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Heroes: What to expect
By Steve Greenwood, Producer/ Director for Heroes
Around the world there are remarkable people who are spending their lives saving endangered animals and threatened habitats – often at a huge risk to themselves. This film is a story of just a few of them.
In South Africa, Dumisane Zwane is part of a team saving the critically endangered Black rhino – an animal poached for its horn. They are creating new breeding colonies in safe havens.
In Ecuador, Jaime Culebras is trying to find a mate for possibly the rarest frog in the world. Sad Santiago the frog lives in a secure laboratory and they want to set up a breeding colony to save his species.
Jaime must search in the remote cloud forests of the Andes, one of the wettest places in the world, to find a mate for Santiago.
In the Cote d’Ivoire, in West Africa, Trang Nguyen is working undercover to catch criminals trading in illegal ivory. Trang is from Vietnam and she pretends to be a visiting businesswoman and then as the trade is being done, the police swoop in.
In Austria, Katharina Huchler is becoming a foster mother to Northern Bald Ibis chicks – some of the rarest birds in the world. The aim is to get the chicks imprinted on her so they will follow her everywhere.
She and the team take microlights over the Austrian Alps and hope the birds follow them. This way, these birds will be taught how to migrate so in the future they can do it unaided.
In the Amazon rainforest, Alessandra Korap is one of the leaders of the Munduruku indigenous group. Her forest is threatened by logging, mining and especially by agriculture.
Alessandra is helping to arrange a huge protest in Brasilia to try and prevent laws being passed that will accelerate the destruction of the forest. It is the biggest demonstration of indigenous people Brazil has ever had.
Scientists predict that if the global temperature rises by over two degrees it is likely to become the number one cause of species extinction. Coral reefs are the ecosystem most threatened by climate change.
To halt climate change – perhaps politicians need to become heroes too. Mohamed Nasheed is the ex-President of the Maldives. He attends every COP climate conference trying to persuade other politicians to limit their use of coal and other fossil fuels.