Rewildology

Brooke Mitchell

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How do we bring wildlife back from the brink? What does it actually take to rewild a landscape? And where on Earth can you witness nature’s greatest comebacks in real time? Rewildology host Brooke Mitchell, conservation biologist and Jackson Wild finalist, travels the globe—both virtually and in person—to amplify the voices of scientists, storytellers, and conservationists restoring and rewilding our planet. Join the journey.

hace 1 día

The New Economy: Making the Amazon Forest Worth More Standing

What does it take to make the Amazon worth more standing than gone? Not in theory—but in practice, on the ground, with real communities, real businesses, and real money. This episode of Rewilding Amazonia follows three people who have built economic models that answer that question from completely different angles. Eduardo Nycander founded Rainforest Expeditions in Peru's Tambopata region in 1989—a community ecotourism joint venture with the Ese'eja people that has proven a healthy forest is worth more per hectare than any alternative land use. Drago Bozovich's company manages 183,000 hectares of FSC-certified forest in Madre de Dios, harvesting less than one tree per hectare every twenty years while running Brazil nut operations that provide year-round employment—and his company’s forests now have jaguar densities higher than Manu National Park. Isabel Felandro of Cool Earth is tackling a different problem: the communities with no product to sell and no income stable enough to resist the pressure to destroy what they have. Her answer is unconditional cash transfers—and the first conservation basic income pilot in the Peruvian Amazon is already showing results. The economic case for the standing forest isn't idealism. It's evidence. If this episode changed how you think about conservation, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Would you like to give to Rewildology? Donate here: https://givebutter.com/supportrewildology TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction: Dawn on the river 1:44 Eduardo Nycander: 35 years in the Amazon 3:53 Rainforest Expeditions: Building the business 6:02 Partnership with the Ese'Eja community of Infierno 8:41 Spreading the economic benefit 9:57 The macaw nesting crisis 12:39 Eduardo's legacy & training the wider region 14:08 Drago Bozovich: Three generations of Amazon forestry 15:43 FSC-certified sustainable harvesting explained 17:56 20 years later: The forest comes back 19:55 Brazil nuts & year-round employment 21:03 Jaguars denser than national parks 22:18 Isabel Felandro: From Cambridge to the field 25:05 Cool Earth's model: Direct cash to communities 26:22 The climate finance gap 28:09 Conservation basic income pilot 30:33 Early results: Less stress, more conservation 33:24 Economic stability & indigenous land defenders 35:20 Advocacy & the shift in climate finance 37:01 Conclusion: The economic case for the standing forest CREDITS Executive Producer & Host: Brooke Mitchell Associate Producer & Music Composer: Brad Parsons LISTEN TO THE FULL SERIES https://rewildology.com/episode-group/rewilding-amazonia/ SHOW NOTES & NEWSLETTER Show notes & subscribe to newsletter, https://rewildology.com/ SUPPORT REWILDOLOGY https://rewildology.com/support-the-show/ LISTEN TO THE REWILDOLOGY PODCAST Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3YXWSsF Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3oW6artLcvxX0QoW1TCcrq?si=ff3b5e2ec90542a2 FOLLOW REWILDOLOGY YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Rewildology Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewildology/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rewildology/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rewildology X:

37 min
26 may

Whose Forest? The Defenders of the Amazon

What does it cost to defend the Amazon? Not in dollars or hectares—but years spent in exile, family members taken in the night, court rulings that win on paper and go unenforced for nearly two decades. This episode of Rewilding Amazonia follows five people who have dedicated their lives to defending the Amazon. Daniel Aristizábal, PIACI Process Director at the Amazon Conservation Team, works to protect indigenous communities that have chosen isolation from the outside world—and explains how they are now sitting on top of some of the most coveted mineral deposits on the continent. Cristina Vollmer Burelli, founder of SOSOrinoco, documents Venezuela's state-sponsored illegal mining from exile—exposing how a government became the architect of its own people's destruction. Hugo Jabini, Goldman Prize-winning Saamaka-Maroon leader from Suriname, tells the story of how his people fled slavery in 1690, built 74 communities across 1.4 million hectares of tropical forest, won a landmark ruling in the 2000s after years of legal battles—and are still waiting for full compliance 19 years later. Cesar Carrasco, Ese'eja lodge manager at Rainforest Expeditions in the Peruvian Amazon, survived the gold mines at 17 and spent three decades helping his community build an economic foundation that didn’t depend on extraction. The episode closes with Rosa Espinoza—the chemical biologist and science communicator who grew up steeped in traditional ecological knowledge—and her belief that the deepest form of conservation is learning to live beautifully alongside nature. If this story moved you, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who cares about the Amazon. Would you like to give to Rewildology? Donate here: https://givebutter.com/supportrewildology TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Support and Content Warning 00:42 Papaya Farm Front 02:09 Isolation as Choice 03:36 Quarantine and Territory 05:39 Policy Wins Under Fire 07:19 Green Minerals Dilemma 09:12 Venezuela Mining State 14:04 Gold Economy Trap 19:48 Suriname Logging Shock 21:27 Saamaka Rights Fight 27:39 Exile and COP30 31:27 Peru Mining and Mercury 35:40 Tourism and Culture 37:57 Live Beautifully Closing SUPPORT This episode is supported by Cool Earth, a charity that gives cash and data directly to Indigenous communities to protect rainforest and fight the climate crisis. Learn more at coolearth.org. CREDITS Executive Producer & Host: Brooke Mitchell Associate Producer & Music Composer: Brad Parsons LISTEN TO THE FULL SERIES https://rewildology.com/episode-group/rewilding-amazonia/ SHOW NOTES & NEWSLETTER Show notes & subscribe to newsletter, https://rewildology.com/ SUPPORT REWILDOLOGY https://rewildology.com/support-the-show/ LISTEN TO THE REWILDOLOGY PODCAST Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3YXWSsF Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3oW6artLcvxX0QoW1TCcrq?si=ff3b5e2ec90542a2 FOLLOW REWILDOLOGY YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Rewildology Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewildology/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rewildology/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rewildology X: https://x.com/rewil...

42 min
19 may

Rivers in the Sky: The Amazon's Tipping Point, Sentinel Dolphins & the Geothermal Deep

The Amazon isn't just a forest. It's three interconnected systems that have taken forty million years to build, and all of them are under pressure. In this episode of Rewilding Amazonia, I set out to understand how the Amazon functions—not as a place on a map, but as a living system where atmosphere, water, and deep earth are in constant conversation. Dr. Carlos Nobre, the Brazilian climate scientist who coined the concept of the Amazon's tipping point, explains how the forest engineers its own rainfall through "flying rivers"—invisible atmospheric currents carrying moisture across an entire continent—and what happens to the global climate if we push past the 20% deforestation threshold he first identified in 1988. Jimena Valderrama, National Geographic Explorer and scientist with Colombia's Omacha Foundation, uses the health of Amazon river dolphins as a diagnostic tool for the health of the Amazon’s river systems. What her team is finding in their blood, including mercury levels seventy times the permitted limit, tells a troubling story about what’s entering the water. And geothermal scientist Andres Ruzo takes us to the Boiling River, a thermal river running at 87 degrees Celsius and 700 kilometers from the nearest active volcano, sitting atop a geothermal world that remained hidden from scientists until recently. This episode is about understanding the Amazon as a system: because the more you understand how these layers talk to each other, the clearer it becomes what's at stake when they start to break down, and what it means to protect them while we still can. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Amazon Tipping Point 00:43 Three Interconnected Layers 01:59 Geology Shapes Rainfall 03:20 Flying Rivers Explained 05:55 Carbon and Collapse Risk 06:18 Tipping Thresholds Today 09:38 Avoiding the Point 10:14 River World and Dolphins 13:34 Dolphins as Health Mirrors 15:06 Mercury and Mining 17:52 Sentinel Species Wins 20:15 Geothermal Underworld 22:37 Legend of Boiling River 25:07 Discovery and Protection 28:34 Extremophiles and Biotech 30:58 El Dorado City of Life 33:17 Final Takeaways and Next Would you like to give to Rewildology? Donate here: https://givebutter.com/supportrewildology CREDITS Executive Producer & Host: Brooke Mitchell Associate Producer & Music Composer: Brad Parsons LISTEN TO THE FULL SERIES https://rewildology.com/episode-group/rewilding-amazonia/ SHOW NOTES & NEWSLETTER Show notes & subscribe to newsletter, https://rewildology.com/ SUPPORT REWILDOLOGY https://rewildology.com/support-the-show/ LISTEN TO THE REWILDOLOGY PODCAST Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3YXWSsF Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3oW6artLcvxX0QoW1TCcrq?si=ff3b5e2ec90542a2 FOLLOW REWILDOLOGY YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Rewildology Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewildology/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rewildology/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rewildology X: https://x.com/rewildology DISCLAIMER The views expressed by guests are their own and don't necessarily represent those of Rewildology or its host. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, science evolves and...

34 min
12 may

Seeing the Invisible: Tracking Destruction, Measuring Recovery

The Amazon is one of the most remote places on Earth—and one of the most watched. In this episode of Rewilding Amazonia, I follow the people who have built new eyes to see what's happening inside a forest too vast, dangerous, and politically complicated for traditional monitoring to reach. Brian Hettler, Director of Mapping at the Amazon Conservation Team, has spent fourteen years using high-resolution satellite imagery to track illegal mining barges pushing into protected indigenous territories on the Colombian-Brazilian border, and to help communities legally prove their presence on lands they risk losing not through violence, but through paperwork. Cristina Vollmer Burelli of SOSOrinoco built an anonymous open-source intelligence network of journalists, scientists, and indigenous witnesses to document over 1,000 hectares of illegal gold mines inside Venezuela's Canaima National Park—a UNESCO World Heritage Site—when physical access was impossible and speaking out could get you killed. And Brazilian entomologist Leo Lanna of Projeto Mantis has spent a decade discovering that praying mantis community diversity is one of the most accurate indicators of Amazon forest health available, and that the "invisible islands" these insects occupy have profound implications for how we approach reforestation. This episode is about visibility: what it means to be able to document almost everything happening in the Amazon—and what it will take to get the world to act on what we're seeing. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Guard Post Porto Franco Post Burns 01:37 Watching the Amazon from Space 03:09 Mapping And Titling 05:04 How River Mining Works 07:36 Turning Images Into Action 08:31 Hope In New Clearings 09:39 Venezuela Park Exposé 12:48 Anonymous Network 14:32 AI Needs Human Eyes 16:20 Borders And Balloon Effect 18:41 Meet The Mantis Scientist 20:36 Insects As Forest Signals 22:30 Invisible Islands Insight 25:07 Night Forest And UV 27:48 What Gives Hope 29:23 You Cant Protect Unseen 29:49 Next Episode Tease Would you like to give to Rewildology? Donate here: https://givebutter.com/supportrewildology CREDITS Executive Producer & Host: Brooke Mitchell Associate Producer & Music Composer: Brad Parsons LISTEN TO THE FULL SERIES https://rewildology.com/episode-group/rewilding-amazonia/ SHOW NOTES & NEWSLETTER Show notes & subscribe to newsletter, https://rewildology.com/ SUPPORT REWILDOLOGY https://rewildology.com/support-the-show/ LISTEN TO THE REWILDOLOGY PODCAST Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3YXWSsF Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3oW6artLcvxX0QoW1TCcrq?si=ff3b5e2ec90542a2 FOLLOW REWILDOLOGY YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Rewildology Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewildology/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rewildology/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rewildology X: https://x.com/rewildology DISCLAIMER The views expressed by guests are their own and don't necessarily represent those of Rewildology or its host. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, science evolves and details may change—always do your own research and consult primary sources where it matters....

31 min
5 may

The Severed Lifeline: Rebuilding a Fragmented Amazon

In this episode of Rewilding Amazonia, I follow the broken edges of the forest—the roads cutting through Indigenous territories, the degraded corridors between ecosystems, the unprotected landscapes sitting just outside national park boundaries—and the people stitching it back together. Juliana Martins, a road ecologist and PhD candidate at Imperial College London, has spent years working alongside the Waimiri-Atroari Indigenous community in the Brazilian Amazon, whose nightly closure of the BR-174 highway has produced the longest-running citizen science roadkill monitoring project in road ecology history and measurably higher wildlife diversity inside their territory than outside it. Ben Valks of the Black Jaguar Foundation is six years into one of the largest rewilding projects on earth: a 2,600-kilometer biodiversity corridor reconnecting the Amazon rainforest and the Cerrado savanna through a 17-step restoration approach, farmer by farmer, across a landscape the size of the distance from Boston to Miami. And Bruno Paladines of Nature and Culture International helped unite six Ecuadorian provinces and Indigenous nationalities under a single conservation agreement, the Amazonian Platform, to protect 60,000 square kilometers of intact, connected forest that had no formal protection at all. This episode is about landscape scale: what it takes to stop a forest from falling apart, and what becomes possible when the people who have always belonged to the land are finally given the tools to protect it. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Spider Monkey Wakeup 01:38 Roads And Fragmentation 02:21 Road Ecology Explained 04:12 Highway Through Indigenous Land 06:47 Night Closures Save Wildlife 08:48 Canopy Bridges Solution 10:05 Rethinking Road Building 12:46 Mega Corridor Restoration 17:00 How Black Jaguar Restores 18:06 Winning Farmers Trust 20:03 Wildlife Returns Fast 21:08 Protecting the Ecuador Amazon 24:25 Amazonian Platform Strategy 26:26 Future Fund Governance 28:23 Unified Voice At COP 29:47 Jaguar Refuge Buffer Zone 31:46 Connectivity And Next Steps Would you like to give to Rewildology? Donate here: https://givebutter.com/supportrewildology CREDITS Executive Producer & Host: Brooke Mitchell Associate Producer & Music Composer: Brad Parsons LISTEN TO THE FULL SERIES https://rewildology.com/episode-group/rewilding-amazonia/ SHOW NOTES & NEWSLETTER Show notes & subscribe to newsletter, https://rewildology.com/ SUPPORT REWILDOLOGY https://rewildology.com/support-the-show/ LISTEN TO THE REWILDOLOGY PODCAST Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3YXWSsF Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3oW6artLcvxX0QoW1TCcrq?si=ff3b5e2ec90542a2 FOLLOW REWILDOLOGY YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Rewildology Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewildology/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rewildology/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rewildology X: https://x.com/rewildology DISCLAIMER The views expressed by guests are their own and don't necessarily represent those of Rewildology or its host. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, science evolves and details may change—always do your own rese...

33 min
28 abr

The Ghost Forest: Bringing Wildlife Back from the Brink

What is required to bring wildlife back to the Amazon, and can species that have vanished from depleted forests return? In this episode of Rewilding Amazonia, I investigate the crisis of defaunation: the slow, invisible emptying of the Amazon's wildlife that leaves forests standing but ecologically hollow. Scientists estimate that between 350,000 and 1.25 million animals are trafficked in Peru alone every year, with official figures capturing as little as three percent of the actual trade. Through conversations with three people working at very different points in the same crisis, I follow the full arc of wildlife recovery: from Magali Salinas of Amazon Shelter in Puerto Maldonado, who has spent twenty years rescuing and rehabilitating trafficked animals and releasing them into private forestry concessions when protected reserves can't be trusted, to Mario Haberfeld of Onçafari, whose team achieved the first ever successful rewilding of captive-raised jaguars in Brazil's Pantanal and has since expanded that work into the Amazon, to Brian Griffiths of One Planet and Georgetown University, whose research with the Maijuna Indigenous community in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon reveals why community-controlled wildlife management may be one of the most powerful—and most underutilized—conservation tools available. Together, their work points toward an answer that is already underway, being built piece by piece in rescue centers, rewilding enclosures, and Indigenous territories across the Amazon basin. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Ghost Forests Mystery 00:45 Jaguars Return Home 01:48 Amazon Shelter Origins 03:50 Trafficking By Numbers 05:47 Rehab And Release 08:31 Monkey Comes Back 11:24 Why Jaguars Matter 12:49 Mario Conservation Vision 14:44 Ecotourism Jaguar Boom 15:35 Rewilding Breakthrough 17:51 Amazon Rewilding Expansion 21:02 Hunting As Conservation 23:22 Loggers And Starvation 25:25 Managed Harvest Science 28:01 Economics Of Saying No 29:46 Barriers And Big Picture 32:37 Hope And Next Steps Would you like to give to Rewildology? Donate here: https://givebutter.com/supportrewildology CREDITS Executive Producer & Host: Brooke Mitchell Associate Producer & Music Composer: Brad Parsons LISTEN TO THE FULL SERIES https://rewildology.com/episode-group/rewilding-amazonia/ SHOW NOTES & NEWSLETTER Show notes & subscribe to newsletter, https://rewildology.com/ SUPPORT REWILDOLOGY https://rewildology.com/support-the-show/ LISTEN TO THE REWILDOLOGY PODCAST Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3YXWSsF Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3oW6artLcvxX0QoW1TCcrq?si=ff3b5e2ec90542a2 FOLLOW REWILDOLOGY YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Rewildology Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewildology/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rewildology/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rewildology X: https://x.com/rewildology DISCLAIMER The views expressed by guests are their own and don't necessarily represent those of Rewildology or its host. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, science evolves and details may change—always do your own research and consult primary sources where it matters. SPONS...

34 min
28 abr

The Pattern: Tracing the Amazon's History

I started this investigation with two questions: What does it actually take to rewild the Amazon, and who are the people dedicating their lives to protecting this globally significant biome? What I discovered traces back centuries—from ancient Indigenous civilizations that managed the forest for 11,000 years to the catastrophic diseases that killed 90% of the Amazon's population after European contact. This episode follows a repeating pattern: extraction booms that devastate ecosystems, followed by conservation promises that fail to stop the next wave of destruction. Through conversations with wildlife rescuers, scientists, and Indigenous leaders across five Amazon countries, I reveal why decades of protected areas and international agreements haven't slowed deforestation—and introduce the people working to break the cycle. With the Amazon at 17% deforestation and scientists warning that 20-25% loss could trigger irreversible collapse into savanna, this series is about the people refusing to let the world's largest rainforest reach its tipping point. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Illegal Mining Reality 01:05 Podcast Mission Setup 01:45 Amazon Touches Everything 02:47 COP30 Sparks Investigation 04:26 What Is The Amazon 05:18 Contact And Catastrophe 07:21 Why Conquest Failed 10:31 Rubber Boom Slavery 14:06 Fur Boom Mass Killing 16:29 Highway And Dictatorship 19:06 Chico Mendes Martyrdom 20:19 Paper Protections Rise 21:46 Narcos And Criminal Rule 23:44 Tipping Point And Hope 24:57 Next Episode Tease Would you like to give to Rewildology? Donate here: https://givebutter.com/supportrewildology CREDITS Executive Producer & Host: Brooke Mitchell Associate Producer & Music Composer: Brad Parsons LISTEN TO THE FULL SERIES https://rewildology.com/episode-group/rewilding-amazonia/ SHOW NOTES & NEWSLETTER Show notes & subscribe to newsletter, https://rewildology.com/ SUPPORT REWILDOLOGY https://rewildology.com/support-the-show/ LISTEN TO THE REWILDOLOGY PODCAST Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3YXWSsF Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3oW6artLcvxX0QoW1TCcrq?si=ff3b5e2ec90542a2 FOLLOW REWILDOLOGY YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Rewildology Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewildology/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rewildology/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rewildology X: https://x.com/rewildology DISCLAIMER The views expressed by guests are their own and don't necessarily represent those of Rewildology or its host. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, science evolves and details may change—always do your own research and consult primary sources where it matters. Thanks for listening!

25 min
Tráiler de la temporada 3

Rewilding Amazonia | Official Trailer

What does it actually take to rewild the Amazon, and who are the people making it happen? Rewilding Amazonia is an eight-part investigative documentary podcast series that goes beyond the headlines to find the scientists, tribal leaders, land defenders, and community organizers across six countries who are doing the work regardless of the threats. The story is more complicated—and more extraordinary—than you might imagine. Episodes drop every Tuesday beginning April 28, 2026. CREDITS Executive Producer & Host: Brooke Mitchell Associate Producer & Music Composer: Brad Parsons SHOW NOTES & NEWSLETTER Show notes & subscribe to newsletter, https://rewildology.com/ SUPPORT REWILDOLOGY https://rewildology.com/support-the-show/ LISTEN TO THE REWILDOLOGY PODCAST Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3YXWSsF Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3oW6artLcvxX0QoW1TCcrq?si=ff3b5e2ec90542a2 FOLLOW REWILDOLOGY YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Rewildology Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rewildology/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rewildology/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rewildology X: https://x.com/rewildology DISCLAIMER The views expressed by guests are their own and don't necessarily represent those of Rewildology or its host. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, science evolves and details may change—always do your own research and consult primary sources where it matters.

3 min

How do we bring wildlife back from the brink? What does it actually take to rewild a landscape? And where on Earth can you witness nature’s greatest comebacks in real time? Rewildology host Brooke Mitchell, conservation biologist and Jackson Wild finalist, travels the globe—both virtually and in person—to amplify the voices of scientists, storytellers, and conservationists restoring and rewilding our planet. Join the journey.

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Brooke Mitchell
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2021 - 2026
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226
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© 2025 Rewildology
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