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Venezuela.
Amazonas region. The Orinoco
River near the Esmeralda (Amazon Rain Forest).
The
Orinoco is the world’s fourth largest river in terms of
the volume of its flow. From its source in southern
Venezuela it flows into the Atlantic, collecting most of
the region’s other rivers and streams along the way. It
is navigable over 700 kilometers (435 miles) and is still
the main transport route into a region with an area of
almost 180,000 square kilometers (70,000 square miles).
The lack of transportation links has allowed the Amazonian
forest and savannah, with their 8,000 plant species and
680 bird species, to remain relatively undamaged.
Indigenous peoples have also survived – the Yanomami in
particular, one of the world’s few remaining populations
of hunter-gatherers. But this is only a respite. Landless
farmers set fire to the forest, driving away the Yanomami;
poachers use them as guides when seeking rare animals for
rich collectors; and gold prospectors exploit them for
cheap labor. The massacre of the Yanomami is intensifying,
and it seems unlikely that any of them will remain
untouched by globalization.
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