The Amazon rain forest is Nature's great treasure chest - rich in biodiversity, but it's fast disappearing. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the fight to save the ecology - and culture - of the rain forest. Also, one man's incredible odyssey to find a nearly extinct Amazonian tribe.

SEGMENT 1

Joe Kane , author of "Savages," tells Steve Paulson about his adventures with the Huarani (wah rah' nee) people -- one of the most isolated tribes in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Huarani oppose oil drilling in their territory which is targeted by Conoco for oil exploration.

SEGMENT 2:

Nature writer Diane Ackerman tells Steve Paulson that the Amazon is unlike anything she'd ever seen before. Ackerman's latest book is "The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds." Also, biologist Michael Goulding tells Judith Strasser about the Amazon floodplain, a unigue wetland habitat filled with spectacular fish. Goulding is director of the Amazon Rivers Project at the Rainforest Alliance and lead author of "Floods of Fortune: Ecology and Economy along the Amazon." And, Wisconsin Public Radio host Jean Feraca describes how she came unravelled during a visit to a remote medical clinic in the company of a group of pharmacists during a week she spent in the Amazon.

SEGMENT 3:

Ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin talks with Jim Fleming about the miracle medicines extracted from rainforest plants by Amazon shamans, including a treatment for herpes. Plotkin is the author of "Tales of A Shaman's Apprentice."

Distribution dates:

• week of 08/11/96 - hour 2
• week of 02/02/97 - hour 2