{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"A health crisis for Peru\u2019s recently contacted people brings planetary health to the fore","description":"Mongabay staff writer Aimee Gabay joins the Newscast this week to discuss her reporting trip to the Peruvian Amazon, where she spoke with the Indigenous Mats\u00e9s community. She made the trip initially to examine environmental threats to Mats\u00e9s territory. Instead, she found them suffering from an epidemic of malaria and hepatitis B, which they have been asking the Peruvian government to help address. \u201cThe story itself was a surprise \u2026 every question directed to them about environmental changes would immediately become an issue about health,\u201d Gabay says. The current epidemic of malaria and hepatitis B they face is being exacerbated by climate change, drought, and state neglect. Prolonged dry weather allows for favorable conditions for malaria-bearing mosquitoes to breed, and at the same time cuts off the river transit that the Mats\u00e9s depend on for access to health care. Community members have travelled to the nearest major city to plead with the Peruvian government, but they say they\u2019re still not receiving the proper health care that they need \u2014 sometimes dying after they reach the city, according to Mats\u00e9s chief Leo Chuma Teca Beso. The Peruvian government has had guidelines for addressing health risks for Indigenous communities for nearly two decades. Still, authorities say they struggle to implement the measures outlined in them, Gabay says. \u201cOn paper, they do have the protocols. They have got plans, but it's the implementation that we're not seeing.\u201d Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here. Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky. Cover image: San Mateo village, one of 29 Mats\u00e9s communities in Peru, on the banks of the G\u00e1lvez River. Image by Aimee Gabay\/Mongabay. Read the full story from Aimee Gabay here. \u2014\u2014- Time codes (00:00) Why the Mats\u00e9s chose to make contact (10:04) A health crisis (16:21) \u201cWhere is the government\u2019s support?\u201d (22:06) Risks to the Yavar\u00ed-Tapiche Corridor (30:41) Getting help to the communities (33:31) An indicator of Planetary Health ","author_name":"Mongabay Newscast","author_url":"https:\/\/www.mongabay.com\/podcast\/","html":"