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Charlie Hamilton James

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I Bought a Rainforest: Episode 3

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Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

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Episode 3

I Bought a Rainforest

BBC Two - I Bought a Rainforest, Episode 3

Nine months on and Charlie Hamilton James's grand scheme has hit rock bottom.

Series following Charlie Hamilton James, who bought 100 acres of Peruvian rainforest. Charlie learns if you want to protect the rainforest you need to include the locals.

Wildlife cameraman, Charlie Hamilton James bought himself 100 acres of Peruvian Rainforest for 10,000 dollars. The plan was to create a buffer zone along the border of the world famous Manu National Park as a way of keeping illegal loggers out. 

Nine months on and the project has hit rock bottom. 

Unable to secure his land because of a squatter called Elias, Charlie had planned to evict him. But having now met his family and his disabled daughter, Heidi, Charlie is fast learning that if you want to protect the rainforest you need to include the local people.

He goes to spend time with one of his neighbours, a Wacheperi shaman called Don Alberto, who treats sick people with traditional plants and hallucinogenic medicines. Initially sceptical, Charlie agrees to take ayahuasca in an attempt to try and understand the forest better from their perspective. As the power of the plants work their magic on him, he sees first-hand how much knowledge and potential is being lost as the forest continues to be cut down.  

Charlie then heads across the border to Brazil. In a vast landscape of charred tree trunks, he meets cattle rancher Dino and his four strong sons who are planning to burn a huge chunk of virgin forest to increase the size of their farm. As he gets to know Dino, Charlie is forced into a radical rethink of the very man he once saw as his greatest enemy. In the smouldering ruins of the rainforest, Dino gives Charlie the final clue as to how to fix his project and make it work.

Back at his land, Charlie makes Elias an offer he's sure the family can't refuse. It turns out that the answer had been staring him in the face the whole time. Together, Charlie and Elias embark on a new joint project - one that sees them working together rather than battling one another, planting trees and heading towards a sustainable future for this one patch of precious rainforest.

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Series following Charlie Hamilton James, who has bought 100 acres of Peruvian rainforest.

Series following wildlife photographer Charlie Hamilton James, who has bought 100 acres of the Peruvian rainforest in the hope that it will stop loggers illegally cutting down trees.

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