Episode 2 I Bought a Rainforest

When he was seven, Charlie was obsessed with kingfishers.

When he was 13, just looking at animals wasn't enough

and he was compelled to take pictures of them.

He got his first job as a wildlife cameraman when he was 16.

But now he's 40, Charlie's done something that sounds crazy.

He's bought a rainforest in Peru.

I didn't want to sit around and spend my life being depressed about

the environment and not doing anything about it.

So I thought, "Right, if I can do my bit,

"then at least I know in my life I've done my bit,

"however small that is."

Charlie wanted to understand the issues

and the people threatening the whole rainforest.

IN TRANSLATION:

But the more time he spends in the Amazon,

the more he's convinced that saving the rainforest

is more important than the people cutting it down.

I just found them in the act of illegally chopping a tree down

and the whole reason I bought the land was so that didn't happen.

There are those that say that it's already too late,

that human beings have poisoned the planet.

But if we're going down, Charlie's going down fighting.

RAIN POURS

THUNDER RUMBLES

It hasn't stopped raining now...

..two days?

And...I'm getting really, really bored of it

because when it rains here, you're stuck because...

..you can't get out, because all the rivers have swollen,

so I can't drive across them.

It's relentless.

Charlie paid £6,000 for 100 acres of rainforest,

without seeing it first.

This is his second visit in the last four months

and, while he's here, he wants to photograph every single animal he can find.

He's so angry! I don't blame him.

But he also has a much grander ambition,

because his land is strategically placed at the end of

the only road for miles leading to Manu National Park.

I suppose the thing that excites me about it is that

of all the rainforests in the world, it is the best one

and it's the most biodiverse place on earth.

Charlie wanted to use his 100 acres as a barrier to stop people

smuggling trees from the world's most precious rainforest.

But when he first arrived,

he discovered that his own piece of paradise

was little more than bamboo and coca fields.

And the few guards that patrol the area

found a message warning him not to interfere.

IN TRANSLATION:

What a massive cock-up.

But Charlie's biggest problem was that the son of the guy

he bought his forest from

was still using the land as a base

to illegally fell trees.

Elias, como estas? Hi.

IN TRANSLATION:

I don't know what I say to that.

I'm not 100% sure I believe him.

Personally, I don't trust him.

If we were all too compassionate...

..then the doors and the floodgates would open on the Amazon

and the place would be destroyed.

It turns out that not only is Elias still using

the huts on Charlie's land,

he's also cleared some of the forest to grow crops.

Is it the yucca that's your main income

or is that the illegal logging?

Charlie thought it would take less than a year

to protect this corner of the Amazon,

but, a third of the way through, and he's responsible

for a squatter who's accused of logging the park he came to defend.

It's probably not the best time for Charlie's wife Philippa

to come and see what they've spent their money on.

CHIRRING OF INSECTS

She's come to inspect my... my purchase,

see what I've bought.

Probably turn up...turn up and see what an idiot I've been.

-There you go.

-Hello!

-Hello, darling.

But at least he had the good sense to book a hotel

30 minutes away from his 100 acres of disappointment.

Oh, wow.

Thank you.

Look at that! Doilies.

THEY CHUCKLE

-Is that a lizard?

-Where?

-There. Did it go in there?

It's a little tree frog.

-Oh!

-Where's he gone?

-He's landed.

-Look at him!

-He's saying, "I don't want you to catch me!"

I've got a nice feeling of butterflies,

like when you're a child again and you're going to get a surprise.

Do you get excited when you come here?

When I come here?

-Yeah, do you get excited?

-No.

-Not any more?

-No.

I don't know, because I don't know what to do with it.

It's sort of like a big burden around my neck.

Ha! "Miski Paraiso"!

That means sweet paradise.

Look! Isn't it beautiful?

It's classic rainforest, isn't it?

Look.

Best water you'll ever drink, that is.

I knew it wouldn't be easy.

I knew conservation isn't just about putting a fence around something

and leaving it, and Charlie won't be told anything.

'He always feels that if you just leave the natural world alone,

'it will all be fine.

'But conservation doesn't happen in a bubble.'

Old chainsaw chains.

'Whatever the problem and wherever you are in the world,

'people are the solution.

'You can't do it on your own.

'It doesn't work.'

This is all logging and cocaine-growing paraphernalia.

That's what this land was for.

We all sort of get very excited about all that stuff,

it's just normal here.

It's no different to them from growing wheat really.

Elias owns his own patch of forest,

but the way out for any trees he cuts down

is through Charlie's land.

If Charlie boots him out, he'll have no income from his trees

or his crops.

Elias!

And if that happens, he's afraid that Elias

will have no choice

but to start logging in the National Park.

-And this is, um, this is their land...

-Mm-hm.

..but they don't have...

But it's still illegal in terms of...

They haven't got a logging concession.

-..they haven't got a licence.

-No, so they're not allowed.

-Doesn't seem to be stopping them though, does it?

-No.

But surely if you were offered a better option, you'd take it.

-Well, I'd have thought so.

-He's not doing this because it's easy,

he's not doing it because he's a bad person.

I think he's just always done it.

I just wish he'd do it a bit louder now so we can work out where he is.

The thing is, he could be anywhere.

-Right, I suggest we go up this path and carry on.

-Up.

Well, he's got to be somewhere!

What are we actually saying to him when we find him?

-Uh?

-What are we saying to him when we find him?

-Hello, Elias, this is my wife.

-Would you like to meet my wife?

CHAINSAW BUZZING Elias!

Elias!

Elias, how are you?

Hola. Como estas?

Buenos dias.

So, there's the National Park. See?

That's my land, not your dad's.

HE CHUCKLES Love it.

"That's my dad's land". No, it's not!

So, the yucca that's there now,

how much is that worth to you, if it's a good crop?

So, if you're pulling out 10,000 soles' worth,

I need to know what YOU make from that.

You must make some profit, Elias, otherwise you wouldn't do it!

Si.

CHARLIE LAUGHS

When you fumigate it, how much does it cost every time?

I do feel sorry for him

and that's why I'm thinking, is there anything I can do to help?

I don't want to throw people off land,

I don't want to cut off their income. What can I do?

Is there anything I can do to try and find some middle ground?

At the moment, I don't know what that is. There might be something.

Maybe I can buy his yucca crop off him as a sort of parting gesture.

But I don't like the fact that I am now responsible for...

..playing an important part in these people's lives.

That's not why I did any of this.

I didn't...

It wasn't part of the bargain as far as I was concerned when I bought it.

He knew he might have to fight to keep people out of Manu,

but Charlie never imagined his land would still be in use

or that his decisions could change the life

of a family living in poverty.

'I think he finds people difficult sometimes and complicated.

'It's much easier if you can go off with your camera,

'put a lens between you and people

'and then you can be in your own safe little world.

'It's always been his escape.

'It's always been his escape. Relationships are complicated,

'people are complicated.'

Charlie fell in love with the rainforest

because he spent years here photographing animals.

And before Philippa goes home, he wants to show her

how extraordinary the Amazon is if you remove the human beings.

I'm taking Philippa up to one of my favourite places

in the world, which is an oxbow lake called Cocha Salvador.

I know the family there very well,

so it's kind of like I'm going to see some old friends

and take Philippa along.

They just happen to be otters rather than people.

PIPING SQUEAK OF OTTERS

SQUEAKING OTTER CALL

I got some otters.

Yeah, I've got them. Oh, my God!

HE CHUCKLES

OTTERS SQUEAK

The giant river otter can grow to six feet.

It is one of the most endangered mammals in the Amazon...

..and there are perhaps as few as 1,000 left in the wild.

I just have this weird total obsession with them.

I could just gaze at them for hours.

These guys just love each other.

They never stop looking after each other and grooming each other

and playing with each other.

A perfect little family.

And they'll die for each other.

Charlie's obsession with animals began when he was seven,

not long after his father died.

'When his dad died...

'..it made him mistrust human relationships slightly in the sense

'that for any child, losing a parent is so mind-blowing,

'is so massive.

'And when you're a child, it changes your whole view of reality.

'But, yeah, his escape route'

and ultimately, controlled environment,

is in a hide with a camera.

Though Charlie has spent his life in the most remote corners

of the planet, he's never had to deal with local people.

But if he's going to work out what to do with Elias,

he can't just sit in a tent and hope he'll go away.

So after Philippa has gone back to England, Charlie decides

that he needs to understand the issues threatening the Amazon

from the point of view of the people cutting it down.

Though he sees illegal loggers as dangerous criminals,

it's almost impossible to police the whole forest,

and the Peruvian Government hardly even try.

Mm. OK.

Yeah. OK, horrifically painful.

Up to 80% of the timber exported from Peru

has been cut down illegally.

And like many loggers, Beto owns his own land

but he doesn't have a permit to remove the trees.

Very nice.

Si!

It sure is.

SONG IN TRANSLATION:

Beto has already felled a number of trees

but he needs help to take the timber into town

and has hired his friend Modesto and his trusty vintage truck, Rambo.

-Como estas?

-Hola. Como estas, Charlie?

-Hola.

Si.

I'm looking forward to it.

THEY CHUCKLE

Salud. Gracias.

CHAINSAW BUZZES

Although it's against the law for Beto to take wood from his land,

when you're working with chainsaws in the middle of nowhere,

getting caught by the authorities isn't your biggest worry.

I'm not naturally someone who wants to go and immerse my life

into the lives of strangers.

However what I do is I think of images

and that actually gets me excited and gets me in.

Jesus Christ!

MEN CHATTER

Mm-hm. OK, I'll try.

Oh, OK, like that.

Oh!

Oh, Jesus Christ!

CHARLIE GROANS

I'm too tall. Can't get the balance.

I can feel my back going.

OK.

Agh! Me no fuerte.

MEN LAUGH

Ever since I was a kid, I was a wildlife photographer -

it's what I did -

and I'd never really bothered to move outside of that.

But I'm suddenly more interested in them.

I don't know why I'm suddenly more interested in them,

I suppose I've been learning more about them.

I say "them", I mean people!

Over 50% of Peru is covered with Amazon rainforest,

and life is so densely packed here that every couple of kilometres

has more species of tree than most of Europe.

And each tree supports

thousands of other plants, animals and insects.

MEN CHATTER

Mm.

Do your kids ever come out and help you here?

It must be tough for you, Beto,

without your wife and kids being here.

Because they fetch the highest price,

large hardwoods are increasingly rare in Peru,

and Beto's been saving one to help pay for his children's education.

HE KNOCKS Sounds dead to me.

This thing to me is so precious and beautiful but...

..when you ask me what I think of the tree,

that's what I think of the tree.

Does it not bother you that this is illegal?

Because I know it's your land, isn't it?

But you're not allowed to cut the trees down on it.

No?

BETO CHUCKLES

I wish I was rich enough to pay you not to.

But if I paid you not to cut this tree down,

paid the next guy not to cut the next tree down...

If I was rich enough, we could not cut any of them down.

THEY CHUCKLE

Hmm...

BIRDSONG

Muy bonita.

That's gorgeous.

Si.

Gracias.

Beto's obviously spent his life in the forest

and has a real understanding of it

but I don't believe in God,

I don't see the forest in the same way as he does.

But I don't think either is right or wrong.

It's kind of nice to just hang out with him

and hear what he's got to say about it...

..because it's... You know, he has a love and respect for the place

and I think he finds it compromising that...

..that he has to cut trees down.

But equally, I think that's just what he has to do.

You know, these guys do care about the forest,

and I completely admit I'm wrong about the situation.

It's horrifically dangerous, what they're about to do.

And you know, if this thing falls on you, you're dead,

there's no two ways about it.

I'm amazed. They're all standing around it.

They're saying to me, "Keep back,"

and they're all sort of standing in a ring around it.

Don't know where it's going to fall, though.

RUMBLING AND CRACKING

MEN SHOUT

There we go, there we go.

CRACKING

MEN CHATTER

The thump!

And then there's a silence. Complete silence.

And then you get all these guys, you get their excitement,

because they've just felled a tree, so they're all excited now.

When we finally cut that tree down, there was this moment of sadness,

as they realised that it was dead all the way through.

And, I think, particularly for Beto, who'd had it earmarked, because it

was going to make him a fair whack of money for his kids' education.

The weird thing was, I was very sad that the tree had come down,

but I was also very sad for Beto, as well,

that it was completely worthless.

SONG IN TRANSLATION

APPLAUSE

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

'What am I going to do with my land? If I fight'

to protect the forest,

it's going to have an impact on these people's lives.

'I'm still resolute about that,

'but it's made me, I suppose, slightly more conscious

'that, if you stop people illegal logging,

'firstly, they're going to have to go somewhere else and,'

secondly, you're cutting off what's important to them as people

and, you know, I suppose it's not without its cost.

Just like Beto or Elias, Charlie makes a living exploiting

the natural world. He supports his family with a camera,

rather than a chainsaw, but in their own way,

his images damage the environment.

Charlie's pictures show us a world that doesn't exist any more.

It's a fantasy that we all want to believe...

..because these pictures tell us all is well with planet earth.

To purely photograph wildlife

presents the world almost in a bubble,

and in a slightly optimistic bubble -

a world that's better than it actually is.

'I mean, the only way I can ever really communicate

'my understanding of this place is to just be honest about it

'and look at the reality

'of how everything is - good and bad - and look for the truth.

'Because I've seen it first-hand and, as a result, you'd be a fool

'not to try and do something. You'd be wrong if you didn't.

'That's why I'm here.'

In the last 20 years, over five and a half million acres of rainforest

have been destroyed in Peru.

That's nearly 700 acres a day...

..cut down for crops...

cattle...

timber...

and gold.

So, how low profile do we go with this camera?

-DIRECTOR:

-Why?

Why? It's a world full of illegal activity

and a lot of people here won't want to be filmed.

-DIRECTOR:

-Oh, it'll be all right.

I'm not sure it will.

HE LAUGHS

50 miles from Charlie's land

is one of the many towns built in pursuit of gold.

It has a reputation for booze, prostitution and violence.

But if you strike it lucky,

gold can bring you in one day what many Peruvians earn in a year.

Charlie's here to spend two weeks living life as a gold miner,

with Erasmus.

Wow!

Ooh...

Wow!

There are over 40,000 gold miners in Peru

and, though Erasmus is legitimate and has all the correct paperwork,

98% of mines operate illegally.

Si! There it is.

It's so small, it's almost imperceptible.

Wow! It's so tiny.

My God, these are heavy.

Every 16 hours, the mats are rinsed and shaken out...

..before the gold-bearing sludge is scraped into a barrel.

So, he's mixing the mercury with the sludge?

-Una hora?

-Si.

-Si?!

-Una hora, si.

Mercury poisoning can result in brain damage, kidney damage,

lung failure and, possibly, miscarriage.

Illegal miners dump nearly 30 tonnes of this heavy metal

into Peruvian rivers every year.

And a recent study found that many people in local communities

had mercury levels in their bodies five times the safe limit.

Somewhere in there... is a whole lot of gold.

I can't see any.

OK.

I'm not sure which way the wind's going. I'm trying to work it out.

I think it's going that way.

Because mercury's one thing, but mercury vapour

is a much more dangerous proposition.

It's gold.

That's 650 soles - about £175 -

which isn't much, really, for 24 hours' work -

staff, camp, fuel...everything else.

It's very beautiful.

The Peruvian Government has recently cracked down on illegal mining,

and some predict it will reduce gold exports by up to 25%.

But the threat of 12 years in jail

seems unlikely to stop people willing to risk their lives

working in these poisonous pits.

Besides, the quota system has done little to stop illegal logging.

With the mine not delivering, Erasmus has decided to change

the suction pump and stem the leaks in the soft piping.

I'm working as hard as I can.

Come on! There we go!

Woo-hoo!

We're going to get some gold! HE LAUGHS

You know what's weird is? I've got all excited about finding gold -

well, them finding gold, not me, I don't need any gold.

You forget all the problems, all the environmental stuff

that I'm banging on about and worrying about

and you just get fixed

on sorting this stuff out and getting some gold out of it.

But you become a bit obsessed.

The gold needed to make a single wedding ring

produces over 20 tonnes of toxic waste.

But, of course, most gold doesn't end up as jewellery.

Most of it is buried in bank vaults,

because we can't think of a better way to prop up our economy.

The Bank of England alone has 4,500 tonnes of the stuff.

But even in this desert of mud and mercury,

there is some life that is returning.

Argh!

HE LAUGHS

Something's bit me!

The old mining pits are not only used for bathing,

they also provide a handy supply of fish.

You got one!

-Piranha?

-Si.

CHARLIE LAUGHS

Yeah? It's good with chips?

Just going to take the hook out.

Look at those teeth!

Ooh, you so wouldn't want to get your fingers stuck in that.

These must be what bite me when I go for a swim.

It makes you realise just how many piranhas there are in this lake.

Argh!

CHARLIE LAUGHS

Yes!

Gotcha!

Look at that. I think that's the biggest one of the day.

CHARLIE CHUCKLES

This piranha will have mercury in it.

It will get eaten by something else.

I don't know the cumulative effect of all these ponds

in the forest full of mercury.

I can't imagine it's actually very good.

As well as us, cos we're drinking out of it

and washing in it and washing our clothes in it.

Most of them are desperate people and decent people.

You know, I look at Erasmus and I can see he's got his failings.

He's money-grabbing

and he's probably not the best person in the world

to his staff, but, equally, he's 55,

he's got no pension, he's got no healthcare. He's got nothing.

So, it's, sort of, make or break now for him over the next ten years.

While he's got the physical strength to keep going,

he's got to make enough money to sustain him until the end.

And you can see it in his eyes that that ain't working at the moment.

Miners usually get up to 25% of the gold they find,

but with so little being produced,

no-one's getting paid.

Did we have success? We did a lot of work.

Si.

It's tiny.

GENERATOR RUMBLES

CHAINSAW BUZZES

The rainforest to the gold miners is just a resource.

It's just a place that you can find gold

and there happen to be a load of trees here.

I think some things are just very wrong.

I think this is one of them.

I've been bumbling along...

..getting to know people, getting to know their side of the story.

And, er...

..I don't know.

I just don't... I don't really care about people sometimes.

Now I just feel...complicit in it.

And I haven't come here to chop trees down.

I don't know.

It's one thing watching other people do it,

it's another thing doing it yourself.

I mean, let's be honest, what am I going to really find out...

..by doing it myself?

All I'm going to do is become complicit in something

that I fundamentally disagree with.

Regardless of the social issues,

regardless of however nice people are, regardless of the fact

that people have to live...

..I still don't agree with it.

And if that's called judging, then, well, so be it,

then I'm judging, but...

In 2008, the financial crisis sent gold prices through the roof

and the number of trees cut down

to find a shiny yellow metal tripled.

Since then, 90,000 acres of rainforest have been scratched away,

and 180 tonnes of mercury has bled into the rivers.

Not even Erasmus is immune to this hell.

It doesn't matter who's to blame...

..and it doesn't matter that it's complicated.

Time is running out...

..and tough decisions have to be made.

Charlie can't protect his corner of the Amazon

and at the same time allow an illegal logger to use his land.

When he gets back to Manu, he heads to Elias's house

to tell him it's time to leave the land.

Hola?

Hey. Como estas?

Hola! Como estas?

GIRL CHATTERS Yeah.

Hello!

Como estas?

I just thought I'd come and say hi,

meet your family. GIRL CHUCKLES

-DIRECTOR:

-Charlie? Still want to kick them off the land?

Nope.

No, this has just made my decision...

..infinitely more complicated.

'I was all agreed, in my own mind, that I was going to chuck Elias

'off the land, until I went round to his house.'

-You know, what sort of

-BLEEP

-would I be if I did? There's no way.

Behind every horrific story lie a bunch of perfectly decent people

just trying to survive.

Next time...

The park guards put pressure on Charlie...

..and there's hope

in the last place on earth he expected to find it.

Go on an interactive journey with the Open University,

to explore the challenges

facing the rainforest.

Go to...

..and follow the links to the Open University.