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GLOBAL CHALLENGES
The Lost World; Possible Fate of Palau
Aired October 16, 2004 - 19:30:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEMI OKE, HOST (voice-over): Coming up, the lost world. Ancient Mayan civilizations hide beneath the forest canopy, but the law of profits from the logging industry threaten ruin once again.
DR. RICHARD HANSEN, ARCHEOLOGIST: It's pretty tough to say to a campasino (ph), Mr. Campasino (ph), leave this tree pretty and green because it's pretty and green, but in the meantime, starve to death.
OKE: Swimming with sharks. Where there's smoke, there's fire for the president of a tiny Pacific island.
TOMMY REMENGESAU, PRESIDENT OF PALAU: We do know this, one mistake, one oil spill, can mean the end of the Republic of Palau, in terms of our economic development.
OKE: And mind over matter. Monkeys reach for the future by moving objects with mind body intensity. Food for thought, as always, on GLOBAL CHALLENGES.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OKE: The rainforest of Guatemala's Mirador Basin, home and guardian to countless species of animals, insects trees and plants. It's also the location of some of the Mayan civilizations most impressive communities.
Ancient Maya has since banished, but the remnants that remained hidden for centuries beneath the canopy of the forest are gradually beginning to reveal themselves. Ironically, this comes at a time when the forest itself is disappearing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Mirador Basin in Guatemala's Peten Jungle. 2,500 square kilometers of lush, virgin, tropical rainforest hiding and protecting the ruins of ancient Mayan cities that date back thousands of years, cities build by sophisticated, advanced societies that were at their heyday hundreds of years before Christ.
Archeologists have been working in El Mirador for decades. Dr. Richard Hansen says that it is a treasure trove of ancient history.
HANSEN: This is -- a pre-classic city like this and 26 pre-classic cities around us, is like a modern-day Pompeii.
WHITBECK: The largest pyramid in the world, La Danta, a mass larger than the pyramids of Giza in Egypt, its base covering more than 10 city blocks, and immense causeway's built to connect the structures, the remains clearly visible from the air.
Hansen says at the time El Mirador was the New York City of the Western hemisphere and studying it has been a life-long effort. An effort that recently has involved the latest in technology. Space imagery of the basin provided by NASA satellites and laser mapping of the ancient buildings that brings them to life in 3-dimensional images.
HANSEN: The first stable society in the Western hemisphere, right here.
We never dig to see what's there. We're digging to answer scientific questions. It helps to understand this process. What were the process -- why does a society living in the Amazon, still naked and a hunting and gathering societies, and the Mayan were living in a similar environment achieved a state-level -- one of the world's great civilizations. What was that process? What was it that launched them into that sphere?
WHITBECK: There is more than just digging going on here. While these excavations yield valuable scientific data, they are also opening a window into what could be a bright future for Guatemala, a future of responsible tourism, sustainable development and conservation in one of the last remaining chunks of rainforest in Central America.
(voice-over): The rainforests surrounding El Mirador are under intense pressure. Settlers have burned huge swaths of forest to the ground to plant mepa (ph), subsistence level corn crops. Loggers have cut down tens of thousands of trees to sell precious woods abroad. Ranchers have turned the jungle into huge pastures for their cattle.
Hansen says the only way to prevent that from happening in El Mirador is to provide alternate sources of income to the campasinos (ph), the people who inhabit it now, and the ruins could be the answer.
HANSEN: It's pretty tough to say to a campasino (ph), Mr. Campasino (ph), leave this tree pretty and green because it's pretty and green, but in the meantime, starve to death. We have to provide an economic alternative and an economic justification in order to say that, and that's what this basin offers to the country, what this basin offers to the world.
WHITBECK: That alternative is tourism, attracting visitors to observe the wonders of archeology in El Mirador.
HANSEN: We could put 10,000 tourists in the Mirador Basin and you wouldn't see anybody all day. There's enough sites out here, and 26 major sites, trails that go through all 600,000 acres of forest.
WHITBECK: And the Guatemalan government agrees. It has made tourism a national priority and is looking at ways of developing tourism in El Mirador without destroying the fragile ecosystem that surrounds it.
Ana Smith is with Guatemala's Tourism Commission. She's spent decades exploring these jungles and says the key to success is in involving the local communities.
ANA SMITH, GUATEMALAN TOURISM COMMISSION: Our communities have no training in what tourism is all about, but now they're being involved in how to receive the tourists, how to take them to the different sites.
WHITBECK: Carmelita is the closest village to El Mirador, the last outpost of civilization before the jungle begins. Carmelita's mayor is excited about the prospects.
"As a tourism guide, I can make double what I make growing maize or other crops. How could I turn my nose up at something that offers me more income."
But there are challenges. Finding ways to bring in tourists without cutting in roads that would attract loggers and more settlers. The government and the archeologists are developing hiking trails and are looking for noninvasive transit systems that can move people in without destroying the forest.
Tax incentives from the government will permit tourism operators to build eco-friendly tented camps and provide basic infrastructure like running water and electricity.
Hansen believes the greatest resource is in the inhabitants of the area itself.
HANSEN: We make this a wildlife wilderness preserve and then we train these people, we teach them, we help them understand how to teach people, how to participate as guides and restaurant owners and hotel owners and bicycle renters and equipment renters and mules and equipment providers and cooks, et cetera. Then they become part of the economic package. The money is distributed among the communities in a logical, economic way.
WHITBECK: Millions from tourism could substitute thousands from traditional agriculture, a gift from the past that is set to insure the future.
Harris Whitbeck for GLOBAL CHALLENGES, El Mirador, Guatemala.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OKE: From forest green to ocean blue, after the break a Pacific Island, a president and an ambitious plan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OKE: Welcome back to GLOBAL CHALLENGES from the Guatemalan Rainforest.
If you think this is a remote, isolated place, try finding the location of our next story. Palau is barely a dot on the map in the Western Pacific, about 15,000 kilometers from here.
The two places may be far apart, but they share the same challenge: trying to balance economic development with conservation. Luckily, the president of the tiny island has some big ideas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the pristine waters of the Western Pacific sits an archipelago of hundreds of islands, the nation of Palau.
It's a place of breathtaking natural beauty above and below the waters.
No surprise then that Tommy Remengesau, the president of Palau, is an avid diver and one of the leading voices for environmental protection in the region.
TOMMY REMENGESAU, PRESIDENT OF PALAU: I tell you, I don't care if you have emotional, physical or spiritual problem, you forget it down there.
CHINOY: These crystal clear waters are home to nearly 1,500 species of fish, some unique to Palau. At least 600 species of coral make up the reefs which provide a rich habitat capable of supporting this extraordinary range of marine life.
REMENGESAU: Palau has such a rich marine ecosystem here. A lot of diversified corals down there and I just want it to be able to be there not just for me but for my children and the future generations.
CHINOY: But on this day, as the president showed us around, a reminder of the fragility of Palau's natural beauty. There's smoke on the horizon. We followed Palau's marine rangers and we discovered what President Remengesau fears most. A fishing boat in flames, run aground on one of Palau's most beautiful coral reefs, shattering the delicate, slow- growing coral, fouling the waters.
REMENGESAU: She ran ashore and you face oil spills and damage to the coral. It's a big disaster.
CHINOY: The marine rangers check out the damage as the president watches anxiously, pondering how to protect Palau's environment amidst growing pressures for economic development.
A nas (ph), a traditional ceremony marking the birth of a first child, designed to bring the baby and its parents wealth and good fortune. The new mother, 18-year-old Fazila (ph), is given a necklace of traditional stone and turtle shell money. As the elders meet, Fazila (ph) is then anointed with coconut oil and brought before friends and relatives for hours of singing and dancing. Guests these days offering not stones and shells, but gifts of cash.
Many citizens of this small, impoverished nation, however, wonder where the cash to live on will come from. Palau's economy is almost entirely dependent on tourism and commercial fishing supplemented by aid from the United States and Japan. It's simply not enough and there is growing pressure to come up with other sources of income.
(on camera): One of the most controversial is a proposal to drill for oil. There are some indications there may be significant deposits of crude in the waters off one of Palau's most remote islands. But whether to exploit those resources has stirred a passionate and sometimes bitter debate here.
(voice-over): Ritacho (ph) is the traditional chief of Kiango (ph), the island closest to the suspected oil deposits. He says Palau has no choice but to produce oil.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): If there was other alternatives, economic alternatives, that could equal the amount of funds that Palau can get, that we would pursue it.
CHINOY: President Remengesau, however, says not so fast.
REMENGESAU: We do know this: one mistake, one oil spill, can mean the end of the Republic of Palau in terms of our economic development.
CHINOY: The president's unyielding environmental stance has irritated many other Palaun politicians, including Senator Lucius Malsol, whose plan to build a casino was also blocked by the president.
LUCIUS MALSOL, SENATOR, PALAU: We have some potential companies who have left the island because of the stringent environmental requirements. We're going overboard in these areas.
CHINOY: But on Palau's biggest island, Babelthuap, other development projects are moving ahead. A new road will be finished soon, opening up an area that is still largely untouched jungle. There is talk of a golf course, luxury hotels, spa and already the environmental damage is visible.
In Aray Bay (ph), off Babelthuap, members of the Palau International Coral Reef Center monitor coral that are literally suffocating from sediment generated by construction projects.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to be and it's going to be just mud. All the soil is going to (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It's going to be a mud bath. There's no longer going to be the corals and coral reef. It's no longer a functioning coral reef.
CHINOY: To protect its delicate marine environment, Palau has imposed strict regulations on where foreign fishing fleets can operate and how much they can catch, but for Captain Ian Merkle (ph), skipper of the country's only deep sea patrol boat, it's a virtually impossible task.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have thousands and thousands of fishing vessels out there. There's only one patrol boat for the republic. We just don't have enough time to stop these vessels and inspect them.
CHINOY: On this morning, the patrol boat spots a questionable vessel and moves to board it.
(on camera): We're now approaching a Japanese fishing boat the officers want to check to make sure its papers are in order and it's not part of the widespread illegal fishing that takes place in the waters off Palau.
(voice-over): While the mainly Filipino and Indonesian crew look on, the police check for fishing licenses and search for hidden cargo.
Palau is one of only a handful of countries that bans the killings of sharks for their fins, a delicacy in Asia, but many ships hide shark fins under the rest of their catch.
(on camera): Did you find everything in order?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. They are registered and they have all the documents that they need to go on and proceed so they're OK.
CHINOY (voice-over): Managing their resources is nothing new for the Palauns. They've been doing it for as long as anyone can remember. Now, though, it has the force of law. Tourists like these, cavorting on jet skis, are only allowed to do so in two designated places. Although Palau has three remarkable inland lakes teeming with millions of non-stinging jelly fish, a phenomenon unique to the country, only one is open to the public and there is talk of limiting access here too.
And President Remengesau is determined to keep it that way.
REMENGESAU: Why are we developing Palau? Who are we developing Palau for? I mean, our traditions and culture and way of life is becoming threatened. I think somebody should make the tough decisions, to say enough is enough.
CHINOY: At Palau's most famous dive site, tourists mingle easily with the fish, an equilibrium between man and nature, Palau, for now, anyway, has managed to maintain.
Mike Chinoy, CNN, Palau.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OKE: After the break, extreme monkey business. They're so smart, they can move an object just by thinking about it. It's a mind boggling technology, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OKE: In the Guatemalan rainforest, if you listen very carefully, one of the sounds you may be able to catch is the roar of howler monkeys, one of my very distant relatives, obviously on my husband's side of the family.
There is a similarity, though, between the way monkeys think and our brains operate, and it's that similarity that has inspired some United States scientists to do some mind-blowing work.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OKE (voice-over): A single brain cell gets fired up. This is a recording of a miniscule part of a thought. To get it, scientists put an electrode into a brain and hooked it up to a computer. This branch of science is known as neural prosthetics. Using implants rather like this one, the aim is to turn thought into action so that severely disabled patients can operate a computer or even a car just by thinking about it.
But this isn't science for the future. Researchers at Cyberkinetics, a U.S. medical device company, are starting clinical trials on a system they call Brain Gate. In an operation, a sensor is connected to a pedestal which is attached to the head. The sensor records electrical signals from the brain and these signals are fed into a device that interprets them.
The interpreted signals are then fed into a computer where the person's thoughts are used to move a cursor on a computer screen.
There are a number of other researchers also developing brain implants. At the California Institute of Technology, Professor Richard Anderson is in charge of a team of neuroscientists and monkeys.
PROF. RICHARD ANDERSON, CAL TECH: So this one area that we target, called the reach region, is about half the size of your small fingernail in the monkey. It has maybe 10 or 20 million neurons in it, and we're only sampling maybe 100.
OKE: The sampling is done using the electrodes I'm holding in my hand. The fine wires are the width of a human hair. They sit next to microscopic nerve cells and record brain activity.
The sociable rhesus monkey has a brain very similar to ours. They make idea subjects for neuroscience.
Every rhesus monkey at the Anderson Lab is given a brain scan so the electrodes can be carefully positioned. Then amazingly enough, the monkeys are taught to play videogames.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most of our monkeys are very smart monkeys, otherwise they wouldn't be able to.
OKE: Of course. All my children are smart children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. Otherwise we would not be able to do this kind of experiments with these monkeys, because it really requires a lot of cooperation from them.
OKE (on camera): This setup is called a rig. It's where the practical research takes place. In front of the monkey, a touch screen monitor and a flat screen, and then the monkey will sit in here in a specially adapted chair. So that there are no visual distractions, the monkey works in the dark.
(voice-over): The point of the videogame is to teach the monkeys how to complete the research tasks. In this game, the monkey is chasing the green dot using a joystick. They eventually learn to play without the joystick, encouraged by frequent rewards of fruit juice. You can actually see him licking his lips. The game starts when the monkey touches the center of the screen. He thinks about moving the cursor, and remarkably, it moves.
While the monkey plays, the computer is busy recording and sorting his thoughts. Using this data, software is written that can read the brain activity that is involved in physically reaching towards the screen. The software anticipates the thought process so the computer program reads the monkey's mind and moves the cursor for him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The program, of course, doesn't know this, but it will give you a guess that the monkey is just about to get orange juice, and he's about to reach to the right to get it, and we can do that fairly well as well.
OKE: The neural prosthetic project is one of Cal Tech's animal research programs. It's president and Nobel laureate Professor David Baltimore is pragmatic about its importance.
PROF. DAVID BALTIMORE, CAL TECH: We want to understand humans. We cannot do certain kinds of research on humans because it's interventional and simply inappropriate. And it also involves very long-term investigation of the subject, and it's just not the kind of thing you can do with humans at all. So we have surrogates in monkeys to do that. The monkeys are surprisingly happy about it.
OKE: The team eventually will be doing more work with patients and improving the electrode technology.
ANDERSON: We're also working on making the implant like a cell phone, so that it will have telemetry and in that case there will be no wires. And it will just broadcast the signal out of the brain.
OKE (on camera): Excellent. Maybe it will even get e-mail.
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: That would be good.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OKE: That's it. But if any of our stories give you food for thought, let us know at Global.Challenges@CNN.com. I'm Femi Oke, see you next time.
END
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