Mark Plotkin: What the people of the Amazon know that you don't

What the people of the Amazon know that you don't

"The greatest and most endangered species in the Amazon rainforest is not the jaguar or the harpy eagle," says Mark Plotkin, "It's the isolated and uncontacted tribes." In an energetic and sobering talk, the ethnobotanist brings us into the world of the forest's indigenous tribes and the incredible medicinal plants that their shamans use to heal. He outlines the challenges and perils that are endangering them — and their wisdom — and urges us to protect this irreplaceable repository of knowledge.

Indigenous tribes of the Amazon hold irreplaceable knowledge about the healing power of plants, often curing ailments that stump Western medicine. These cultures are vanishing even faster than the rainforest itself, with elders seen as living libraries whose loss erases centuries of wisdom. The destruction of their way of life not only threatens biodiversity but also severs our access to potential cures and insights. Protecting their rights and land safeguards both cultural heritage and vital resources for humanity's future.