Junglekeeper

Paul Rosolie argues that the age of real exploration is not over, and Junglekeeper is his proof. The book follows his life in the Peruvian Amazon, one of the most biologically rich and least touched places left on Earth, where giant anacondas move through the undergrowth, howler monkeys call across the forest, and macaws burst out of the canopy in flocks of color. Alongside his own story, it looks at what the people working to defend this rainforest can teach the rest of us.

Rosolie arrived in the jungle as a dyslexic kid from Brooklyn who barely made it out of high school but felt a strong pull toward wild places. There he met Juan Julio Durand, an indigenous naturalist, and the two have spent more than twenty years working side by side. Together they founded Junglekeepers, an organization that has found a way to stop deforestation on more than 110,000 acres. They have also drawn millions of people into the effort by sharing their work online.

The work has grown harder over time. The two men are long past their barefoot, machete-in-hand days and now face chain saws, huge fires, illegal miners, and some of the ugliest sides of human behavior. Rosolie takes readers close to the forest's dangers and wonders, including his account of first contact with the Mashco Piro, one of the least known uncontacted tribes in the world.

At heart, this is a book about saying yes: to a calling, to a dream that costs a great deal to keep alive, and to taking a stand for something that could vanish within a generation. It is a story of purpose, connection, and hope.