Abstract
The first humans entered South America during the Late Pleistocene, when the lowland tropics were less
densely forested than now and sea level was lower. During subsequent millennia, they learned to accommodate to changing conditions and developed an exhaustive knowledge of the biota and their interactions
that permitted them to maintain sustainable levels of long-term exploitation of the varying local resources.
This attitude of accommodation contrasts with the predatory behavior of recent immigrants of European
origin, which threatens not only the future of Amazonia, but of the planet as a whole.
