The foothills of the Peruvian Andes boast a unique protected area for macaws. The Tambopata Candamo Reserve could be regarded as natural heritage of mankind. But this paradise is threatened: gold washing, deforestation by settlers and road building. The Transoceanic Highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific along the Amazon basin would destroy the buffer zone where the macaws feed and would finish the natural protection of the area – its remoteness. Concerned researchers from USA and Peru like Donald Brightsmith and George Powell from WWF and Eduardo Nycander, founder of TRC, work under time pressure to collect “hard” data about habitat, feeding and nesting areas of the macaws and at the same time they work on an extended buffer zone with the native Eseja Indians. Will their dedicated work convince the government to enlarge the protected area? And they have another strong argument: they developed excellent ecotourism projects together with the indigenous people. Already other countries in South America have copied their ideas which should guarantee the long term protection for the environment. Eduardo Nycander has realized that he could not find better ambassadors for his rainforest projects than the splendid macaws.
