The rain forest here is so dense and this village so isolated that when Russell Mittermeier arrived by bush plane, it seemed for a moment like a step back into an era before worries about global warming.
In a thatched hut lit by kerosene lanterns, the local leader, wearing a headdress of iridescent macaw feathers, listened as Mittermeier, an American environmentalist, described climate change in apocalyptic but distant terms: melting icebergs, parched savannas, flooded cities.
Then he explained the connection to Kwamala, and how the Amazonian jungle here, if preserved, would help reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Mittermeier's idea, offering cash so local villages will protect their forests, is key to the next new tool in the effort to fight climate change: carbon credits.
To read the complete article