Bolivia is one of South America's two land-locked nations.  Our exploration of this country is focused on its largest Amazon preserve, the Madidi National Park.  When we first investigated this area in 1990, parts of the Madidi was undergoing 'selective' logging.  The areas we visited were occupied by indigenous Chimanes.  Some of these groups were still uncontacted - others had been in contact with logging company employees for up to three years.  This contact was not a happy one with many instances of abuse reported by local missionaries.  The Chimanes were selling rights to log their trees extremely cheaply, kept happy by what to them were remarkable gifts such as biscuits, metal machetes and t-shirts.

A Debt-for-Nature swap brokered by Conservation International in 1995, which involved the buy-back of logging concessions, now protects some 4.46 million acres of wilderness which stretches from high Andean cloud forest, through tropical dry forest to lowland rainforest.  The Wildlife Conservation Society now leads major research, conservation and sustainable development initiatives in the park.

We explore remote areas of this incredible wilderness area by means of a river raft, camping along the banks of the Tuichi River which feeds into the park's main river, the Beni.  This is an exhilarating journey from the Andes to the Amazon by 4x4, foot, raft and dugout canoe.  The river journey ends at an indigenous run ecolodge close to the Peruvian border before flying back up to La Paz.

Photographs kindly provided by Paul Cripps