Luis [speaking spanish] [drums and cheering] narrator the mapuche, not only chiles largest indigenous group, but also known for their courage and skills as warriors. They are one of the only Indigenous Peoples in latin america, which during centuries withstood total domination by the spanish conquistadors. Their downfall came later. Elisa [chanting] [singing in mapudugun] [speaking spanish] narrator elisa, on the footsteps of her ancestors, is fighting a present day battle to preserve for posterity the language and culture of her people, the mapuche, so that they and their heritage dont disappear forever. Elisa [speaking spanish] luis [speaking spanish] elisa [singing in mapudugun] narrator elisa has traveled 700 kilometers south to her ancestral territory, where to this day the mapuchan are engaged in a bitter struggle to recover lands lost to both the spanish and then the chileans. Her focus now, though, is to support her people in the rival of the language and culture both closely linked to their access to land. [both speaking spanish] elisa [speaking spanish] narrator elisa takes us to their ceremonial site, until just a few years ago, a rubbish dump for local nonmapuche people. Elisa [speaking spanish] narrator and the next day, she gathers local mapuche people at the site to learn how to perform one of their traditional ceremonies. [all speaking spanish] [rhythmic drumming] elisa [speaking spanish] narrator but for elisa, life and the struggle for the mapuche identity continues in santiago and even further away. Elisa [speaking spanish] alenkura. Class alenkura. Elisa antwitchway. Class antwitchway. Elisa [speaking spanish] kinturay. Class kinturay. Elisa kvyenx. Woman [speaking spanish] elisa [speaking mapudugun] narrator but these are courses at a private university. Says elisa, to really increase the number of speakers, all mapuche children should have the right to study in school in their language, which is not currently the case. Elisa [speaking spanish] narrator in rural areas, this may be possible, but in the city, now home to some 70 of the indigenous population of chile, its rare. Elisa [speaking spanish] narrator scattered across a sprawling city, the indigenous are also among the poorest and most marginalized in the country. And says elisa, frequently subject to discrimination. Elisa [speaking spanish] narrator consequently, only some 4 of young mapuche speak their language, a problem recognized by the government. Marcos [speaking spanish] luis [speaking spanish] narrator for decades, Indigenous Peoples have been organizing to make their voices heard globally. Here, elisa speaks at the United Nations in new york. Elisa [speaking spanish] man dos votos. Narror in 2007, the United Nations declaration on indigenous rights was adopted. [cheers and applause] which includes the right to language. Luis [speaking spanish] elisa [speaking spanish] narrator in the wild semidesert of northern namibia, a rare and elusive species. Simson we have to move backwards. We have to move backwards. Narrator solitary and sometimes aggressive, the black rhino is on the critically endangered list. Simson if they kill 1,000, 600 per year, thats the end of the rhinos in namibia, actually. Narrator the black rhinos twin threats, poaching and drought. Narrator namibia, southwest africa. Its landscapes, mostly uninhabited, havent changed in millions of years. Hollywood movies have filmed these mountains to depict prehistoric life. Talking of prehistoric, theres an animal that traces back to those times still living in this area, but its endangered. And in the semidesert wilderness of northwest namibias kunene region, its not easy to track down. Simson thats where he was walking. Thats the spore. See 3 toes. Narrator meet simson urikhob. Hes head of the save the rhino trust. Simson i love my work. Thats why i am here all the time. Narrator simson is a legend in rhino conservation. He started repairing cars for the save the rhino trust before working his way up, becoming a tracker and studying conservation biology. Simson this one young calf, he will run. Bloody run off. Narrator today, though, we missed what were looking for, a black rhino, a species at serious risk of extinction. In this case, a young calf who ran off at the first inkling that humans were in his area. Well keep trying. Simson well, theres quite a rhino activity here. You can see the spore where they have been browsing on the trees and also on the shrubs. So, yeah, they are around. The wind is ok. We dont know whats going to happen on top there, but so far, as you can see, the wind is going this way and the animals are up here. So we have go this direction. Narrator black rhinos have poor eyesight, but if they get the faintest whiff of you, and theyre also very sensitive to noise, this is all youre likely to see. After the first day, we literally had 10 seconds of useable footage. But then on the second day, finally. Simson yeah, gone. I havent seen the ears yet, but i think this is a young cow called tut because this is her territory. She used to live here. Wait. Naator but en 10yearold tut seemed to hear somethg. Simpson what happened was during the relocation. Ops. Ops. Ops. We have to move backwards. We have to move backwards. Narrator tutah begins to charge. We retreat in disorder. And simson, knowing what to do, throws a stone into tutahs path. Simson jokes with his fellow trackers. Simson [speaking native language] i aim for it. I know if its coming there, its really coming. Its coming like on 45 kilometers an hour. So its fast. Youll never outrun it. Narrator you see, thats the thing about the black rhino. Its mostly a solitary beast. Its nervous and aggressive. Look at these incidents from National Parks in southern africa. Note the bloody wound on the backside of the rhino on the right. [rhinos grunting] the 140 black rhino living in the kunene region, an area larger than portugal, are unique. Simson this is actually the last vast area, open area, free, where you find free moving black rhinos on earth. Narrato unlike in the natiol parks with their numerous tourists, black inos in kunene are not fenced in. Theyre tru wild and very wary of human contact, although many of have been dehorned to protect th against poaching. On the right is a bull called dont worry with a cow, mara. Its day 3. Simson tells me he once had to stay up a tree for two and a half hours after dont worry chased him there. Here, he sprays to mark out his territory. Sounds effects courtesy of simpson. Simpson [making spraying unds] narrator overall, the are fewer than 5,000 wild black rhinos in exisnce, all in africa. Theyre officially classified as a critically endangered species. Black rhinos here are specially adapted for the semidesert conditions. They can go for 3 or more days without water and they eat plantwhere they can draw some moisture, such as the euphorbia damarana, that are poisonous to most other animals. Simson hes a cow. And you can see the scratch mark on the back. See that scratch mark . Why thisthey are matingits the bulls hooves, when he climbed up. See, that scratch up there like that . Narrator mating is obviously vital if the speciess to survive. Black rhinos couple up for just a few days at a time. Simson then, like, 17, 18 months later, then the cow will have a calf. Narrator but even if the calf is born, thats not the end of the story. There are still plenty of challenges. Simson weve been facing drought in this area for the past 4 years, i would say. This is the worst i have ever seen in my 25 years of working in thiarea. Yeah. There should be water here. Not even sing sign of water here. Human threat is there, but now the drought is also another threat. So we facing two threats at once. And they both hammering us, actually. Yeah. Narrator in a severe drought like this, a cow may well not be able to produce enough milk and the calf will starve to death. The second threat, the human threat, is poaching. So far namibia has not been as badly affected as neighboring south africa. Illegal hunting is driven by the huge demand for rhino horn in parts of asia where its sold quite falsely as a cure for diseases like cancer. [indistinct chatter] rhino horn is literally worth more than gold in this market. Simson it started off in south africa, and the numbers just rose there until 1,000, 600, i think, a year. [gunshot] if that happened in namia, if they killed 1,000, 600 per year, then thats the end of the rhinos in namibia, actually. Narrator recently, poachers hae moved across namibia and eventually found their wayo kunene. Pilot we are approaching. Narrator as well as surveillance from the air, save the rhino trust ackerare out every week monitoring and photographi black rhino and entering them into a database. They also look out for suspicious vehicles and activities. 30 years ago, there were only 60 black rhinos in kunene. With successful conservation efforts, that tripled. But now, in the last few years, that number has been dropping again because of drought and poaching. So what is the way forward . Simson i guarantee you if you dont have the support of the community on Community Land in conservation, then you might as well forget. Its not working. Nrator the most effective way to protect the black rhino is to bring in the local community. Bonds roman s been locly recruit as a guide for tourists who come to desert rhino camp at the heart of kunene. The camp is run by wilderness safaris, who in turn collaborate with the save the rhino trust. Its a winwinwin. A limited number of tourists bring in money, which finances the monitoring and protection of the black rhino and also creates jobs for local people. Bonds this Community System or conservation system where by you, the local, make a decision. You are involved with the things you love together. And that makes it actually a succeful thing, you know. The ownership that you feel. Narrator and so simson and his team can keep on tracking. Simson as you can see here, black rhinos tend to use the same dung pile as they go into the ter or coming from the water. This is very fresh. Its still wet wet. Theres quite a lot of fiber in it here. And then you found sticks cause they browse and they browse quite a lot on trees and shrubs. Narrator its day 4 and we on the right path. Simson has found fresh rhino dung. And n a surprise, tutah, the cow seen on the right who chased us off just two days ago, has been joined by 33yearold ben for mating. With bens protection, shes wary, but not so nervous. Simson our goal, actually, is to have as many as possible blackhinos roaming in northwest kunene region in the future. Thats what we want. Narrator as ben and tutah walk off into not the sunset, but a valley in the soft midday light, the future of the black hino livinfree in thtrue wildoes with em. u at the turn of the 21st century, several thousand tons of scientific studies on Climate Change all lead to a single revolutionary