Decades of oil drilling in Ecuador has devastated huge swaths of the Amazon rainforest and its wildlife, threatening to destroy the ancestral homes of native tribes and their culture. But some of these indigenous people are finding a way to balance development and conservation. 

For years, fishermen in the community of Les, in Bali, used poison cyanide to stun and catch the ornamental fish that supplied their livelihood. This left the local coral reef severely bleached and damaged. So the local people developed solutions to rehabilitate the reef's ecosystem in a way that would allow them to carry on with their traditional life and fishing.

Described as the "lungs of the Earth," the Amazon rainforest is seen as one the world's most important ecological treasures. To help save it, Brazil's national government and local communities have teamed up to experiment with new techniques and strategies, one of which actually includes cutting down trees. 

In 2003, a devastating flash flood caused over 239 deaths in the Indonesian village of Bukit Lawang. The deluge was attributed to illegal logging in the surrounding Gunung Leuser National Park. Since the floods, the local community has begun to organize patrols of the forest in an attempt to curb illegal logging.