The Englishman who bought a rainforest...and got rather more than he had bargained for

Charlie Hamilton paid £6000 for his land in the Andes

Charlie soon found that his land was being used to produce cocaine



The gripping series, I Bought a Rainforest starts tomorrow on BBC2

We've all bought a pair of shoes or a handbag without telling our spouses. But who buys a rainforest without sitting down at the kitchen table and having a discussion about it?



Step forward Charlie Hamilton James, wildlife documentary maker and husband of TV presenter Philippa Forrester.



After getting a call from 'a mate in Peru', he parted with £6,000 to become the proud owner of 100 acres of some of the most unforgiving land on the planet, on the slopes of the Andes - a patch of land it was going to take him four flights, followed by an eight-hour drive, to reach. A Place In The Sun it was not.

Charlie parted with £6000 for 100 acres of land on the slopes of the Andes

'It certainly wasn't going to be somewhere we'd go on holiday and take the kids,' he laughs.



'No, it was purely a conservation project. Because of where this land is situated, it was being used by illegal loggers to access the Manu National Park and cut down trees. My mate Rob, who works out there in conservation, said if we bought it we could work with some of the agencies and build a guard station on the land - stopping the loggers. With hindsight I was quite naive.'

What did Philippa say when he finally told her about his purchase? 'She thought I was mad. She saw my folly long before I did because she's a conservation expert with a degree in environmental science, while I've only got three GCSEs. But she was great about it, ultimately. I think she saw it was something I had to do.'



The couple, who live in rural Somerset and run their own TV production company, have three young sons - Fred, 13, Gus, ten, and Arthur, seven. Charlie says the boys were thrilled at the idea of their father's purchase. He didn't buy the land with a view to making a documentary about it, but when he finally went to Peru to see his land, he took the cameras with him.



Charlie and his wife Phillipa Forrester and their sons, Fred, Gus and Arthur

The result is I Bought A Rainforest, and it's much more gripping than you'd expect a film about conservation to be. Yes there are trees, and a lot of explanations about why they're so important to the future of the planet. There are insects and snakes and glorious kingfishers, and startling footage of rare tribes like the Machiguenga.



But in parts it's more like an episode of Breaking Bad than a David Attenborough documentary. One of the first discoveries Charlie makes is that his land used to be owned by a man called Tito, who'd been jailed for growing and processing coca, the plant cocaine is derived from.



His son Gringo was a drug runner with a fearsome reputation. 'I'd basically bought a cocaine plantation,' says Charlie. 'I was told I'd bought the most dangerous piece of land off the most dangerous family in the most dangerous area of southern Peru, but it was too late.'



He meets the men involved in the crop harvesting, who are 'smiley and friendly in the way narco traffickers apparently are before they kill you'.



'It was also the biggest eye-opener. I'd demonised these people, thinking they were all big guys with medallions and Uzis. But the more we heard about their situations, the more complicated it all became'

They agree to harvest their crop, however, and remove it from his land. Charlie and Rob arm themselves with machetes while they wait for the harvesting team to arrive - only to find they're women and children. Surreally, he's taught how to pick the leaves off the coca plants by a five-year-old girl.



Her seniors all chew the leaves as they work. 'It was like a weird summer picnic, with drugs,' he says. 'It was also the biggest eye-opener. I'd demonised these people, thinking they were all big guys with medallions and Uzis. But the more we heard about their situations, the more complicated it all became.'



Charlie and Rob eventually track down the supposed Mr Big responsible for the illegal logging on Charlie's land. His name is Elias, and he says he's just trying to feed his family.



'I thought it was all a sob story but I went to his home and met his disabled daughter, and realised it was true. These people weren't the b******s I'd always blamed for destroying the Amazon, they were just trying to survive.'



Although Elias agrees to work for him for payment - replanting the forest instead of logging it - Charlie says he doesn't feel he'd saved the rainforest. 'If anything it's made me more depressed about the conservation issues involved. On a personal level it was the most brilliant - if terrifying - experience of my life. But I didn't come away with any answers.'



In some ways, though, he was lucky to escape with his life because, having dodged drug barons and disgruntled locals, he returned to the UK with a rare flesh-eating bug that hospitalised him. 'No, that wasn't part of the plan either,' he admits.



Next he's off to the US to take pictures for National Geographic magazine. This time Philippa and the boys are coming too. 'It's going to be a very different job,' he says, the relief evident.

