Real-life ‘Tarzan’ fighting to protect the Amazon rainforest

By Ben Barry via SWNS

Meet the real-life Tarzan attempting to save 92,000 acres of the Amazon rainforest.

Paul Rosolie, 36, first went to the Amazon jungle, Peru, 18 years ago where he met local indigenous conservationist - Juan Julio Durand, 50.

Two decades ago, Paul said the Amazon was "untouched" but that quickly changed when loggers started to cut down the forest for profit.

Paul became Juan's student and studied the forest - spending days on a boat trying to get to the most remote part of the jungle.

Now, Paul has made it his mission to stop the logging and save the Amazon.

Currently, Paul is protecting 92,000 acres of the jungle after taking over another 10,000 acres just last month.

His aim is to raise $32 million to protect 350,000 acres.

Paul, founder of Junglekeepers and author, from Brooklyn, New York, said: "I came to the Amazon 18 years ago and met a local indigenous conservationist.

"Nobody was there at the time, the reason he was working there was because he grew up in an indigenous community.

"He saw his community go from a healthy one to a degraded wasteland where there were no animals left.

"He witnessed loggers take out trees, he saw fishermen take all the fish and he had a big connection with the forest.

"Our primary goal is to protect the Las Piedras River and protect 350,000 acres of the forest."

Paul first went to the Amazon when he was 18 years old, and fell in love with the forest and vowed to protect the land.

He became a student of Juan's who was born in the Peruvian Amazon.

Paul said: "At the beginning, it would take us two to three days by boat. Juan had a research station deep in the jungle - we can no connection to the outside world.

"He always said that people were going to come and destroy the place and sure enough that has happened.

"There is a place called the Trans-Amazonian Highway, it cuts right across the Amazon.

"It destroyed indigenous communities, killed thousands of animals and ruined acres of the forest."

In 2014, Paul launched Junglekeepers, a non-profit organization that works with local communities and international experts to protect the Amazon rainforest and reverse deforestation.

Paul said: "Juan had the local knowledge and I had the inspiration.

"We're at the point now where we have been joined by this incredible team of indigenous people.

"We have a monthly donor program where people can help the effort to protect the rainforest."

Just last month, Paul and the team added 10,000 acres to their protection zone after paying a group of loggers to put down their tools and join Junglekeepers.

The team is protecting the Amazon by using drones to monitor areas and employing loggers to go out and search the Amazon.

Paul said: "Just last month we came across a group of loggers.

"They said they would be logging for six years and logging the whole forest.

"We said we have $300k and we can pay them but they have to stop what they are doing.

"They said it was a great deal - we have now signed the papers to protect that area of forest.

"We hired a lot of former loggers as conservation rangers because otherwise, they will go on log somewhere else."

Currently, 90,000 acres are being protected by the Junglekeepers team and the aim is to create an ecological corridor consisting of 350k acres of the Amazon.

Paul said: "We want to create the largest protected land in the world.

"We are trying to raise $32 million so we can connect untouched land and create an ecological corridor.

"Just the last month we added 10k of untouched primary rainforest.

"It is incredible - it's like Avatar."