The Portuguese Program Lecture Series presents Rodolfo Prates from the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Brazi.  His lecture addresses the delicate and fragile biomes of the Amazon basin and the extreme impacts of deforestation, mining and drought. The lives of indigenous peoples and their rich traditions across the Amazon are being severely altered. This talk pays special attention to the Amazon in Brazil, but these human and environmental factors are spread to Paraguay and Argentina, as well.