Paul Rosolie, a US conservationist working in Peru’s Amazon, describes field operations behind Jungle Keepers, a project he says is protecting 160,000 acres while pushing for a larger national-park designation. He recounts encounters with isolated Indigenous people living in voluntary isolation, including an incident he says involved a large armed group approaching a river community demanding bananas, and argues that publishing footage of the event helped his organisation protect a further 20,000 acres (a claim not independently verified in the episode). Rosolie also describes risks around contact management, including a 2019 incident in which he says a ranger, Ignacio, was struck in the head by an arrow and evacuated by helicopter.
A significant portion focuses on organised crime and land pressure. Rosolie alleges narcotics traffickers have recently moved into remote areas, cutting concealed airstrips beneath the canopy using river bends for aircraft approach, and claims his team faced a direct threat when armed men stopped a Jungle Keepers vehicle and told the driver Rosolie would be targeted next time. He says he now travels with armed security.
Rosolie sets out an urgent fundraising goal, saying a new road corridor is advancing towards protected land and that about 40,000 acres could be purchased for roughly $4m to block the route. He says a donor offered $1m on a matching basis, leaving a time-bound push for additional funds. The episode also includes broader discussion of conservation incentives, tourism, and the day-to-day realities of survival work in the rainforest.
Paul Rosolie alleges that, in a meeting with Peru’s interior minister, the minister said he supported gold mining because it makes money and provides livelihoods. Rosolie says he warned of short-term gains from forest destruction and urged alternatives including ecotourism and carbon-credit funding from wealthy countries.
Read this moment →Paul Rosolie says narcotics traffickers have moved into more remote parts of the Peruvian Amazon near where his group operates. He describes a method he says traffickers use in which a river bend serves as an approach path and trees are cut back to create an airstrip extending into the forest, allowing planes to descend low and land out of typical aerial view. Rosolie says the traffickers are more dangerous than local loggers and may kill people who threaten their operations.
Read this moment →Paul Rosolie says his conservation work has shifted from early, ad hoc expeditions to operating what he describes as a professional organisation managing 160,000 acres of land. He says the project is “on the verge” of national-park designation and that the group uses Starlink at different bases to communicate and co-ordinate “80-something” rangers working across remote areas of forest.
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