Juan Julio Durand

Nearly a decade ago, Juan Julio Durand co-founded Junglekeepers in Peru with a simple yet ambitious goal: to protect the Amazon rainforest. Today, as the nonprofit’s vice president, he continues on this mission. Junglekeepers does this by raising funding to buy the rights to huge tracts of land, then training local and Indigenous community members as rangers to protect that land—a job for which they receive not only a salary but also food and lodging. As such, people are given the option of earning a living from more sustainable work than logging or mining. In the past year alone the nonprofit says it has brought in a record $3.4 million in donations and doubled the amount of land protected to 97,504 acres. Last year, it also opened Alta Sanctuary, home to what it says is the “world’s tallest treehouse.” A luxury night suspended in the rainforest canopy will cost you $1,450—money that Junglekeepers uses to continue its conservation work.

What is the single most important action you think the public, or a specific company or government (other than your own), needs to take in the next year to advance the climate agenda?

I think the most important thing is that people realize what a crucial time this is. People and governments need to take rapid action to support local people who depend on forests to live. This is how we save ecosystems, endangered species, stabilize the climate, and create a healthy future.

What is a climate solution (other than your own) that isn't getting the attention or funding it deserves?

I think that at the government level we need to recognize that when we destroy primary forest or ocean areas we are impoverishing everyone. We need to crack down on the illegal clearing of Amazonian forest for cattle ranching, gold mining, and illegal logging. If these crimes took place in a city the people would go to jail, but out here there is no law. The government is overwhelmed. It’s not just in Peru. It’s Bolivia and Brazil and all the other Amazonian countries. We need to make it a priority to protect the natural systems we all need. How can we pay for rain? How can we know the value of a river or a forest? Who is going to speak for the animals? Are we really just going to watch as Indigenous culture is bulldozed into extinction? No, we need to act now.

Where should climate activism go in the next year?

The clearing of forests is one of the largest contributors to CO2 levels world wide. Rain forests don’t cover much of the earth but they contain half of the terrestrial life. We need to stop the destruction and this will be a big asset in helping to stop climate change. These forests have always kept us safe. This is how we live. It doesn’t matter where you are from. Ecosystems create a stable global environment and as we destroy them we are hurting ourselves. This could be the last time in history when it is still possible to save the world before it is too late. There are still uncontacted tribes that live in the forest, there are still areas of jungle that have never ever been cut. Now is the time to save them. It’s an incredible opportunity that only we will have. I don’t think it will come again in history.

If you could stand up and talk to world leaders at the next U.N. climate conference, what would you say?

For all of history life on earth has been interconnected. Where I am from I see the river and the trees form the mist that becomes the clouds and makes the rain. The Amazon is a loop system, it makes the weather. And it doesn’t matter if you are an Indigenous person or a farmer or you live in a city, you need these natural cycles. Now we are taking a risk by cutting so much that we could reach a point that we can’t recover from. If we cut too much of the Amazon, it could dry out, lose the ability to make rain, and then it will just burn. 

It’s not just about us, we can’t just think about profit and industrialization. We need to think about our children. We need to think about the animals, they also matter and have lives of their own, we aren’t the only species here. Also for the uncontacted people, they don’t have any way to represent themselves. They need our help to keep living, otherwise we will destroy their home. I know from experience that now is the time to protect this river. If we don’t save it now, we will lose it forever. And I know it’s not just here, it’s the same story everywhere. We have a unique opportunity, this is a crucial time, and the health of our future depends on it.