Rewilding Ibera Documentary (English version)

I remember flying over this incredibly flat wet territory with floating islands and I thought to myself where the hell are we like all good stories the road is long from where Doug and I started to where we are here in the middle of Avira [Music] we were business people before Doug having started the North Face and then as free and I started working for Ivana Melinda Jannard and we started Patagonia company in the early 90s we both decided to leave that life and dedicate ourselves to protecting those things that we had come to love through our world of climbing and skiing hiking ins we got started in Chile and created what is today called Puma lien National Park and in 1997 someone invited us to come to northeastern Argentina and see if they might interest us in working here and one of the stops was to the centre of even our wetlands we land out in what we came to know as sin alone so I stepped out of the plane and thought this place is hot there were bugs there were no landmarks the only thing I wanted to do was get back on that plane and get out of here but Doug really just in those few hours saw something that he never forgot a month later Doug came back and actually bought sin alone so much to my surprise and that's how we got started in the conservation of even our wetlands as we began to work here it was so evident so quickly that this was a goldmine of biodiversity and that much of it had gone extinct and that's where we really began to open up a whole new area of our work which was the rewilding of the places that we were trying to conserve it was at this point when we began looking for people who had the inspiration the background and interest to join us in creating what eventually became our rewilding project I know about that Tompkins increase when I was working for National Park Service I was the biologist tried to create new areas new national parks and he was a a person that dreams about creating national parks he have already created Monteleone so when he offered me to work in Nevada and I say yes and I traveled to Pauline so to know how he was working in conservation and I saw that place incredible rain forests and incredible mountains and flying with him I I thought I was in the paradise a dream and the dream comes true and we are here in a Verano in 2005 I was traveling through p'malee in southern Chile I remember being in a small cafe that that it was there and looking at a book called conservation land trust the first ten years I was looking at the pages and then is so that the color project enira northern northeastern Argentina and that they said they were going to reintroduce six species of mammals I remember reading Jaguars tapirs peccaries and I thought wow these guys are crazy I mean nobody has done this before and at the same time I was thinking well these guys they they can do it and then I started thinking that maybe it could be part of that LT in Argentina have created and helped to create at these three national parks Monteleone National Park impenetrable a national park even a national park and we have worked with others to create Patagonia National Park and we have enlarged perito morino National Park this is about land protection but we have started a new movement that is rewilding the national parks the rewarding program in évora from the beginning was a part of something much larger I mean it was kind of part of three legs one was bringing back the stability species also creating this large park that will last forever and also working with local communities so they will benefit from both the wildlife and the park here in the Bay Area we also think that it's a great opportunity to get the people in the surrounding to get aware that there they have to be proud of this because this is a very special place they have our great culture they have a great biodiversity and all the lifestyle of the people are really adapted to this place because they they managed very well they can who's they always move with a cuddle in the middle of the water so it's a very special culture nobody can go in inside the stairs without them so we really started to build a team with them and we learn a lot from them and they also started to think that they live they love the place and they wanted to preserve so they became the best guards and they became the best managers quando say let em encomienda are maroon equipo de gente de conservación conocí endo minima mint al Torinos automatica mente imagine o grupo de Marino's de lugar a nose cone oh say doors de del lugar de la historia de la geografía de la cultura de los tiempos loco Dios cosas que que super importante para poder manohar a este in Mensa dad date areas yet animo idea [Music] Kalinda's province suffered the probably the worst the foundation process in northern Argentina after several centuries of European colonization because Koree entities are all province in in the Spanish Empire several species of animals went extinct they were hunted their habitats were destroyed and they were banished from the province when we studied with the with the whole rewilding program I mean everything was kind of against us I mean there was no previous experience of introduction in Argentina or even in general in South America so we had to convince authorities society even many ecologist that it made sense to bring back a estimated species [Music] [Laughter] [Music] how could we start something so complex as we know this is pieces back the idea was to start with the easiest one yayan anteaters are animals that are not hated or even loved by people in many areas of other provinces in Argentina people hunt the Anteaters because they fight with their dogs they kill the anteater and sometimes they find the little cub on the back of the mother and they feel pity for the baby for the cub and they bring it to their house to their homes El Centro de que tu lugar donde receive emos loss Osito z-- k sunrise Qatada del Norte del Argentina que la zona on dactyl meant a todavía que enosis son animales que si nos tuviera stay proyecto Turman Ariel Mauryan dos ace estamos llegando objetivos Alvar animales que no tienen destino y de paz okay near our own annual policy anoche receive emo who knows Itoh de tener un más de vie de como mucho [Music] lower our case animal puede salir adelante yes Tarzan Oster ato para poder liberar lo si como nuestro objetivo en esta tapa yo where case animal esta libre en el campo y y es parte una población incipient a es lo que para nosotros NOS terminate our tranquilo hay que las cosas están haciendo bien esta semana demo liberato ha después de you mess in coral delta los animales Jegan Allah is Allah Allah Salomon tamos de la misma formication alimentive on en la Stazione biological cuando Primo's que la animal esta tranquilo soon over ab Remos la puerta del Coralie an animal libre durante los años no monetary ahmo's no Seminole meant a loss visit ah mo Revis ah Moselle Darnay compromise a todo esta bien que la animal este en condiciones a de salud en el caso de las embrasse a partir del segundo an Amedeo turf er a neo comenzamos a seguir lock on mayor frequencies acaba para ser que que la siempre ha the results we obtained with the giant anteater project really validated us with the scientific and conservation community the next step which was bringing back the pampas deer which is a species that is more endangered in Argentine pampas deer used to be some of them most common mammals in Argentina there used to be hundreds of thousands of them roaming the grasslands the pampas of southern South America was equivalent to the Bisons in in North America they were vanished from most of Argentina because of habitat degradation on hunting there are like 2,000 of them left energy in Argentina and there were a few of them even left in corrientes in our province but they were in private ranches that were being changed into pine plantations very very fast we had to capture animals they were living free in these private ranches and then bring them to our properties that they were going to be turned into a national park so it was kind of a rescue from an area in which they were not secured to an area where they will be conserved forever or at least the long term Cinda de tener una reserva como again was against an alone so con estos mm plays unison a contra la de una tarea diarrhea mente es una cerca de un coma ding que tenemos a como para prada Sheila Jaffe being able to establish new populations for Jolyon and teachers and pompous deer allowed us to start building a real team our own team for introductions that one we looked for Sebastiani martino as a field biologist who had experience both in wildlife management and protected areas we studied planning right away their introduction of tapers and peccaries which are two large herbivores that used to live in the area the tables and the peccaries are still common in some parts of Argentina but they have lost more than 50% of the distribution area in our country we bring animals from zoos and wildlife rescue centers and we've introduced them into nature that's a very hard word because this our domestic or semi domestic animals they need to be trained on how to find food how to find refugee how to survive in the wild no fake IDs empezamos el año pasado este momento development of robust Latinos who own money monetary or continua cream ok Sabri Latin Boogaloo de y no concern elemento necesario no saben donde Carlos entonces la CIMA supplement ando parallelizable mentor ahora que pasa en el invierno con la fuerza de Bercy alguna December 8th ranked estación likely upon the Suroosh Alvi any parent crea for 3 Aaron nosotros que con lapa Kariya's tomando localizations para saber naturalmente donde ellos DCNS parse interferential DiNozzo papers are the biggest terrestrial mammals of South America we brought seven of them to even in the last year and here we are now with the first mother and her first calf to be born in corrientes province in more than half a century [Music] we found out that they used to be green winged macaws in évora this is spectacular births were vanished from the area in the eighteen hundreds mostly because their feathers are so spectacular that they were hunted and they were traded even in colonial times that that was happening at big scale we started thinking about bringing them back also to the area and they are important because they are forest builders they disperse seeds and fruits from one patch to another and they promote the regrowth of the forests there are also spectacular atavistic level people like to see them loss and in my little sister veena in the Salahi cozy no sobbing bola not having como combivir in ambient a good idea and I got in Dana Savino in an intermedia well okay said no placenta Eastern beams and perfecto's Remo Baraka Indian enemy and operable selearis the system here in Nevada consists of isolated forest patches so the birds have to be able to fly pretty long distances in order in order to have access to their food and they have to be able to recognize it the birds live in one cage and then there's a flight cage where they they train how to fly we are trying to get the words to be able to learn how to maneuver in the air and for this we put branches in the way of their plight but so they have to make decisions in why they're flying to the sideway where they want to go other thing we are doing right now is training them on recognizing and learning how to eat native fruits so for this we go around and collect them from the trees we we find in the nearby forest patches [Music] this bird has been absent from Argentina completely so this would be the coming back of the species to the country we already have a group of red and green macaws living free in Nevada is the first time that a species that went extinct in Argentina is reintroduced in our country this was generated a lot of expectations in the neighboring communities of Avera not only because it's wonderful to see them flying free but also because they became a very important resource for ecotourism activities [Music] we are doing this big huge experiment here in Nevada and it's not only about bringing back peccaries tapirs pampas year but bringing back a top predator like a Jaguar we have space lot of prey and in a productive place as the wetlands they have to go well here we don't have in Argentina any similar place to try to do this the server had a very big distribution area in Argentina but at the end of the 19th century this area started to reduce and now we only have 200 animals surviving in our country it became a critically endangered species restoring Jaguars tree but I was always part of the original vision but this was a whole different challenge large predators are typically loved or hated so we had to assess how the situation in India in the region we found out that the quarantine knows they have this patriotic identification with gaurs because the see gia was as a lost relative that connects them with a warranty roots and a wallet a la PCMs representative-elect area quarantine Oh see you know le preguntan quarantine o con qual de tous anomalies se siente magenta faqad oh yeah Kanazawa rate a porque como que la vérité fuerte a being macho komelkova opinion [Music] there were no previous experiences of bringing back Jaguars anywhere in the world so we had to visit other projects in other continents bring specialists who came here for free just to give us advice and then decide a home breeding center where the Jaguars will live in the middle of an island that was in the core of Avera and you could only access by plane or by boat building the Jaguar breeding center was a epic story in itself lots of rain people working under the rain from down to sunset amazing work from the local Gauchos and the way they took this as a source of pride there was a moment in which the tractors couldn't get into the area they will get a stuck in the mud so we had to work with ox carts bringing all the materials [Music] anyway I will have a very big living center for showers with two males and two females we expect them to breed and when the female gets pregnant we move her to a very big pen or 1.5 factories where she will have their calves and she will raise the cap with no contact with humans so they can be reintroducing [Music] when the cops are about a year old they will move on their own without their mother - a huge area of 30 hectare big enclosure it's quite important the size of this area and that gives the Jaguars the opportunity to know before being released all the different habitat types of Ibero we have the big forest which is very typical for this area we also have a big tall grassland and then most important of all we have a big lake when the first yahwah arrived to the breeding center the response of the neighboring communities was phenomenal schoolchildren and neighbors from san miguel community they were waiting for the animal on the streets like they were waiting for start for a long distance relative that had been away in the area for decades park a coterie tol Avera es una oportunidad maravillosa para allá provincial corriente y para todo la república gente que madonna pushy ley de vida de trabajo they play like la vida I'm Moochi SEMA and Sonic Aviv analogy then trust a sufficient a me like that is yo the harmonica not seen on BSO visa then tone say autumn a blessing on poco de Bello the muy cerca name can today the pro-assad a welter hello la vie sauvage Raja wallet a in la guerra wazoo loss on me arrow plano a la pampa derlo the ntral party so important DC ojala con con este Avera average NT poor amo captor la atención de del mundo entero para que venga nodular knows a protege yak we are Tonto la natural como lo cultural que tenemos [Music] but I came here in 1975 I was here only briefly what's lovely is to come back and see all the progress and conservation now these animals are being brought back between two touching programs and the Jaguar was wiped out in so many parts of Argentina and here's this marshland this always is food for Jaguar so bringing the Jaguar back will be a tremendous achievement for conservation as well as for the country [Music] when we started working here the people thought we were they were they were afraid of us since that the idea of passing to the government all this huge place here in Nevada have changed all the perceptions that people have about Doug Tompkins and Chris Conte we have been able to establish a new population of five species they really think we are where we continue to be a bit crazy but a good crazy guys they really want to change the planet if I look now or what we achieved these years beyond the populations that we've established what I becomes to my mind is the team the team we've been able to create now look at services new program coordinator planning near introductions not only navara but in other parks in all these guys coming from corrientes province from argentina from other countries these guys who were trained as Cowboys as Gauchos now they are working as part Rangers in the National Park all this passion all this energy all this no crowd and what a thing is wow this is just the beginning I mean this is the beginning of something great here we are on the day we're bringing yet another Jaguar to Santa Alonso to the Jaguar breeding center this is a big day for us this represents more work than we could ever have imagined I'm amazed by what these teams have accomplished but then I turn around and I look forward and I think oh my god we have so much to do at least now we know so much more we work more wisely we work with more confidence because that's what 25 years of results give you and I think back to 1997 when Doug and I first came here and I couldn't wait to get back in the airplane and take off again and who would have guessed that this would become the very place the heart of where we learned the most thank God Doug saw what he saw and I marvel at how prescient he was and what could happen here what he saw those first days in sin alone so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Fundación Rewilding Argentina

Views: 23,141

Keywords: Douglas Tompkins, Kristine Tompkins, Tompkins, Ibera wetlands, rewilding, reintroduction, national parks, argentina, jaguar, giant anteater, pampas deer, collared peccary, macaws, tapir, Sofía Heinonen, Ignacio Jimenez, Ibera, Full nature, Di Caprio Foundation, ecotourism

Id: bn4W5Ntoa78

Length: 27min 38sec (1658 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 18 2018