There are around 250 million indigenous peoples in the world, belonging to over approximately 5,000 groups and living in over 70 countries. They represent only 4% of the global population yet constitute 70-80% of the world's cultural diversity.

The rainforests are home to an estimated 50 million indigenous peoples, but in many areas they have suffered a catastrophic decline. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus first landed in the Americas, there were 1.5-2 million Indians in Amazonia. Today there are approximately 940,000. Indigenous populations are usually a minority within the countries where they live: in Brazil for example they number less than 0.1% of the national population.

Indigenous rainforest people have experienced genocide, land theft and the destruction of large areas of forest as well as high mortality rates from European diseases (such as flu, measles and smallpox) to which they have no immunity.

Traditionally, indigenous peoples practise shifting agriculture, hunting and gathering, and fishing. They use an intimate knowledge of plants, soils, animals, climates and seasons, to exploit nature in a way in which the environment can sustain itself as well as their needs. Their practises involve careful management, control of population, the use of small quantities but a wide diversity of plants and animals, small surpluses and minimum wastage. Plants provide food, medicine, pesticides, poisons, building materials, and provide meat, clothes, string, implements, glues and oil.

The continuing destruction of indigenous peoples rainforest territories, and the denial of their basic rights, is often in contravention of international laws and conventions.

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