It was Earth Day on the Amazon, 600 kilometers west of Manaus, Brazil. Here the environment is not something "out there," in the pages of a magazine or on the other side of a windshield. It is life itself. In these forests and waterways the people catch fish, plant cassava and harvest wood. Here they were born and here they hope their children will raise their families.

The president of the community association opened the ceremony. Framed by potent symbols--a wooden cross, candles, the flags of Brazil and the state of Amazonas--he pledged devotion to environment, country and religion.

"God gave nature to man," he declared, "but if man does not preserve it, nature will disappear, especially the fish, which is the most important for the sustenance of the people."

Four young people stepped forward for the traditional tree planting ceremony. This was the high-water season and there was no dry land for kilometers around, so they gave the seedlings a temporary home in metal pots.

The ceremony closed with a poster contest. The student artists drew what they knew: sun, forest, rain, fish, birds, animals and people. In most cases, a great tree, its branches pulsing with life, dominated the composition.

In Vila Alencar, the people's lives are entwined with the environment in a thousand ways, and they know it. Their interest lies in protecting natural resources, not despoiling them.

And protecting them they are. As the following pages will show, the people of Vila Alencar and other communities in Latin America are becoming protagonists in a pioneering new approach to nature conservation. They are organizing themselves to protect their environment--helping to make the rules, enforcing them, and ultimately deriving the benefits.