembers the terrible impact.
What sickness came with the first outsiders?
500 years ago, millions of people lived in these continents,
with thriving civilisations to rival those of Europe,
but when Europeans arrived along the coast,
their foreign, alien diseases swept inland
through the huge indigenous populations.
In places, up to 90% of indigenous people died of smallpox,
measles and flu, against which they had no immunity.
It's one of the largest, fastest
population collapses in human history.
This community has survived so much.
Just imagine how strong their sense of identity,
their culture must be.
Incredibly impressive.
He's looking at it... Oh, he's not impressed.
SIMON LAUGHS
It's all right.
It'll be all right. I'm tall and it fits me.
Right, it's been a long day.
Despite 50 years of contact with the outside world,
the Waiapi have defended their forests and their way of life.
Partly thanks to careful leadership, they've been able to pick,
choose and embrace some aspects of the wider world.
Children, young adults
and even Chief Nazare are learning Portuguese,
and they have tools, medicines and smartphones.
So, I just came round the back of the school to get an internet code.
There's Wi-Fi here.
Nowhere else for miles around, apparently.
Satellite Wi-Fi. And I found the lads here on their social media,
looking at the outside world.
It does make me wonder how youngsters are going to cope with
the advertising
and endless social media pressure.
Their culture's strong, but can it withstand Instagram?
I don't know.
The Brazilian government says indigenous people
need to be integrated into modern society
and the economy.
They want economic development to raise millions out of poverty.
Here, that model of development means cutting down ancient forests
and levelling rich eco-systems
for logging, farming and mining.
That's rarely sustainable and, here, it often enriches just a few.
But the Waiapi subscribe to
a different economic model. They believe humans can
use and exploit the forest, without destroying it.
He's done that a few times, hasn't he?
This is called acai,
and this is a sort of new superfood that we are often seeing now
in fancy shops and supermarkets in the UK,
and this is where it comes from.
Oh, he's got something?
He's just sliding down like he's on a fireman's pole,
with a whole bunch of berries, it looks like.
Look at that!
Harvested.
So, that's just using what the forest offers.
Is it just? No, it's not just,
because what scientists are realising now
is that over centuries,
indigenous people didn't just take what the forest had to offer,
but they planted and shaped the forest.
Scientists have only realised recently
that large areas of the Amazon
were cultivated by generations
of indigenous people, who carefully planted
and tended specific plants and fruit trees.
This is like a vast ancient orchard,
and we're only scratching the surface in understanding
the riches it contains.
Marcelino Guedes is a specialist in Forest Economics.
Like the Waiapi, he says we can benefit from
the rainforest without levelling it,
and that intact forests can generate profit.
Marcelino points out there are enormous riches
in the Amazon which are lost if it's cleared, especially medicines.
Plants already provide us with nearly half of
our pharmaceutical medicines.
Rainforests are a potential treasure trove,
yet sciences have tested just a fraction of
the species found in them.
We could be missing a new chemotherapy drug,
a treatment to tackle a childhood disease or the next pandemic.
By one estimate, there could be scores of potentially
life-saving drugs awaiting discovery in the Amazon,
worth tens of billions of pounds.
Rather than cutting it down,
this could be a forest pharmacy for the planet.
This is a battleship of a tree.
What a beauty!
The rainforests,
they are just full of wonder and treasures.
If only we could recognise the value of our rainforests.
The incredible fundamental value for our global climate,
for biodiversity, but also for medicine,
for our health,
then perhaps we might have a better chance of saving them.
Aw!
Wow.
Thank you, my friend.
I won't forget you guys.
The Waiapi were more aware than anyone of the horrors
that can be inflicted by a powerful new virus.
As I left the forest to continue my journey,
it was clear Covid was on the march.
The Waiapi closed their border
and retreated into the jungle.
Within days, countries began
heading into lockdown.
It was obvious to me there'd be at least a short delay to the journey.
I had no idea.
It's good to get this off.
It's good to be back.
Now, just after we left the Waiapi,
Covid really began to hit and to hurt.
Very few could have predicted
just how devastating it would be globally.
It's been 20 months
but, finally, I'm able to restart my journey down through South America.
Treble-vaccinated and testing regularly,
I picked up my journey in Manaus,
the capital of the Amazonas region of Brazil.
In the 19th century, there was a booming rubber industry here,
and Manaus was known as the Paris of the Tropics.
Well, this isn't what you expect to find in
the middle of the Amazon rainforest,
an opera house.
Manaus has long been a magnet for migrants
seeking work in logging, mining and shipping.
Two million people now live here.
It's a long way from the Brazilian capital
and isolated at the centre of the world's greatest rainforest,
but when Covid struck Brazil,
this became ground zero of the pandemic.
Manaus was hit hard.
Oh, my God.
I mean, that is a...
..horrific visual demonstration of the impact of Covid on this city
and its people, isn't it?
Everybody on this row
died on the same day.
The 11th of April.
The 11th of April...
11th of April, 11th of April.
11th of April.
There were times in Manaus during the pandemic
when more than 100 people were being buried each day.
Nearly 700,000 people have died from Covid in Brazil -
one of the worst death tolls in the world.
SIRENS WAIL
The Waiapi people, further to the east in Brazil,
largely survived at least the first years of the virus
by using the isolation of the forest,
combined with modern vaccinations.
But here in Manaus,
the disease swept through crowded,
impoverished neighbourhoods,
with poor sanitation and dense populations.
Just like elsewhere, isolating at home was a luxury for the wealthy.
For families living together in cramped housing,
social-distancing was impossible.
I headed to Parque das Tribos,
an unofficial indigenous settlement
that's sprung up over the last decade.
DOG BARKS
It's now home to around 600 families.
Vanda.
Vanda!
THEY CHUCKLE
Vanda Ortega is a nurse,
and now a community leader here.
Vanda, so this is Parque das Tribos. Parque das Tribos.
Parque das Tribos, which is "the park of the tribes".
What does that mean?
Is it true that in the first weeks of the pandemic,
not a single government health care worker came here?
There was no health centre here.
For most of the pandemic, the community relied solely on Vanda,
who's the only person with medical training.
Vanda, who is this?
Every community needs a Vanda.
THEY CHUCKLE
Vanda, I can see there's power cables.
Does everybody here have electricity
and running water, and sewage?
So, are you saying
for the first year of the pandemic,
people here didn't have running water?
In a crisis, so often, it's the people who are living on the margins
of society who suffer the most.
So, Vanda, what is this place?
After more training, Vanda now volunteers at
her new medical clinic. For the first time, she's able to provide
much-needed local health care to the whole community.
I find it really astonishing, frankly, that at the start of
the pandemic, no government health care worker came here to assist
this community. They had to do it themselves.
Even now, they only were able to build this little clinic here
with financial assistance from the French Embassy.
The leader of this community died from Covid.
The role passed to his son.
So, this is what you had to do,
you had to organise and save yourselves?
Indigenous people in Brazil are increasingly moving to
towns and cities. Some come
looking for a better life and the lure of a job,
but others move because they've been forced out of the forest,
as farmers, loggers, miners encroach into their homelands.
Vanda wanted to show me what she thinks is an urgent,
but overlooked threat to
the rainforest of the Amazon
and to indigenous territories.
Manaus is a busy port city.
It lies on the banks of the Rio Negro, and quickly flows into
the world's mightiest river.
We're out on the Amazon!
It's enormous!
Less like a river, more like a sea!
We're really in the heart of the Amazon basin here.
It's about 900 miles from here to the Atlantic Ocean.
And although you can get ocean-going ships like these coming upriver,
there's not really a road connection from here to the rest of Brazil,
to the south, which has really helped to protect the rainforest
in this part of the country.
At least, until now.
Downriver from Manaus is a small port,
and the start of a road called the BR-319.
It was constructed in the 1970s, in an early attempt to try and
open up the Amazon. Until recently,
it was an often impassable dirt track.
But now, work is under way to tarmac all 500 miles of it...
Look at this view.
..and create a super highway into
the world's most important ecosystem.
Do you think we can... can we stop here?
Wow.
Look at this.
This road, which runs from the south to the north,
up to Manaus, is opening up the Amazon rainforest.
Traffic and trade will be able to penetrate deeper into
the rainforest than ever before.
And many fear that it will open the Amazon to loggers,
to miners, to farmers, to trade and industry which, potentially,
will deal - it's feared - a fatal blow to the Amazon rainforest.
And that is why, arguably,
this is the most dangerous road in the world.
In a poll, eight out of ten Brazilians said the environment
should be prioritised over economic growth,
but there's less agreement about how to actually preserve nature.
And now, the Amazon is being destroyed at the fastest rate
of the last 15 years.
all be concerned about increasing
human encroachment into the Amazon.
Back in Manaus, in an area where the jungle meets the suburbs,
I met up with scientist Professor Alessandra Nava,
who was out hunting bats.
So, Alessandra has
a really cool job.
She's a virus hunter.
Whether you think Covid-19 came from a lab or the wild,
it's likely the virus originated in bats and jumped between
species to infect humans.
Alessandra fears something similar
could happen somewhere in the Amazon.
She's trying to stop an outbreak.
So, now, we leave? Yes.
The bats aren't going to come while we're here, are they? Mm-hm.
This is bonkers.
In just a few steps, you leave the incredible biodiversity
of the rainforest and you're into the mad world of humanity.
And there are millions of places like this around the planet now,
where humans live in such close proximity with really wild nature.
And of course, that's wonderful in many ways, but it also creates
profound risks.
In a makeshift lab, in a house on the edge of the jungle,
Alessandra's team check the bats for any new or nasty disease
that could infect humans. They need to avoid any cross-infection.
So, we're going to check the nets.
There are scores of so-called zoonotic diseases
that jump and spread from animals to humans,
including Ebola and Nipah, as well as Covid-19.
Nothing in this one.
Oh, there's a bat here, look!
There's another one here as well.
Alessandra, what type of bat is it, do you know?
What is it about bats?
Is there something special about them that means they pose
a greater threat to humans?
I'm a bit of a distance away now.
Zoonotic diseases have been with us almost forever, really.
Measles is thought to have jumped into humans from cattle
thousands of years ago.
But as we encroach ever further into the rainforest
in particular now, more zoonotic diseases are emerging.
It's the sheer numbers of people living, farming, working
near exotic and wonderful wildlife in rainforests,
or on the edge of them, that creates more risk of cross-infection,
perhaps from a bat pulling on food, or even an animal bite.
It's feared our increasing encroachment into the rainforest
could lead to a rise in these zoonotic diseases and new pandemics.
It's almost like the Covid test. Yeah.
What do we learn from understanding what's in the bats?
So, are you almost an early warning system, then?
We are going to fetch another one.
What sort of bat is this?
Have we suddenly woken up
to the threat from zoonotic diseases?
So, even now, you think
we're worrying too exclusively about whether people in China
are eating creatures from the forest?
We're not thinking broadly enough
about the risks we are creating by encroaching into
the rainforest and the wild space?
Where is the next pandemic going to come from?
I really think we've got to reconsider
our relationship with nature.
Three quarters of new and emerging
diseases that infect humans
originate in animals.
We need to give nature more space.
It's time to let them fly.
Ah!
Fly, little beauty!
ALESSANDRA CHUCKLES
And it's gone.
It was time to leave the Amazon.
I headed south, to Brazil's
spectacular Atlantic Coast.
Brazil is a vast country.
It occupies almost half of South America.
All 27 nations of the European Union
would easily fit into Brazil.
Its coast is more than 5,000 miles long,
and along the coast is where most Brazilians live.
Oh, wow!
Welcome to Rio!
Look at that!
Oh, my goodness!
What a sight! It really is one of
the most stunningly-positioned
cities anywhere in the world.
Sugarloaf Mountain over there.
And Christ the Redeemer, look,
towering above.
You can really see the geography of
the city from up here.
You see the favelas clinging to
the hillside. The favelas are
poorer, more informal settlements.
More than 6.5 million people
live in Rio, from the super wealthy
to some of the poorest
on the continent. Like most modern
megacities, its growth has been
rapid and largely unplanned.
Many areas of Rio have poor infrastructure and facilities,
and you can see the results when it rains.
It's just starting to bucket with rain,
and many of the roads still seem to be rather surprisingly flooded,
as if the drains aren't fully up to the job.
Look at the flooding here.
Rio's been described as one of the cities in South America
most vulnerable to climate change.
Rio has a carefully-cultivated image as a sexy party city.
Think of Rio, and you think of the beach and carnival.
But climate change is already having an impact here.
Storm surges and flooding
are more regular events,
and soaring, sweltering
temperatures are making some areas
harder to live in.
Obviously, a city like Rio hasn't been planned
with climate change in mind, and as the city has expanded,
so its natural defences have been eroded.
So, how do they protect the people of this megacity?
To deal with threats to Rio,
the government has spent millions on a shiny, high-tech crisis centre.
Felipe, where are we going?
Felipe Mandarino is a geographer
who helps to control the brain of the city.
HE GASPS Oh, my goodness!
It's like a sort of Nasa control centre.
The centre was actually developed with Nasa to monitor and predict
extreme weather events, and to co-ordinate the city's
emergency response when they happen.
Does Rio have a particular problem with landslides?
My goodness, so each of the red marks represents
a potential disaster, actually? Si.
Those are thousands of people... Yeah. ..living there.
What would you, as a geographer, would say are the principal
climate change, global heating threats to Rio?
I was really taken aback by how quickly Felipe,
as a geographer, identified inequality and a lack of greenery
and green spaces among Rio's biggest problems.
About a quarter of Rio's population live in
the city's sprawling favelas -
that's close to one-and-a-half million people.
I'm going up into the oldest of all the favelas in Rio -
it's called Providencia - but to get there,
I need to go with Cristiano.
Only trusted and connected riders
could take me into the heart of
Providencia. Criminal groups and
powerful, violent drug gangs
control these streets
and many of the favelas.
Almost every inch of the steep hillside was crammed with
tightly-packed, ramshackle housing.
So, inevitably, the favela is a warren, like this.
Buildings springing up over the years
on any available plot of land.
And some of it looks like you're entering somebody's house,
and it's like a dark alleyway. Look.
God, I wouldn't want to come down here at night.
My guide in Providencia was a community leader called Ale Roque.
Is this agua, the fresh water?
The state is largely absent here.
The police are rarely seen, except during raids,
that can often result in a high body count.
DOG BARKS
There are regular gun battles for control.
This guy on my right, he just wanted to point out here, look,
you can see a pockmarked wall here,
bullet holes. But look at this -
that's a large-calibre gun round there, look.
Along here, in this section,
that's, what, 100...
..100 bullet holes, maybe?
And they're not small rounds, either, some of them.
They look more like
from an assault rifle.
Bloody hell.
Ah, stop, stop, stop.
Down, down, down.
They were just pointing in the direction, I think,
of some drug dealers down the alley, who've whistled an alert.
As if they don't have enough to deal with,
favela-dwellers also have to contend with the increasing
challenges of the climate.
Favelas can be shocking heat traps,
exposed on hillsides, with no shade.
Surface temperatures can be
an incredible 20 degrees higher
than the surrounding countryside.
Plus, there are heavy storms,
causing deadly landslides that can
sweep away whole neighbourhoods.
Thankfully, favelas also produce inspiring leaders.
Wow, Ale, it's incredibly green!
Is this something you've been involved in?
You've planted all of this?
Ale, you've planted a forest.
This amazing urban forest helps knit together the soil
to prevent lethal landslides.
And the trees provide shade,
lowering hellish summer temperatures.
But that's not all Ale has done.
She's transforming lives.
Ale, what is this place?
Wow, look at this place!
How many students, how many children kind of come through the school?
You're teaching 120 children?
That's astonishing.
So, Ale, why are you running a school?
And you're trying to fill that gap,
to make sure no child is left behind?
QUIETLY: It's OK.
I find it astonishing that Ale gets
no help from the government. Astonishing and really shocking.
I think what she's doing here is giving these kids something
utterly priceless - a childhood.
All right, boss.
The school is an integral part of Ale's urban forest plans.
The children here now learn about trees and plants, and more,
but they also grow fresh food - so important for their diet.
Ah!
Yay!
Look, look, look!
How many trees do you think you've planted here at the school?
100?!
Well done.
They really know what to do.
Even the tiny, tiny tots.
She's given them
something really precious - a connection with
greenery and nature in a favela
and a city that really lacks trees and plants,
and a sense of the natural world.
Ale's project is one tiny step
towards restoring something
that Rio has largely lost.
This was once the site of a mighty forest,
stretching over 400,000 square miles
down the whole of the eastern side of Brazil,
and all the way down to Argentina.
You think of a forest in Brazil and you think of the Amazon,
of course, but there's another great forest
in this country - the Atlantic Forest.
The Atlantic forest is a temperate rainforest -
cooler than the Amazon, but also bursting with life.
Over hundreds of years, it was gradually eaten away,
as huge cities like Rio and Sao Paulo emerged and developed.
85% of the original primary
Atlantic Forest has now gone.
Look at this!
Although only a small part of the Atlantic Forest remains,
it's still one of the most diverse ecosystems on planet Earth,
which is why people come to stay in amazing places like this -
to experience just a bit of it.
Cambuca. I think this is mine...
..at least, for a night.
Despite the loss of so much of
the Atlantic Forest, one in 50 of all the plants
and animals on Earth are found here.
There's not quite so many big old trees left here, though,
because after Europeans started arriving 500 years ago,
they chopped them down.
There are a few giants left,
and it's lovely to be among them.
Deforestation is such a huge issue in Brazil.
The battle is now on to preserve
and restore parts of the great Atlantic Forest.
I'd arranged to meet a conservationist, trying something
unique to protect one of the country's most iconic inhabitants.
We're on the road, and we're looking for a bloke
by the side of the road called Carlos.
Oh, here they are.
Carlos! Shall we do elbows? Elbows.
And this is the forest that we're
heading into behind, is that right? Yes, yes.
Dr Carlos Ruiz-Miranda and colleagues Jadir and Ademilson
are trying to protect these remaining
fragments of the Atlantic Forest.
This area is the world's last-remaining wild habitat
for a small, rare, flighty and beautiful primate.
Right ahead, right ahead.
Luckily, some tracking collars gave us a good chance of spotting them.
WHISPERING: I've just seen a flash of orange through
the leaves and branches.
One's just above us, in the trees up here.
Ah! Another one.
Oh, this is very exciting.
Oh, my God, there's one right here! Look!
Just here.
The golden lion tamarin.
What a creature!
It's only the size of a well-fed squirrel,
but with this billowy, orange mane.
Just as the panda has iconic status in China,
so the golden lion tamarin does in Brazil.
I'll tell you what, though, they move a little bit faster.
My God, they're incredible!
They are different from most monkeys, you know,
they give birth to twins.
Bloody hell, it's a family.
There's a family of them, look.
Ah!
They live in family groups,
a mum and a dad, and their kids
from several generations.
Now they're grooming.
So cute.
So precious.
What was the situation with the tamarins when you first
started studying them?
There were about only 200 in
the forest... 200?! 200.
..and almost none in captivity.
Because they were close to being wiped out? They were close to being
wiped out. They were in an area that was...that just got a major highway,
and there was a lot of pressure. So, they were
really worried about them.
These creatures have really had
a roller-coaster ride over recent decades.
And there was a point in the 1980s when it looked as though they might
become extinct in the wild, due to extremely high levels of poaching
and endless habitat loss.
And then there was this very successful international
conservation campaign which got their numbers up to several thousand
before, recently, they were hit by another disaster.
A few years ago, Carlos and his team began to find the bodies of
dead tamarins. They were falling out of the trees.
Before long, hundreds were dead,
wiped out by a mystery illness.
I mean, we were shocked and overwhelmed.
We had lost about 33% of the population, in a matter of months.
We were facing losing 40 years of conservation.
An investigation revealed the tamarins were dying
from yellow fever - a disease that also infects humans,
transferred by mosquitos.
Oh, my goodness, look at you!
The crisis called for a dramatic response.
In a world-first,
Carlos and his team are vaccinating
the entire population of golden lion tamarins.
Can I ask you to do me, while you're being done?
This is what you get abducted by aliens,
exactly what happens. THEY LAUGH
Look at you, little thing.
You are astonishing.
And you're one of a tiny tribe left.
So, this is called a squeeze cage, which isn't great,
but this is so the vet can apply an anaesthetic.
Oh!
It's a traumatic experience for this little tamarin,
but it's one that should save its life
and, ultimately, its entire species.
I've had the yellow fever vaccine.
You've doubtless had the yellow fever vaccine.
I'm slightly larger than the tamarin. Is it just a case of
reducing the dose and diluting it down? Is it as straightforward
as that? As straightforward as that.
It worked really well. Had it ever been done before? No.
Here we go. So, this is the yellow fever vaccine. Yes.
This is really muscular conservation.
This is not standing back and saying,
"Oh, there's nothing we can do.
"Let's just watch as these creatures go to the edge and fall off."
No, this is saying, "We're going to step in here
"and we're going to fight for them,
"and try something, and work and battle to save them."
One done. Another one
potentially saved. Another one potentially saved.
It's wise for us to prevent
any creature from becoming
a reservoir for yellow fever.
If it can be infected, it can pass it on.
Exactly. And right now, they won.
So, it's just a win, win, win, win. Yeah.
For the animals, for us, for our species, and our planet.
For everybody. Brilliant.
On this part of my South American journey,
I'd already been warned there's an increasing risk to us
from diseases spreading to and from animals, and also,
because we're spreading into
and destroying our forests.
Our increasing encroachment into
wild spaces is clearly disrupting
the balance of life on our planet.
But here, the tamarins, at least,
have been brought back from
the brink of extinction.
Now, Carlos says they need new habitat.
Space to survive, but also thrive.
Much of the Atlantic Forest has been broken up
and fragmented into smaller areas, often split by big roads,
and that creates very broken habitat for the tamarins.
But Carlos and his team have come up with a big idea to connect
two separate tamarin homes together.
Look at this!
Bloody hell, Carlos!
You've built a living bridge
over the motorway!
It's amazing!
So, we have areas where we have soil
that can go down to three or four metres. So, we will be able
to get here trees as tall as ten metres,
from the centre lines. Wow!
And we'll join it with a corridor,
and the Poco das Antas Biological Reserve.
6,000 hectares. So, you've got this...
6,000 hectares?!
Of forest, yeah. Oh!
And it will connect with 40,000 hectares of forest
over on this side.
So, the tamarins on this side
can get to that side and vice versa.
That's not just for food, I imagine,
that's for frolicking and fornication, and... Yes,
finding a mate. ..expanding the gene pool.
But not only for the tamarins,
for all of the wildlife that lives here.
I feel quite emotional,
hearing this.
I've seen so many problems
and, here, you've really looked after, shepherded, saved
and created a future
for a creature that was right on the edge of dying out. Yes.
And hopefully, this will be a model.
And it's becoming a model, you know, you have highways,
you can do wildlife bridges or wildlife passages,
and you'll reconnect the habitat.
It's just a matter of doing it. I mean, all wildlife
needs is a little bit of help, and give them the opportunity
and it will bounce back.
Next time, I'll be travelling down the Andes,
the great spine of the continent...
Look above us, the glacier.
..to one of the highest human settlements in the world,
and through an area blighted by
an endless and deadly drug war.
Down.