Rupununi: The Fight for El Dorado

Zach Montes, Lesley De Souza, Scott Page | 2017 | 9 min.

2018 Official Selection

In the late 15th century, Sir Walter Raleigh set out on an ill-fated quest for El Dorado, the lost city of gold. Today, biologists are uncovering what the indigenous people of Guyana have known all along – that Rupununi is a place of untold riches, not only in minerals and oil, but in unrivaled biodiversity. Thanks to well-orchestrated efforts from indigenous communities and conservation biologists like Dr. Lesley De Souza, the Rupununi has the potential to become Guyana’s largest protected area (3 million acres). See this incredible landscape through the eyes of Macushi elders as they fight to protect the forests, rivers and seasonally flooded wetlands from unchecked development and habitat destruction.

More info: www.orijinmedia.com   |   www.rupununi.org