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Some of you may have noticed that one of the generous companies that are supporting my expedition is Save Your World. For those who have not heard of them before they are similar to an American “Body Shop”. They sell bathroom products and a percentage of their profit goes towards rainforest conservation.

I met Scott Cecil, the MD, when I was working for the BBC in Guyana on the “Lost Land of the Jaguar” shoot. He was visiting our camp because the money that comes from the sales of their products goes directly to conserving that concession area that is managed by Conservation International.

Scott was immediately likeable and we hit it off well. In a commercial world he is running a profitable company that really helps with rainforest conservation.

The BBC’s programme only managed to film so much diverse wildlife because Conservation International and Save Your World are doing such an incredible job at funding and managing the forestry concession that we were in.

Guyananese nationals manage the area from Georgetown and the wardens are all local Amerindians who are proud to be trained up for such a prestigious job.

It works. Full stop. And the fact that the BBC chose that conservation unit to try and find as much wildlife as possible is a testament to that.

Scott saw that my aims and his were similar and so offered to assist the Walking the Amazon expedition by paying for our communications on our first Satellite Internet Unit . The interactive map is temporarily off-line due to a major overhaul of the website. It is about to become the centrepiece of a new site and this is also paid for by Save Your World.

Save Your World have a new wristband scheme whereby every band that they sell protects an acre of rainforest for a year. Having visited their reserve the promise is not an empty one – the reserve in the Upper Essequibo River is the most bio-diverse rainforest I have ever been to.

I’m trying to help the guys at Save Your World launch the wristband scheme by distributing wristbands in the Amazon. They are free to the children here but the scheme is explained to them and they are very popular indeed.

The wristbands and products are available in the UK in Nutri Centres (in Tesco stores) in the States and from many outlets as well as on-line. More stores are expected to follow in the UK. By buying a wristband or a product you directly save an acre of incredible rainforest for a year.

Ed