Life in the canopy

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For more than three decades an American biologist’s creativity has helped to open up one of the world’s last unexplored frontiers: the little-known mysterious canopies of our rainforests. Never content simply to observe from afar the complex biological communities found there, Dr Donald Perry, 61, has developed – and refined – innovative vehicles that allow access to treetops that were for so long beyond the reach of scientists and ecotourists.

While the reason for developing a vehicle to access forest canopies was originally to help scientists discover its secrets, the fact that the vehicles have become popular with tourists is just as important, as Perry explains: “It is so important that we elevate the world’s awareness of the need to preserve this complex habitat. Rainforests control regional climate and play an important role in regulating the global climate.”

But time is running out. The explosive growth in human population has significantly encroached on the planet’s natural habitats, stripping the world of many of its major assets. Up to 15 million hectares of tropical rainforest are being lost every year and about 50 per cent of the world’s forests have already been cleared.

A close-up view of a frog found in the forest canopy. ©Courtesy of Donald Perry

“Rainforests are being lost all over the world. Unless we can halt their destruction, and halt it soon, the ecological destruction will have devastating, worldwide repercussions,” the Laureate warns.

But Perry is convinced that humans can also be the forests’ saviour. Tourists are, he says, a powerful economic force who can sway governments to protect nature. There are now, Perry estimates, about 100 places in the world where the public can visit a forest canopy. And at least 100,000 tourists ride the Rain Forest Aerial Trams, which he helped develop, every year.

“The tram is exceptionally good for nature in that the tourists are controlled. Foot traffic can cause terrible damage, particularly erosion. I like to say that here we put the people in the cage, not the animals! For me, the best model of how the bulk of humanity should see nature is that we should not leave even a footprint.”

Canopy tours offer indirect benefits as well, providing employment opportunities to the surrounding population. “One of the things that really impressed me,” says Perry, “is that after the tram in Costa Rica had been open for a couple of years, locals thanked me for bringing a different kind of employment into the region. Before that, logging, harvesting bananas and poaching were their main sources of income, activities that were gradually stripping the forests of its trees. Schoolchildren from all over Costa Rica were able to ride into the canopy to learn about the importance of nature, and to develop ways to improve their own community environment, even if it is simply to pick up rubbish.”

In 2000. Perry sold the company running the Rain Forest Aerial Tram (though he retains a small shareholding) to pursue his current goal: to build a treetop village to replicate community life as he believes it existed 40,000 years ago in Western Eurasia. “I want to build a retreat in the arboreal sky where people can learn about our ancestral world, and learn how we can heal our world. It is to be the School for Environmental Awareness [SEA], a place where scientists and students can spend an extended period of time in the trees. This is a fantasy at the moment, but many of my fantasies come true.”

To make it come true, Perry requires finance. He has therefore gone back to his proven business model: setting up a for-profit ecotourism attraction. In 2008, he filed the patent for the ECOTRAM TM, an innovative vehicle that will overcome many of the shortfalls of his previous methods of reaching canopies: The ECOTRAM, the prototype of which is currently being built on his property in Keuka Lake, New York, is a self-propelled vehicle that supports the visitor in a hammock chair. The ecotourist can stop and start it at any point, and its pathway is not restricted to a straight line. The cable can be strung in a loop within a forest to access as many points of interest as possible, and the design requires less foliage to be cleared.

The ECOTRAM will have a similar passenger capacity to the original Aerial Tram in Costa Rica, which can carry approximately 70 people per hour – about 40,000 visitors per year. While the tram’s original purpose was two-fold – to fund SEA and to transport passengers within SEA – Perry says he now has a third goal: to make nature more accessible to the physically challenged and frail. He will work closely with the (U.S.) National Association of the Physically Handicapped to ensure their requirements are accommodated by the ECOTRAM. He also hopes that, because ECOTRAM has minimal impact on its surroundings, the vehicle will be installed in more wilderness areas, thereby opening up more forests to the physically challenged who cannot use existing walking trails.

Profits from ECOTRAM will be funnelled into creating Perry’s treetop village. At this stage, he plans to locate it in southern Panama, which has some remaining pristine jungle.

Perry’s years of research have also led him to develop his theory of human canopy evolution, in which he claims that our ancestors were arboreal creatures far more recently than anthropologists have assumed. He is currently completing a book, The Descent, which outlines his theory in detail. “This is the first theory to firmly link our intelligence to our past climbing way of life,” Perry explains. “I have been working on this theory for the past 30 years, but it is only in the last five years that the pieces of the evolutionary puzzle have finally come together for me. An important realization was that, in the history of life on earth, no relatively large-brained species has ever evolved in the terrestrial habitat. They have all been climbers.”

Perry is convinced that the idea there is a safe haven in the sky is rooted in human’s ancient escape into trees: “Trees offered a safe harbour from the trials and predation on the ground. It was while evolving on our tree platforms, I believe, that humans attained the basic polarities of life: high is good, low is bad.”

Described by the New York Times as the Jacques Cousteau of the rainforest, Perry has played a significant role in revealing one of the world’s last unexplored regions. In his quest to move through the forest canopy with a previously unknown freedom, he has also inspired the world to take more care of the environment, while reassuring us that the exhilarating age of exploration is not yet over.

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Rainforests are being lost all over the world. Unless we can halt their destruction, it will have devastating, worldwide repercussions.”

Life in the canopy

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