If images of the rainforest burning to the ground have hit you in the gut in recent weeks, we bring good news: action takers are coming together all around you to rise up and fight for the world’s lungs. And BBS is with them!
In the beautiful city of Victoria, Canada, set amongst the wild Pacific Northwest, BBS was proud to host activist and filmmaker Celine Cousteau and her latest documentary Tribes on the Edge on August 29th, 2019. A film that’s been a decade in the making, Celine took our viewers deep into the heart of the Amazon and into communities of remote tribes where she explored and confronted the harsh realities facing these last guardians of the rainforest. Not only did the film bring the Amazon close to home, the screening also raised $7,000 to go towards an impact campaign designed to fight alongside indigenous frontline warriors. 
We are now working to support Celine and the tribes of the Javari to use these funds to survey their lands against illegal deforestation, and collect evidence that’s desperately been lacking in order to prosecute criminal activities in a country known for murdering more journalists and activists than virtually any other nation on earth. The task is immense but worthwhile!
Celine and her team return to Brazil in November 2019 and, in the meantime, we will be busy working with her on ways to bring things like drone surveillance to the rainforest, and are even in talks to use cameras on the International Space Station to monitor deforestation from space!
If you’d like to support this continued effort, we invite you to donate here.
If you’d like to host your own film screening and fundraising for this cause, we invite you to contact us so we can see what might be possible!
Celine is also looking for a formal distributor of the film now that the grassroots debut is done. If you know people at CNN, PBS, Netflix, or any other major distributor who might be suitable to help spread the message of Tribes on the Edge to the world, please let us know. Many hands make light work!
About the Film
Tribes on the Edge, an independent documentary directed and produced by Céline Cousteau, explores the timely topics of land threats, health crises, and human rights issues of the indigenous peoples of the Vale do Javari in the Brazilian Amazon, expanding the view to how this narrative is relevant to our own lives. This is a story that invokes the critical importance of respect and care – for land, culture, and humanity. Our survival may depend on it.
Home to six recognized tribes plus the largest concentration of un-contacted indigenous peoples in the entire Amazon (and some say the world), the indigenous territory of the Vale do Javari in the Brazilian Amazon spans 85,000 square kilometers (the size of Portugal) and has been listed as “irreplaceable” by the IUCN because of its incredible biodiversity. Considering there is no deforestation in the Amazon where there are indigenous territories, this human presence provides a barrier to the destruction of the ecosystem and its flora and fauna. With the current assault on the Brazilian Amazon and its inhabitants because of political and economic interests, there is urgency for this story to be shared.
The peoples of the Javari face threats to their survival because of encroaching illegal activities such as hunting, fishing and gold mining. The Brazilian government led by Bolsonaro is slowly dismantling all the protections of their land and human rights. Each day these 5,000 indigenous warriors are fighting to protect their homes and those living in isolation. This fight is relevant to all of us because they act as a crucial barrier to deforestation and thus are a stronghold for climate change mitigation and preservation of biodiversity.
Humans and nature are intimately interconnected. Where there is environmental destruction, humans suffer. In the Brazilian Amazon, where there are indigenous communities, there is no deforestation. If they vanish, we lose the guardians of vital ecosystems and thus may lose that ecosystem as a result. More than a film, it has grown into a movement driven by a passionate effort to enact tangible impact through Action, Communication and Education (ACE) initiatives. Tribes on the Edge reminds us all that our survival depends on our actions – to support and protect the people and the ecosystems they safeguard for the benefit of us all.
