Jessica Maliszewski

Summary and Reflection on the Amazon

The first documentary that I watched was titled Amazon: Land of the Flooded Forest. It
discussed how every year flood waters overflow the riverbank and invade the land. It is home to
numerous animals, such as the biggest rodent, smallest monkey, and a rare monkey that lives
nowhere else on earth. It mentions how people take more resources from the Amazon than they
need, and how others are completely destroying the Amazon by cutting down the precious trees.
Those things can cause an entire species to go extinct, which can then damage the fragile
ecosystem.
The beginning of time left earth with one super continent, and over time the land began to
spread apart and so became South America. The South American plate moved west ward and
collided with another plate and then that plate slide underneath the South American plate, and so
became the Andes Mountains. The Amazon River had emptied into the Pacific and was blocked
by the Andes on the west and the Highlands to the east, and eventually became a giant lake in the
middle of South America. Eventually the lake waters forced their way to the Atlantic, and the
lake became a river that flowed west to east. All the areas that were once a lake then became the
rainforest. Now, every year the rain causes the Amazon River to flood for thousands of miles, a
flooded forest.
People who live in the rainforest have their houses on stilts, and are able to change the
height of the stairs leading up to their house depending on the height of the river. The people who
live in those houses are supposedly very hospitable. Some people live in areas where the water
level surpasses the level of their house. Many Coboclo families have to raise and lower entire
floors to accommodate the water level of the river.
It is unknown how the trees withstand the water log. There are many wild animals that
live in the rainforest and the river. There are even twenty different species of piranha in the
Amazon. Stingrays live in the Amazon River, over time they have adapted to fresh water. Also,
there are even fresh water dolphins, it is said that if you are to harm or kill one of those dolphins
it will bring you bad luck or ill health. Certain fish jump out of the water to eat insects off of tree
branches. The White Bald Uakari is an extremely rare species of monkey that only lives in the
Amazon Rainforest. It looks like a polar bear with a read face. The older the monkey gets the
redder the face, and the redder the face the healthier the monkey is. Howler monkeys are sloths
also live amongst the Amazon. In addition to all of those animals, there are many tropical birds
living amidst the trees.
For December to May, it may rain in the Amazon almost every day. The rain can last for
just minutes or hours. Over the course of a single wet season over 100 inches may soak the basin.
In order for people to eat they must fish. Coboclos live in harmony with the environment, they
use a special technique in order to catch fish. They feed beneath fruiting trees on fruits and seeds,
many of the fish have developed large teeth and strong jaws so they can chew the seeds.
Fishermen attach a seed to the end of a fishing pole, which is held in one hand, in the other hand

they gently whip the surface of the water to cause the illusion of falling seeds. For many
fishermen, the message is clear: save the forests, for there will be no fish.
Coboclo families must catch their fish every day for a meal in order for it to be fresh,
because there is no refrigeration. If they catch a surplus of fish they will go into town and sell
them at the market for money. One of the fish caught in the Amazon is the tambaqui, its fat is
known to be a delicacy when cooked. They have large teeth so they can eat the large seeds that
fall off of trees into the water. When cut open, found in the gut are the seeds they have eaten.
They are then fed to the pigs that a Coboclo family may own. If the fish had digested them they
would have been left on the river floor and possibly grown a new tree.
The second documentary I watched was titled Golden Amazon. It was about deforestation
in the Amazon. Journalists took a hidden camera to an illegal saw mill in the central Amazon.
The man who is giving them a tour is an insider who is afraid to be doing this, because the
people running the business would kill him and the journalists if they found out. An illegal
shipment of trees from the Amazon had made its way to the business that they were researching.
Those trees are processed and sold illegally in the exact same city.
In the logging industry, an expert in fine hardwood trees is known as an explorer. He is
someone who goes into the forest to find the best trees and marks them with a knife, they make
about $20 a day. The companies are making much, much more than that.
For each tree brought down twenty other species are brought down with it. Everyday ten
people take down 150 trees, and the chainsaw has multiplied their output. With just an axe they
would get half a cubic meter of wood per day, but with a chain saw they get 17 cubic meters of
wood per day.
The journalists interviewed a man, who said that an interview like that is very dangerous
because there are people who will murder you and your family over it. There are many cases like
that in the Amazon, where people have died or just disappeared. Several groups of defenders of
nature, protectors of the environment who have disappeared. Another man who is interviewed
tells us how they are paying him to keep quiet, and that is he sees a camera to stop working.
In one city they found 15 illegal logging companies. Companies from Asia have invested
almost 80 million dollars in the logging industry. 80% of the timber that Brazil sells is illegal. 2/3
of it is wasted and cut into saw dust.
The first man that they interviewed went on to say that when you cut down a tree its like
cutting down a person. You see the sap as if it were the trees blood. He says that the trees scream
when they fall, just like a murdered person. He explains that they work on cargo ships in the
summer. They get the wood out and put it into 1 cubic meter cardboard boxes with false bottoms.
The legal timber is left outside, the precious wood goes in the false bottom, and the noble wood
goes inside, so what is actually going inside the ship is two meters, one normal meter, and one
cubic meter of noble wood. 64 species of wood are on the verge of extinction.
There are however sustainable companies that only profit from the extraction and sale of
timber if the ecosystem does not suffer and as long as regenerative methods and policies are

pursued. Mil Madeireira is a scientific and sustainable company. For every tree cut down, three
more are planted. Before cutting a tree they study what would happen to the landscape if cut
down. First, they make a hole in the tree to see if it is hollow. A tree with a 70 cm diameter can
have a hollow up to 12 cm, any larger than that the tree will not be cut down. All of the wood is
certified by the FSC and when people buy furniture or floor made from that wood comes from an
industry that respects the environment.
The documentary then went on to talk about how people fish in the Amazon River.
Certain fish are being overfished, but every part of them is used. The meat is used for food and
the skin is used to make clothing and purses. Certain people take the fish and illegally sell them
at fish markets, with no remorse for the fact that they are an endangered species.
Next, it spoke about mining for gold in the Amazon. People risk their lives every day,
even on Christmas in order to find the element. Only 1% of the land dug up contains gold.
Mercury is used to fix the gold dust that appears in other metals. Throughout the process 150
liters or poisonous discharge are dumped into the rivers each day. The gold is then used for
jewelry. Brazil is the sixth gold producing country in the world. In 1995 the sixth amendment in
Brazil recognized the degradation of the environment as a problem, and now the Brazilian
Constitution deals with the problems caused by gold, such as the use of mercury.
At the Federal University of Mato Grosso Doctors and students are working on studying
the methyl mercury in the fish that people consume. Thousands of fish in the Amazon carry
levels up to 1,200 parts per billion in their flesh, when the acceptable average set by the World
Health Organization is 500. When consumed the mercury enters the blood stream and the central
nervous system. This can cause the loss of reflexes, insomnia, irritability, and an entire process of
clinical symptoms that are harmful to human health.
The third documentary touches upon climate change in the Amazon. Tropical seasons
now arrive without warning, when they used to regularly pass. The level of water will continue
to rise, and the wind can cause many storms. It again mentions how when the water rises people
have to raise their houses and in order to leave their house they must use a canoe. 2009 the water
rose distinctively high.
Trees are security for the soil, the roots hold the earth. If there were not any trees the
earth would be smooth and the water would go away, according to a local. The water levels are a
direct link to deforestation. Another educated local says that there is a water proving effect. Its
partial sealing of the ground cause water infiltration and transports the sediment towards rivers
and lakes. The large quantities of sediments obstruct the submerged land causing the land to
reduce the depth of water in flooded areas. The sediments also make the fish disappear, which
leaves families without food. They also mentioned again how people illegally catch and sell fish.
Conventional medicine is not always affordable, so many people use herbs.
The children in the schools are taught how to handle and protect themselves and the land.
They are taught how to plant cana-rana, which causes smaller waves during storms and fish
species population to grow.

In 2006 a set of laws was made in Brazil that the people who live in the Amazon have the
right to make any law to preserve natural resources and they can impose the law on others. Many
species are threatened, and the people of the Amazon made law that it is forbidden to fish with a
net underneath a tree, only with a line.
The fourth documentary was about wildlife in the Amazon Rainforest. It went over
animals such as the howler monkey, who claims its territory by howling the deepest and loudest.
Also mentioned were the jaguar, lemur, numerous fish, and multiple birds, such as a parrot.
I felt that all of these documentaries were extremely interesting. I had no idea that 6
months out of the year the Amazon Rainforest flooded as much as it does. The way people in the
Amazon handle it is amazing. I couldnt even imagine living in a house in the middle of a river,
where you have to use a canoe to go from one place to another.
They have made me more aware of how harmful deforestation is for the environment,
and how dangerous it can be to work for companies causing the deforestation. People working
for those companies are basically working for a Brazilian mob. If they speak to anyone about
what they are doing while working for the companies they will get killed, or just disappear. Also,
while there I do hope to see effects of deforestation, just because it will mean a whole lot more to
see it in person and to feel for the rainforest. I now have a better understanding of what
deforestation actually is and how certain people and companies go about to make sure that they
are preventing it. Not all logging companies are bad, some of them, few of them, take actions
that only profit them if the ecosystem does not suffer. They study what will happen to the
surrounding landscape if the tree is cut down. For every tree cut, three new ones are planted.
Knowing that there are heartless people in the world preform actions with harmful
effects, such as chopping down the ancient trees of the Amazon or continuously catching and
illegally selling fish of an endangered species is heartbreaking. There are so many fishermen who
feel no remorse when catching an endangered species of fish and then sell it, even though once
all of the fish are gone he will have nothing to sell.
Its interesting to see all the animals, I hope I get to see some of the ones from the
documentaries, not crocodiles of course. Im super excited about the boat ride we will be going
on through the Amazon River, maybe some of the animals will pop up then. I have a feeling that
we will see more than I am thinking being that we will eventually be in canoes and hiking.
Watching these documentaries made me much more excited than I already was to visit
Manaus and to see all of the beautiful rainforest. I am excited to see how our culture is different
from those of Manaus and the Coboclo families. I am excited to experience new things and new
places and see the way people in the state of Amazonia live.