That’s the tagline for a new documentary being made about the Yasuni national forest in Ecuador, which has been called “Earth’s Eden” because of its stunning beauty and incredible biodiversity.
I’m willing to bet many RAN supporters would go very far indeed to save this pristine region of Amazon rainforest, but supporting this documentary, Yasuni Man, is a good way to help without having to go anywhere.
For years, the oil industry has been eager to despoil the Yasuni by drilling for the huge oil reserves that lie below the forest floor. The only thing that has stopped them has been the small communities of Indigenous people that have defended their territory. Yasuni Man is a fascinating, up-close look at the Yasuni and the people who call it home:
Here’s an update from the film’s director, Ryan Killackey:
So far, I have filmed over 60% of Yasuni Man with the generous support from the contributors to our Kickstarter campaign in 2010/2011. Now I need to go back and complete filming the most rigorous part of the film and my main story arc – The Mega-Transect and Rapid Biological Inventory.
An Indigenous man who lives in the Yasuni, Caiga (left), with Ryan Killackey, filmmaker (right)
With the support of an amazing crew, we will prove that Yasuni Man and the Biosphere Reserve is in desperate need of protecting and its value is much greater than oil, the single largest threat to the NW Amazonian region. Yasuni is considered to have the highest biological diversity in the western hemisphere and possibly the world. Additionally, inside this world heritage site live two communities of indigenous people living in voluntary isolation with no contact to the outside world. Not only are wildlife species being threatened, but so are the indigenous people by the reckless industries that have exploited Yasuni for nearly a century.
If we can’t protect Yasuni, which is among the most biologically rich and culturally diverse regions of our planet, how can we expect to protect regions of the world with significantly less diversity?
Please help me in my mission to give Yasuni a voice, a voice that will bring attention to the plight of the natural world that we are all at risk of losing, and without knowing, we all depend.
Head over to Kickstarter to help Ryan finish making this important film.
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