Photos: Carla James Betancourt

New technology proves that this region, once thought to be uninhabitable, was home to advanced civilisations

It’s a well-worn tale: Lured by accounts of forgotten ancient civilisations hidden deep beneath Amazonian forests, an explorer bids farewell to his loved ones for the final time, setting off with his fatal obsession to discovering evidence of one of the great mysteries of the 20th century. Enchanted by such tales, English explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett entered the jungle in 1925 never to return, spurring countless rescue missions and inspiring men and women alike from around the world to venture into the unknown to no avail.

Is there any factual basis behind the myths of glittering empires with fabulous treasuries of gold?

With deadly predators roaming the jungle floor, poisonous insects ready to attack any poor wandering soul and nutrient-poor soil, the Amazon region has for years been thought of as an impossible location for any advanced civilisation in which to thrive. However, new archaeological sites are rapidly being discovered which unequivocally upend the belief that the region was uninhabited. Buried beneath hundreds of years worth of jungle growth, cobwebs of roads and bridges reveal the existence of what were once large-scale complex societies. Unlike the stone monuments of the Incas, the ruins produced by these civilisations have been lost beneath the rainforest, but the ecological footprint they left is proving to be much larger than ever imagined.

The ruins produced by these civilisations have been lost beneath the rainforest, but the ecological footprint they left is proving to be much larger than ever imagined.

According to research conducted by the Royal Society, the catastrophic depopulation from epidemics caused by migration from the Old World, and the sheer brutality of the conquistadors devastated an Amazonian population once as large as 6 million people. The abandonment of many settlements resulted in substantial reforestation, which henceforth concealed the evidence that those civilisations ever existed.

Carla Jaimes Betancourt, a Bolivian archaeologist and assistant professor at the University of Bonn, focuses her research on the Moxo plains in northern Bolivia. This tropical savanna ecoregion is home to extensive remains of pre-Columbian agricultural societies. ‘These areas were well-organised, densely populated settlements from around 400 AD,’ Jaimes Betancourt says. ‘Through the analysis of macro remains and human dietary patterns in the area, we’ve realised that from as early as 400 AD, maíz already played an important role in alimentation.’

The indigenous communities that settled in these regions knew how to manipulate the lands in order for it to be inhabitable. Mark Robinson, associate research fellow at the University of Exeter, explains that terra preta, or Amazonian dark earth, found in the Reserva Forestal Iténez provides evidence of advanced cultivation of the land which would not be possible without a human presence. ‘The remnant signature of these communities is how they manipulated the soil in order to grow crops such as corn. Human presence was needed to grow such nutrient-demanding crops, as the natural red or orange soil found throughout the Amazon is low in nutrients,’ Robinson says. ‘Terra preta has very high nutrient values; to achieve this, [pre-Columbian Amazonian civilisations] had to enrich the soil, which they did by burning it, to increase the charcoal content, and by adding waste from cooking. This allowed them to cultivate crops despite the thin, easily weathered soil that is native to the region.’

Pre-Columbian indigenous communities had an incredibly innovative history of agriculture and a biodiversity of plants and animals that we are still discovering.

Interestingly, the Moxo plains suffer from flooding, sometimes for prolonged periods of time. ‘The biggest concern for the communities of this area was water management,’ Robinson explains. ‘They created big earthworks, huge man-made mounds of soil, on which they settled so that they would always be above water level when it floods. They created linear mounds on a huge scale, some as long as 100 kilometres, with small entryways to direct the water into select areas. This way they were able to trap fish in pondlike areas.’

‘What we can learn from these discoveries is that man and nature aren’t enemies, they can live together in harmony,’ Jaimes Betancourt states. ‘These indigenous populations knew how to handle their environment, and did so without causing it harm.’

The key to these new discoveries is the implementation of lidar technology, which is greatly aiding research in dense, previously unseen areas of the Amazon region. ‘This technology allows us to see the transformations and modifications of the land through the trees, without having to destroy the habitat or do investigations by hand,’ says Jaimes Betancourt.

Lidar is remote-sensing technology that fires rapid pulses of laser light at a surface, then measures the amount of time it takes for each pulse to bounce back to create complex 3D models and maps of environments. The data provide incredible topographical detail over vast areas.

Pre-Columbian indigenous communities may not have left behind quite what the conquistadors had dreamt of so dearly – an El Dorado, or city of gold – but they had an incredibly innovative history of agriculture and a biodiversity of plants and animals that we are still discovering. Most important, the implications for indigenous cultural heritage are significant. Proof of life in Amazonia before European conquest helps to remove the racist typecast that the indigenous were primitive or backwards, and it helps to establish a history and identity for these communities who for centuries have been robbed of it.

Balancing development with the environment and indigenous rights in Bolivia

Proyecto Rositas, the plan for a 600 megawatt hydroelectric plant in the Bolivian jungle, is stirring up controversy among activists, conservationists, and indigenous communities in the country.  

Set to be located in the department of Santa Cruz, near the convergence of the Grande and Rositas rivers, the project will reportedly infringe on three protected areas of the jungle, affecting nearly 2,500 species of plants and 570 species of animals, according to Bolivian newspaper Página Siete. It is also expected to displace hundreds of families in twelve indigenous communities due to flooding.

According to a recent report by the non-profit Mongabay, these indigenous communities have filed a lawsuit against the Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (ENDE) for signing the contract for the project without consulting the locals, a right guaranteed to indigenous populations by the Bolivian constitution.

'We have not been taken into account. They have not consulted us at the beginning, before or during [the signing of the contract].’

—Ena Taborga, indigenous representative

'We have not been taken into account,' said indigenous representative Ena Taborga, in Mogabay’s report. 'They have not consulted us at the beginning, before or during [the planning of the project].”

The river conservation organisation Sierra Rios has posted a petition on change.org to 'Save Río Grande and the Grand Canyon of Bolivia!' The campaign urges people to 'Say NO to the Rositas Dam project,' and argues that 'the river carries one of the highest sediment loads in the world and would fill in a reservoir with dirt within 30 years, meaning the life of the dam and project is so short as to make it a terrible investment.'

The Comisión Mundial de Presas (World Commission on Dams) acknowledged in a study that dams have significantly contributed to human development, but that ‘to obtain these benefits, a very high and unnecessary price has often been paid, especially in social and environmental terms, for the part of displaced people, downstream communities, taxpayers and the environment.'

According to ENDE’s website, the project is still in the ‘studies’ phase and is currently undergoing ‘social management’ and ‘environmental evaluation.’

The three protected areas that would be impacted are: the Parque Nacional y Área de Manejo Integrado Serranía del Iñao, the Área de Manejo Integrado Río Grande-Valles Cruceños and the Área Protegida Municipal Parabanó.

Law 2727, which protects the Serranía del Iñao region in Bolivia, states that its objectives include: ‘to conserve the biological diversity of the ecosystems’ of the region, to ‘conserve outstanding values and richness of fauna, flora, genetic resources and wild species in danger of extinction’ and to ‘preserve the natural areas for the development of studies and scientific research and environmental education.’

Página Siete reports that the contract for the construction of the plant violates legal stipulations at national, departmental and municipal levels. The paper also states that the project’s flood area, which comprises 45,000 hectares, will adversely affect the habitats of thousands of species, some of which are endangered.

Reuters reports that the goal of the Rositas Project is for Bolivia to ‘become South America’s leading energy powerhouse’ and to ‘export more than 8,000 megawatts beginning in 2025.’ The $1 billion plan is being financed by Chinese firms.

‘What will happen to our country?’ asked Ely Zarate, leader of the one of the 12 affected communities, in Mongabay’s publication. 'We only think about money, but we do not think about the future of our children and grandchildren that will come later.'

While the government has promised to help relocate the indigenous communities affected by the project, constitutional lawyer and indigenous rights expert Nelson Lamadrid was indignant about the issue.

Dams have significantly contributed to human development, butto obtain these benefits, a very high and unnecessary price has often been paid.

—World Commission on Dams

‘What we do not want is to lose the culture and the indigenous peoples that we have in Bolivia, and we don’t want them to be treated as objects,’ he told Mongabay. ’They cannot just be moved from here to there.’

Both the Department of Energy and the Ministry of Environment and Water in La Paz declined to comment for this article because they were not authorised to speak about a project in progress.

Photo: Wikimedia.org

Gap year gone wrong

Madidi National Park is one of the most biodiverse parks on the planet, hosting, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, 8,000 plant species, 1,000 bird species (a staggering 9% of all the planet’s birds) and 2,000 vertebrates, as well as an array of endangered wildlife. The wildness of the park is one is its primary attractions for thrill-seeking tourists, with an array of agencies in Rurrenabaque offering tours from one to 20 days in the jungle. These offer tourists an exhilarating opportunity to experience the jungle without the actual danger.

Jungle: A Harrowing True Story of Survival, written by Yossi Ghinsberg, shatters any illusion that the park is simply a picturesque tourist destination rather than a formidable and truly wild forest. The firsthand account was adapted into a film last year, directed by Greg McLean and starring Daniel Radcliffe as Ghinsberg. The film depicts the harrowing story of Ghinsberg’s survival after whimsical notions of self-discovery and adventure lead a group of young travellers into the Bolivian jungle. The film reopens a discussion about the relationship between tourist and forest and the problems that come from romanticising real danger.

Ghinsberg was three weeks alone in the jungle, suffering from hallucinations and performing self-surgery among other gruesome survival experiences.

Ghinsberg arrived in La Paz in the early 1980s, a young Israeli fresh out of military service in search of adventure. Whilst there he was approached by Karl Ruprechter, who claimed to be an Austrian geologist. Ruprechter offered to take Ghinsberg and his two friends on a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ adventure to find gold and Indians in the Amazon. The group were taken in by the colonialist dream and, without a second thought, traipsed into the Amazon. Predictably, things deteriorated. Disagreements within the group led to Gale and Ghinsberg splitting from the group, going ahead by raft, which was then destroyed. Whilst Gale was rescued after five days; what followed for Ghinsberg was three weeks alone in the jungle, suffering from hallucinations and performing self-surgery among other gruesome survival experiences. He was eventually rescued thanks to the efforts of Gale and the local community of San José de Uchupiamonas. The fate of the other two remains unknown to this day, appropriately steeped in conspiracy. It was later discovered that Ruprechter – shock! horror! – was not in fact an innocent geologist but a criminal wanted by Interpol, but this revelation still has provided no insights into his actions or intentions with the young travellers.

Considering the difficulty of going astray in the jungle accidently and the foolishness of doing it on purpose, there have been quite a few notable cases of outsiders getting lost in the Madidi jungle. After Ghinsberg, there was the case of Lars Hafskjold, a Norwegian biologist, in 1997. He disappeared whilst searching for the fabled Toromona tribe, the same community that had so intrigued Ghinsberg. Most recently, in 2017, a young Chilean, Maykool Coroseo Acuña, found himself lost for nine days in the same area. The whole event was shrouded in mystery, from his reasoning for leaving his tour (blamed by the locals on an angry Pachamama) to his alleged story of being saved by a tribe of monkeys. All the stories share inexplicable elements of mystery in the men’s decisions, experiences and survival.

All it takes is a quick search online to find ‘What to do if you get lost in the jungle.’ The first step is that you shouldn't wander into the jungle in search for the elusive ‘adventure’ – that’s just plain stupid. Furthermore, it is incredibly hard to do accidently. A common feeling shared by indigenous groups who actually live in the jungle is a profound respect for the environment. It is not a place where you can survive indefinitely on what you have gleaned from a Friday-night binge-watch of Bear Grylls. One thing that the film adaptation of Jungle does capture is the sheer multitude of bad decisions made by the young men. From following a strange Austrian into a forest without telling anyone to splitting from the guide in the midst of that forest with absolutely no prior jungle training – simply in an attempt to achieve the most unique and fulfilling gap year experience – there were some severe errors made. This naïve romanticism about the jungle is at the heart of most jungle-survival experiences. As Ghinsberg himself admitted, ‘Karl saw how I drank up every word that he said. I was naïve and begged him to take me with him.’

After his ordeal and subsequent recuperation, Ghinsberg returned to Madidi. Upon discovering that the people who had come to his rescue, the community of San José, were struggling economically, he worked with the Inter-American Development Bank and Conservation International to set up the Chalalán ecolodge in 1999.

The jungle is not a place where you can survive indefinitely on what you have gleaned from a Friday-night binge-watch of Bear Grylls.

Whilst most of the planet has been tailored to host humans, Madidi Park retains its wildness. True wildness is a unique and rare occurrence in most of our everyday lives, and it can remind us of the formidable power of nature. The stories of these men are not supposed to deter tourists from experiencing the jungle, but instead provide examples of where misplaced pride and confidence can be dangerous. Hopefully the Hollywood adaptation will inspire a new wave of adventurers to explore the Bolivian rainforest whilst reminding them of their human limitations.

Survival Tips for the Jungle

Don’t panic; stay as calm and collected as possible.

Keep as orientated as possible; stick to a single direction or find a river to follow – do not just wander aimlessly.

Don’t follow a mysterious Austrian into the jungle.

Don’t split up.

Follow animal trails as they may lead you to water sources/food, etc. (Acuña claimed that following a group of monkeys helped him survive in the jungle.)

Be careful with your feet (this was the downfall Ghinsberg and Stamm; whilst sores are inevitable, it is vital to keep your feet dry and aired-out to prevent foot rot).

If faced by a jaguar, spray insect repellent into a lighter to create a flamethrower (according to Ghinsberg, he learned this trick from a James Bond movie).

Do not try to kill the worms that crawl under your skin; they’ll get infected and you’ll probably die

       Final tip: just don’t get lost in the jungle!