Conservationist Paul Rosolie details the deadly threats he and his team face protecting Peru's Amazon rainforest on this episode with host Ed Mylett. Rosolie reveals that cocaine growers have placed an explicit bounty on him and his indigenous partner JJ, with confiscated phones showing hit lists. The danger became real when Jonathan, a Peruvian police officer who had just saved Rosolie's group from armed narcos, was murdered hours later in an ambush. Rosolie now requires a full security detail whenever in Peru. In perhaps the most disturbing revelation, he discloses that narcos have massacred dozens of uncontacted indigenous people, burying them in a mass grave discovered only by vulture activity. The episode covers the full scope of Amazon destruction, from illegal gold mining that has created Sahara-like wastelands to logging operations. Rosolie discusses how former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro explicitly praised American extermination of indigenous peoples and encouraged Amazon settlement during his administration. Gold mining violence is so extreme that security teams routinely kill attackers in shootouts over tiny amounts of low-grade gold. Despite these challenges, Rosolie's organization Jungle Keepers has protected land half the size of Singapore by converting loggers and miners into conservation rangers. He explains that $20 million would protect their entire remaining river territory, and emphasizes that the Amazon's survival depends on immediate action before reaching an irreversible tipping point of deforestation.
A security contractor working for legal gold miners in Peru describes a deadly ambush where his team killed six armed attackers trying to steal a small amount of gold. The violence demonstrates how artisanal miners destroy vast forest areas and risk their lives for minimal returns, while competing criminal groups prey on them.
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