- Protecting the Peruvian Amazon is dangerous work, but conservationist Paul Rosolie and his nonprofit Junglekeepers team have attracted millions of dollars in funding to protect 55,000 acres of rainforest in the country’s Madre de Dios region.
- Rosolie first received international recognition via his 2014 memoir, “Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey in the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon.”
- Today, he runs both a nonprofit and an ecotourism service that employs and is co-led by local and Indigenous people.
- In this podcast episode, Rosolie reflects on his decade-plus journey to today and shares his recipe for conservation success.
“Our wildest dreams never included what we are doing now,” says conservationist Paul Rosolie in a new podcast interview with Mongabay. What began as a grassroots initiative of his and partner Juan Julio Durand, Junglekeepers has evolved into a conservation nonprofit now protecting 55,000 acres (22,258 hectares) of rainforest in the Las Piedras corridor of the Madre de Dios region of Peru. Like many similar areas, this portion of the Amazon can be dangerous for environmental defenders: “[I]t’s the middle of the Amazon. We’re past where law enforcement goes,” Rosolie says.
In this podcast conversation, Rosolie speaks with Mongabay about the success of his nonprofit and that of Tamandua Expeditions, an ecotourism service providing conservation-focused travel. He also shares what messages resonate with audiences, how he’s worked with local and Indigenous communities to recruit loggers to become conservation rangers, and what he thinks conservation organizations can do to increase their impact.
Listen here:
In 2014, Jeremy Hance interviewed Rosolie about his harrowing memoir, Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon. From the very humble beginnings Rosolie describes, Junglekeepers is now backed with significant financial support from Age of Union’s Dax Dasilva, whose organization recently pledged $3.5 million to the program over the next five years.
In 2019, Hance also interviewed Rosolie about his book The Girl and the Tiger.
For related listening via the Mongabay Newscast, veteran ecologist and author Tim Killeen recently discussed the many ways that protecting the Amazon requires fresh thinking, listen here:
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Mike DiGirolamo is Mongabay’s audience engagement associate, based in Sydney. He co-hosts and edits the Mongabay Newscast. Find him on LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Instagram.
Banner Image: Indigenous conservationist Juan Julio Durand is a local leader and one of the founding members of Junglekeepers, his vision set in motion the protection of 50,000 acres of the Amazon Rainforest. Photo by Mohsin Kazmi.
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