7. Amazon Rainforest - Uncontacted Peoples
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLErPqqCC54 Okay, not so much a place as a people, the uncontacted tribes of the Amazon live in thriving yet isolated communities in the dense rainforest. The tribe featured in the video above live in small communities in Brazil, full of papaya and cassava plants. They sometimes paint themselves with bright red paint from head to toe and seem to watch the passing planes and camera crews (who are careful to keep their distance) with a sort of calm curiosity. However, their existence is threatened by illegal logging which is encroaching on their territory. Governments are reluctant to even accept the existence of the tribes in order to carry on stripping the jungle of its resources. It poses a very serious threat to these tribes, not only because it depletes their territory and resources, but increases the risk of passing on diseases that their bodies cannot fight, or even coming into direct conflict with loggers. It's not just coming into contact with loggers and documentary makers that would be catastrophic, but with other tribes. As the forest is eroded around them, communities are forced to live closer together, making conflict more likely. Videos and pictures, shot with super-zoom lenses, are one of the few ways that campaigners cans prove the existence of these people and force governments to protect their way of life.