Dark Green
The short film Dark Green is made up of two parts. In part one – "Alone in the Amazon" (32 min.) – adventurer, biologist and storyteller Paul Rosolie takes a deep dive into the Peruvian jungle. He travels alone, in search of the last remaining wilderness on Earth. It is a journey into the heart of the jungle, but equally an investigation into the relationship between modern humans and nature.
Part two – "The Conservation Story" (20 min.) – teaches us more about the area. What's so unique about this region of Peru, a province so rich in natural beauty that it bears the name Mother of God? What dangers threaten it? And what efforts is Paul taking for its protection?
Paul Rosolie
Paul Rosolie is an American conservationist and author. He focuses on uniting the largest Peruvian National Parks with one single river corridor: the Las Piedras river in the Madre de Dios region, South-East Peru. Rosolie helped founding the ecotourism company Tamandua Expeditions and the NGO JungleKeepers, whose rangers patrol and safeguard almost 74,000 acres. Rosolie is writer of Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon and The Girl and the Tiger. His short film An Unseen World won the short film contest at the 2013 United Nations Forum on Forests.
Director's Biography
Jesper Buijvoets is founder and creative director of Sensu Productions. He has more than 10 years' experience in creating cinematographic films. His strength lies in bringing together information, feeling and style in one symmetrical visual image. Aagje van Meerwijk has a background in biology and environmental sciences. Her strength to simplify complex environmental problems into a single message was key in the creative process of Dark Green.
Let's Act
The documentary film Dark Green is about falling in love, inviting the viewers to go on their own journey. But falling in love is only the first step. Below, you can find little bonus tracks, explaining more about the threats and how you can be part of the solution.
Las Piedras | Conservation Corridor
Dark Green is set on the banks of the Las Piedras river, the longest artery in the Madre de Dios watershed. The region is part of one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet and home to some of the world’s last uncontacted indigenous tribes. The mission is to create a conservation corridor, connecting the Peruvian Manu National Park and Alto Purus in the north to the Tambopata National Reserve and the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park in the south.
Protecting the Las Piedras river, now functioning as a road into the unprotected, is key.
Threats
We have lost more than half of the rainforests on Earth already. If current deforestation rates continue, they might be lost completely within the coming century. A multitude of different threats can be distinguished: demand for timber, gold, oil and meat each impose severe but rather different threats to the forest.
Roads
When governments built service and transit roads, settlers can come in and claim their own plot of land.
Gold
Tiny pieces of gold in the soil are mined by washing the forest-ground with poisonous mercury.
Timber
Selective logging for hardwood can alter local ecology in an almost unseen way.
Meat
Local farmers use slash-and-burn techniques to clear the land for cattle or to grow crops.
Solutions
The land along the Las Piedras river is divided into so-called "concessions", whose extraction rights can be purchased from the Peruvian government. Concessions are classified either as timber, brazil nuts, ecotourism and conservation, which dictate what they can be used for. Local NGOs purchase these concession rights strategically alongside the river banks.
Doing so, they collectively work to create the Las Piedras Corridor, an uninterrupted conservation area that has the potential to unit three National Parks!
Contribute to local NGOs
In addition to purchasing concession rights, each of these NGOs work in their own unique and specialized way towards an integrated approach: some perform high standing research on Las Piedras’ stunning biodiversity and its key species, others rehabilitate and reintroduce threatened species to the wild. The rangers of Junglekeepers patrol, monitor and safeguard the Las Piedras. All NGOs work very closely with the few communities of natives and settlers on the river, creating jobs that secure families of an income without harming “la selva”.
You can learn more on their websites: junglekeepers.com, hojanueva.org, arbioperu.com
Want to screen Dark Green? Let’s get in touch!
If you want to screen Dark Green on your platform, or at a festival or (educational) event, contact us at: filmdarkgreen@gmail.com
