How Peru’s tropical hardwoods get felled, laundered and exported
Amazon
Ruth Buendia: Game Changer
Ruth told me her story for CCTV America. Shot by Ronald Reategui.
The nature business
Finding a marketplace for the Amazon rainforest. Eco-tourism as a conservation tool.
The woman saving South America’s 2nd wilderness
Scientist Erika Cuellar has championed the Gran Chaco, South Americas second largest wilderness after the Amazon. She’s educating its inhabitants on how to preserve their expansive home.
Mapping the Amazon rainforest like never before
We hope this is how scientists can impact on climate change policy.
A sweet alternative
From cocaine to chocolate. Can cocoa really be a substitute for the leaf that makes cocaine?
Health Check: Bat gene map rabies clues
Up to twenty children in Peru have died from rabies after being bitten by vampire bats.
So now health workers are now vaccinating the most vulnerable in the remote Amazonas province of Condorcanqui, close to the border with Ecuador.
Families live in huts with hardly any walls and often not enough mosquito nets for everyone. The destruction of the rain forest appears to have led to a drop in the number of natural predators of the bats, helping them to thrive.
Now villagers are fighting back, collecting bats from caves so that scientists can sequence the DNA of the rabies virus to create a genetic map that may eventually help to reduce outbreaks.
Amazon road set to give Brazil and Peru new trade route
A new road linking the east and west coasts of South America is being opened.
The road runs through Brazil and Peru and some like Luis Aguirre, Governor of Peru’s Madre de Dios region, are warning of the damage the new road will cause.
But supporters, like cafe owner Suleyde Ochoa, say it will bring huge economic benefits to both countries.