Bruce Parry - 'I want to save the amazon – it's the lungs of the planet'

BRUCE PARRY is too fat and his clothes and shoes slow him down. That's not me talking – he can catch my dinner any time – but a member of the Kombai tribe of West Papua, with whom the presenter spent a month when filming Tribe, the television series where he spent four years living with various indigenous peoples around the globe.

"They were spot on," laughs the 39-year-old. "That was my favourite comment of the series. They said they didn't care where I came from because it was obviously crap. I was too fat, my clothes and shoes slowed me down… They're perfectly adapted to their environment but I'm not, which is why I need all this manufactured clobber to help me survive there."

While the Kombai might consider Parry on the chubby side, the women in the audience at his sellout Edinburgh book-signing for Amazon, the story of his journey from the river's source in the Peruvian Andes to Brazil's Atlantic coast and the people who live along it, simply wouldn't agree.

"Ooh, he's tiny," the one jostling for room next to me commented to her friend.

"Small but perfectly formed," replied her pal, not in the least disappointed that he wasn't as Amazonian in the flesh as he appears on his TV series about the region, which saw him spend eight months travelling 6,000km along the world's longest river – turning his hand to a little log-rolling, tree-chopping and crocodile-hunting en route.

At the book signing, there was standing-room only, and while the crowd clearly had elements who watch Amazon because they are concerned about the future of the planet, there are also those who watch it to see Parry get his kit off, model a penis gourd or wrestle a bullock to the ground.

I can confirm that, up close, Parry is indeed perfectly formed, spare and wiry – as you would expect of a former marine commando. But he is the medium not the message, and I suspect he couldn't care less about the personal attention; indeed, he confesses with a shudder that he "hates" the PR work that goes with getting his serious point across. So what is the message of the book and television series? "That everything we touch, eat and drink in our world has an effect somewhere else that we don't see. As our consumption rises, we just have no idea what's happening at the far end, in the forest, and we need to be more ethical. I'm not pretending it's easy, but it needs to happen because we're running out of resources and time. A few people are getting very rich and lots of people are having a hard time, while everyone in the middle is pretty ignorant.

"Of course I'm interested in saving the Amazon because it's the lungs of the planet, and it's important for the engines of the earth and the weather patterns. If we stopped the loss of the forests today – perhaps by paying Brazil to protect them – that would cut something like 30% of carbon emissions. But the reason I went there is because it's the biggest and most obvious example of what's going on around the world, of these economic and political systems that are trashing our natural resources; the one you can hit people over the head with and say, 'That's what's going on.' You've got so many natural resources disappearing rapidly, so much corruption and madness, so many people being messed around."

He might prefer to be out of the spotlight, but Parry has been in television long enough to know what makes good viewing, and that to grab his audience's attention he has to entertain us as well as preach. So does he ever find himself swallowing a hallucinogen or chewing on a live insect, thinking, "Wait a minute, this is just a TV programme – what am I doing?'"

"I know exactly what I'm doing," he says. "It's important we have moments like that in TV. This is a programme that has deeper messages and motives, and the more people who watch it the better. If that means they show a trailer with Brucey falling off a cow or sticking a thorn through his nose, and some people who might not have watched it will now want to, that is 100% the reason I do it.

"There's no point in me waving the finger at the camera and saying, 'You lot at home, sitting on your hardwood furniture eating your burgers and chips, you're destroying the forest.' Well, yes, you are actually, but often it's out of ignorance rather than evil intent. Most of us are poorly informed because it's not in the interests of the people making all the money to let us know what is going on at the sharp end."

Part of Parry's experiences of living with 15 different tribes, everywhere from the tundra to the rainforest, was the consumption of hallucinogens and the chance to talk with shamans. While he writes vividly of the visions he's had, his main conclusion from these experiences is simply to have a more open mind. "I have learned to question why we dislike things. Listen. Stop thinking you know it all. We are very dogmatic, think we are superior, and have very strong views. But often those views aren't based on much more than just stuff that is given to us, and a few minor personal experiences that often aren't particularly deep anyway."

It is perhaps this ability to see things from several points of view that makes Parry reluctant to preach, although he says it takes him a good couple of months after a trip before he's an acceptable dinner guest. He doesn't see himself as either political or an activist, but some reading his books and watching his award-winning programmes would disagree. "I'm not really political at all," he stresses. "I'm doing a journey and we meet people along the way. If that happens to have political ramifications or there's something we discover that could be solved at a higher level with politics or whatever, I hope the way we explore it is beneficial for everyone. That's not me being politically active; that's just me showing anyone who wants to listen that we could do things a different way.

"If the government there wants to listen, that's great, but if the government doesn't want to listen because it's making lots of money on backhanders, that needs to be examined too. If I can get the world to look at it too, from what I think is a relatively unbiased perspective, that's not me being politically active – that's just me telling a story of what I see on the ground."

The strength of the Amazon series is Parry's desire to show all sides of a struggle that has seen one fifth of the rainforest disappear. He manages to highlight the complex, conflicting stories of the people involved – the loggers, cocoa farmers, gold miners, soya farmers and ranchers. Up close, it's not so easy to point the finger of blame. "The baddies are hard to find," says Parry. "The real baddie is in Bermuda, sending his minions to do his dirty work. I don't think there is any such thing as evil people – there are misinformed, sad, greedy or fearful people. At the same time, there are obviously things going on in the Amazon that need to stop, but I didn't meet those responsible because they're not very evident. It's not about witch-hunting these people – it's about all of us trying to figure out how to make systems that work for everybody, not just to allow the rich to get richer."

In more than a decade of travels, Parry has lived with various models of community, from power-sharing co-operatives to hierarchical patriarchies, some with hereditary chiefs, some with elected leaders. Which does he think works most effectively? "Every culture is different. Everything has to be looked at on its own merits. For some cultures, if they have abundant resources and a small community, it's better for them to have no rules at all. For me, anarchy is the most pure way of living on the planet. I love it. But you can't have anarchy because you are open to others taking advantage of you, coming in and destroying it. That's why anarchies haven't worked, because we're too greedy. The best way for us all to live is to see this planet as one community, and for us to love and give. But we're not very good at that. The people with all the power don't want to relinquish it, and they like to reinforce differences because it enables them to stay in power. They like their people to feel scared and hate 'the other'. Look at what's going on in the Middle East; look at what's going on in America.

"With fewer resources in the world and more people, there is going to be competition for those resources. It's a tricky old place, but the bottom line is that we need to forget our differences and look at our similarities."

PARRY WAS BORN in the New Forest, and had what he describes as a fantastic, loving family and great upbringing. He comes from a military background, so it was no surprise when he joined up. But why the marines? "I was 18 and full of youthful angst. I wanted to have my rite of passage. I had a lot to prove. I wanted to do the hardest thing I possibly could – that's why I chose the marines."

After five and a half years, he left to become an expedition leader and work in the film industry, combining his love of exploration with making documentaries. Did his military training stand him in good stead for eating rat's bowels in Tribe or hunting caiman in Amazon? He laughs. "Nothing was as hard as being in the marines."

Was being in the marines harder than 12 hours of ingesting hallucinogens and vomiting or having his penis forced up inside his body by his well-meaning hosts? "Nothing was as hard as being in the marines. There's nothing I've done in Tribe or Amazon that has been anything like as hard as that. Nothing approaching as hard as the marines. Nah!"

I tell him that he might be putting prospective new recruits off joining the elite force. "Yeah, maybe," he laughs. "But in the marines, you have no way out. In Amazon, I was a TV presenter, and if I didn't want to do something I would just say no."

Presumably, when you're in the marines your priorities are fixed on getting through it, not contemplating the mysteries of life, the universe and everything, as Parry was later to do with various shamans. "I have a wonderful life," he says, "but there are deeper truths out there if you look for them."

Parry may have spent a lot of his time filming in inhospitable places, but he's the first to admit that he enjoys staying in a hotel with crisp sheets and a nice bottle of wine, and that much of the drudgery of tribal living, not to mention a diet of sago, can be extremely boring. This is all part of his charm. He's happy to admit that he shares our guilt. But coming from our world, is it not hard to apply our standards on issues such as cannibalism or female circumcision? "No. I've had so many of my preconceptions turned on their head that I now try as hard as I can never to prejudge because it only leads to not learning. And if you go in there and listen and try to figure out why people are doing what they are doing, it might just be that your early judgement is not as well constructed as you think."

So what sort of things has Parry changed his views on? "Hallucinogens, for a start. Our absolute abhorrence of hallucinogens is society-driven but some of those things, when I've done them with tribes, have given me some of the most extraordinarily wholesome experiences I have ever had. That is not to say that everyone should go out and do it, because they are very dangerous, but done in the right way, with the right people, in the right place, it can be very wholesome.

"I had the ideas I learned in my youth challenged too," he says. "I was very much an institutionalised member of the British public, a military, Christian-type person, and I had various views of other members of society that I have since learnt to soften. I had strong views that I now realise were ill-informed, misplaced and ill-founded. When you learn that, you realise that could be the case for anything. It's a bipolar society in so many ways."

As well as saving the planet, what about saving himself? After drinking animal blood and highlighting tribes infected with hepatitis, does he worry about his health? "I've got a pretty good immune system because I've had most pathogens pass through my body and my resistance to them is raised. I'll eat mouldy food, pick things out of the ashtray, I'm not fussed. We're all cellophane-wrapped in our world. Sticking thorns through my nose? That's not going to make me ill – that's just a bit of pain, and anyone can overcome pain. Foreskin? That's just discomfort. I'm not worried about those things."

It's not just the TV series that has kept Parry busy. He has also compiled a CD to help raise money for Survival International, a global organisation that helps defend many of the tribes he has visited. Songs for Survival features a blend of folk, rock and tribal samples that he brought back from his travels, and he convinced chart-toppers (such as Razorlight's Johnny Borrell, KT Tunstall and Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas) and musical legends (such as Yusuf Islam and Mike Oldfield) to write tracks for the double album. "I wanted to do something in my own time to say thank you and try to help in some small way," says Parry. "We want to raise money for Survival International, but also awareness."

With the media whirl about to end, Parry is heading back to his home on Ibiza – "the best place I've been" – but what plans are afoot? "I've got no plans. I'm going to slow down, escape, turn my phone and computer off, get in touch with the earth, meet my neighbours, learn Spanish, grow things. Be more wholesome, escape the UK and celebrity. I want to just go home and chill out." r

Amazon is out on DVD tomorrow. Songs for Survival (£10) is on sale now –see www.survival-international.org for more details