Trees Of Paradise [Book]

Co-written with my partner Nod, this is the true account of our dream to walk in a virgin rainforest. Drawn from our journals and what we learnt from the people we met, what starts as a travel story, ends with a fight to save the forest we eventually found.

Marooned up a river in the heart of Borneo, we were initially defeated. But in Papua New Guinea, after several false starts, we pushed our way with local clansmen through the steaming forest of the Hunstein Range - as close to ‘virgin’ as we would ever find!

Crossing an almost inaccessible swamp, we reached a village hardly touched by Western civilisation. Here we learnt that the entire region was earmarked for a vast logging operation. Catapulted into a journey of another kind, we asked: How can the birds of paradise be spared? How can one of the last untouched rainforests be saved?

It started with a knock on the Premier’s door. Then, slowly, we won the trust of Kiawi, the Luluai (village leader), and made a long-lasting friendship with Matthew, the 13-year-old who had just inherited a massive tract of the forest.

And that was just the beginning...

Originally published by Green Press 1992. Republished as an eBook by Peach Publishing Ltd August 2020. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trees-Paradise-Ric-Edelman-ebook/dp/B08FMQ3ZL5/