When the news that comes in from the Amazon makes you feel depressed and with little hope for the future, people like Marcelo Gordo can lift your mood and give you optimism for the future. He plants trees in the city of Manaus and in surrounding areas. He has created a small nursery in the grounds of the university with hundreds of tree species. He constructs bridges over the roads that cut into the forest, creating connections to other patches of trees for the monkeys that still survive in the city.

On the recent rip to Manaus in November 24, Marcelo showed us around the tree nursery and talked with great enthusiasm about each tree species, describing the way the tamarins would use the tree and its fruit and indeed how they might help pollinate them and disperse the seeds. His huge knowledge of the relationships between the tree species and the insects, birds and mammals in a forest was clear to see, as was his passion to restore just some of this in the fragments around the city.

He also took us out to see some of the bridges that he has constructed over the roads working exactly where the best place to locate them is after recording where all the accidents occur of tamarins getting hit on roads. He must work closely with the city authorities and energy companies to make sure the crossings do not interfere with any cables. The forests around the university have been the perfect area to experiment with different designs and where he can show the authorities the bridges in operation and therefore get them agreed for use in other parts of the city. The tamarins and other primates, such as saki monkeys, capuchins and squirrel monkeys, will use the bridges which will hopefully keep them from going to the ground when trying to cross the roads or indeed cross on electric cables, electrocution being another major hazard for primates in the city.

A major road has been constructed running north out of the city, either side of the road the forest becomes degraded, but tamarins still persist there, and aerial road crossings need to be put up. Marcelo showed us his plans to put these passes up, vital work that needs to be supported.

He has built a great group of volunteers that join him to restore trees to areas in the urban environment, he is quite literally restoring the Amazon from its centre outwards. His tree planting and the project to save the critically endangered pied tamarin are a ray of hope, which if supported and continue to grow will change the fate for these primates and the Amazon at its heart.

– Dominic Wormell