WEBVTT - Episode 4: Charming Personalities 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:07.680 School of humans. Just be clear, I'm an absolute idiot, 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:10.760 and so's my friend that was with me. We should 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:13.920 never have gone, and obviously not recommending the experience because 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:15.680 you know you're going to die. 0:00:16.160 --> 0:00:20.079 That's Tom Heartdyke. And Tom Well, he's an orchid lover. 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.000 Back in two thousand, his zeal for these precious blooms 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:27.560 even got him into I'd say a little bit of trouble. 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:33.280 I'll let him tell the story. 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:35.800 Where I met this chap called Paul Winder, also from 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:38.239 England and not a plant man so much, but more 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:40.839 of a mountaineer at heart, and we agreed across this 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.960 area called the Darien Gap on the Panamanian Colombian border, 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.360 an area that we knew wasn't that safe, but Paul 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:51.519 knew there were wonderful mountains to be discovered, and for me, 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:54.639 I knew it was a honeypot for orchids. 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:57.880 So the two decided to buddy up and travel through 0:00:57.920 --> 0:00:58.600 the gap together. 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.240 Get up beginning of March of the year two thousand 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.720 to catch the six hour, bum bruising, potholed field bus 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.280 ride down the remainder of the Pan American Highway as 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.360 it fizzles out and the little hamlet, very very small 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.280 village of Javisa. You get off the bus, don you 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:18.800 rucksacks in your three foot long machettes. We bought a 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.119 few days earlier mosquito nets enough food for about two 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:24.759 and a half weeks. We reckoned, which was the time 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.039 to cross the Darien Gap according to our Lonely Planet guidebook, 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.760 and we followed the map in that guidebook, and we 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:33.960 made fabulous. 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:37.080 Progress, following paths made by the wild pigs. The two 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.080 explorers weaved through the gap with unexpected ease. 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.560 You are in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and the 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:46.319 wild boar and the very few people in the area 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:54.640 has rendered into this clearing full of air plants orchids. 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:57.640 I mean, it was a lovely place and no orchids 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.000 really worthy of Granny's name, and once to name it 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.320 new species. Walking after my dear granny. That was my 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.720 main drive, to see orchids and finding new species for her. 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:13.120 It was a wonderland of plants. And then suddenly Tom 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:14.720 noticed something out of the corner of his. 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.400 Eye, and we got our rucksacked on our backs and 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:22.040 started to walk through this clearing. When our guides just 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:24.200 stood in front of us and fell to the ground. 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.560 It was quite weird as these figures just ran at us. 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.679 Three girls really were fifteen sixteen year olds with big 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.799 M sixteen's and three chaps, so six in total, running 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:38.880 at us with all their all their machine guns, bandannas 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:42.400 on their heads and combat gear. Our guides just fell 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:45.520 to the floor and offered their hands behind their backs 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:48.560 and they were tied up in Paul just stared these people. 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:51.160 I mean we were in a film set or something, 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:54.960 We're in the TV screen. It was extraordinary and that 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:59.720 amazing feeling of those wonderful orkids. Oh you're screwed, You're 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.160 going to in split second, this happened on the hands 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:05.880 and knees. We went rock saxel, ripped off us, tied 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.360 up with what looked like garden string behind our backs. 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:11.919 These big M sixteen stuck to our heads. Our guides 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:16.000 dragged off into the woods. Probably one was executed. Even 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:20.040 to this day they completely and aftere vanished basically, and 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.840 Na and Paul marched to our feet and dragged off 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:32.360 into the woods for ten months in captivity. 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:39.160 In this episode, the passion for plants gets dangerous. I'm 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:42.720 Summer rain Oaks from School of Humans and iHeart podcasts. 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:51.200 This is bad Seeds. 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:54.920 My name is Tom Hartdyke and I'm curator of the 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:58.400 World Garden at Lallingston Castle in Kent in southeast England. 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.400 Tom is a forty six year old horticulturalist, but to 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:06.040 be honest, after interviewing him, it's more apt to describe 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:10.080 him as a plant evangelist. His passion for plant life 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:11.800 pours from him. 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.000 Hyper enthusiastic. I's called the other day. 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.440 His property in Kent, which by the way has been 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:19.440 in the family for twenty generations. 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:22.760 We moved here in thirteen sixty. 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.000 One, has been converted into a world Garden with more 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.680 than seven thousand different types of plants. 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:32.120 Laid out as a miniature map of the world. That 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:35.480 North and South America are represented, and we've got the 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.640 Canary Islands, we've got Africa, Europe, Asia, UK and Ireland 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:43.640 included in't that and Australia one of my favorite areas, Australasia. 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.920 And it's totally bonkers, but it's looking brilliant. 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:50.160 To say the least. Tom is something of a plant addict, 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.200 and he's been one for a long time. 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.800 And my passion to plants started at the age of three. 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.600 Sun in nineteen eighty when my granny gave me a 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.240 packaging carrots eats and a trowel. She was an amazing 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.440 character and she gave me my green blood cells and 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:07.640 everything else's horticultural history. 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:10.920 Tom has traveled all over the world in the pursuit 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:15.960 to see the world's most spectacular plants. He's also, if 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:21.000 it isn't already obvious, an avid collector, but one plant 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:23.720 group has a special place in his heart. 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.400 Orchids. Oh, it's just euphoric. It is spined even now 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.640 talking about its spine tinkling. It's Granny's fault all of this. 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.560 She had to sing about them. It was more unnative 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.520 orchids that really inspired me and granny and I think 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.440 they're absolutely majestic, and seeing them in the wild ear 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:43.080 then inspired me to grow some of their cousins in 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.039 a greenhouse here as a youngster. And then it was 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.279 the inevitable, the itchy feet. What was it like to 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:52.559 go abroad to see these plants in the wild. There's 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:56.800 something about them, and it's also their rarity, and it's 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.359 something about seeing them in the wild and some just 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:03.479 growing on the edge of extinction because there're only just 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.640 a handful of certain species of work. It's growing on 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:11.560 a rock in a certain specific sight in whether it 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.200 might be and that's fascinating, absolutely fascinating. 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:21.880 In two thousand, when Tom was in his early twenties, 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:24.960 he made plans to visit one of the world's great 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:31.760 orchid hotspots, the Darien Gap, a dense rainforest between Colombia 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:35.479 and Panama. The Gap is widely considered one of the 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:39.960 most dangerous patches of wilderness on the planet. Now forget 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:44.000 the snakes, poisoned dart frogs, and jaguars. For decades, the 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:48.560 dense jungle has been a hideout for drug traffickers, paramilitary forces, 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.320 and guerrilla fighters. In the Lonely Planet guide to the region, 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:57.120 the editors provide one simple admonishment to travelers considering a journey. 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:04.080 Don't even think about it. But Tom, he didn't listen. 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:12.240 He had orchid fever. It's the nineteenth century and a 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:16.480 new plant craze is sweeping Britain. It's not tulips or ferns. 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:21.280 This time, the rich are paying explorers top dollar to 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:26.720 pluck orchids from the jungle. Tom Arenda, previously the orchid 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:30.440 collection specialist at the Smithsonian Gardens explains that at the 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:32.960 time there were a lot to choose from. 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.560 There's probably more species of orchid than there are any 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:41.520 other type of plant in newarkids are discovered all the time. 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:46.240 I think that it's approaching about thirty thousand species. The 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:50.600 closest plant family to that number would be the composites, 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:52.040 which is the daisy family. 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.000 Like Tom Hartdike Mirenda has been obsessed with orchids for 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:59.080 a long time. He understands the allure. 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.640 They're so beautiful that we get seduced by them, and 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.160 so many of us that get fascinated with orchids end 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:12.040 up addicted to them and having these huge collections. They 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:18.360 are just mind bogglingly diverse, and they kind of have personalities. 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:22.680 For example, orchids are what we call bilaterally symmetrical, So 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:24.920 if you were to take my face and cut it 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:27.200 in half, you could fold it over onto itself and 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.680 it'd be a mirror image. Orkids are the same way. 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:33.120 When you're looking at an orkid, it's kind of like 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.080 looking at a face. You see something that kind of 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.760 looks back at you with a personality. 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:45.880 Those seductive personalities led dozens of Victorian orchid hunters to 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.920 dive into the tropics, to Sierra Leone, to Brazil, to 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:54.880 Ecuador and Madagascar, to the Andes and beyond. It was 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:59.679 a scientific bonanza. They found thousands of species that previously 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.319 had been known only to locals. 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:08.200 People were seeing plants that they never imagined did. It 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:11.600 was very exciting at the time, but it was also 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.600 before we really knew a whole lot about orchids in 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:18.760 particular and ecology in general. 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:23.480 What followed was a botanical smash and grab. The wealthy 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:28.080 of Europe wanted orchids to show off, and competition was brutal. 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.960 With thousands of dollars on the line, orchid hunters swiped 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.400 every plant they could find and then would burn down 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:41.920 the surrounding forest to prevent competitors from finding new growth. 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:47.359 They did a lot of dumb things. They would take everything. 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.360 If they found a new species, they would collect them 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.240 all and ship them all back to the Old World 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.200 to be grown. They would often lie about where a 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.120 plant was collected so that they could have it as 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:05.760 an exclusive plant for their nursery. A lot of misinformation 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.320 was promulgated from that where so people wouldn't know where 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.480 to find these plants in the future, and sometimes this 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.880 took like thirty forty years to figure out where the 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:17.600 plants were actually from. 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:24.720 That's if any were left. Orchid hunting stripped the tropical 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:30.360 countryside within decades. Many species disappeared entirely from the wild, 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:33.360 only to be found in the gardens of the rich 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:34.040 and trendy. 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:38.080 People think that it's a renewable resource, that there's just 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.920 thousands and thousands of these plants out in nature, and 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:45.199 it may seem that way, but it's very, very easy 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:49.360 to make a serious dent in a population by overcollecting. 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:54.680 These plants would soon be called the lost orchids, but 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:59.560 rarity just enhanced the flower's mystique and boosted its asking price. 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:07.120 Orchid hunters kept combing the tropics, ransacking everything along the way. 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.880 Decency meant nothing. Susan Orlean in her book The Orchid Thief, 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.120 tells the story of one flower hunter in New Guinea 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:20.600 who discovered some orchids blooming from human remains, collected the 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:23.600 plants and sent them to England, still attached to ribs 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:27.360 and shin bones. That kind of behavior prompted one Swiss 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:30.920 botanist in eighteen seventy eight to write, these modern collectors 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:35.200 spare nothing. This is no longer collecting. It is wanton robbery. 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:40.239 Worse yet, few of those stolen plants survived. 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.040 They brought them back to England and they put them 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:46.600 in what they call stove houses. These stove houses were 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:51.760 terrible for those plants. They perished. So entire populations of 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:56.559 plants from Colombia and Brazil and Venezuela and stuff all 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:01.720 died there with very very few survivors. So even though 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:05.840 all of this incredible diversity was being discovered, a lot 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:10.440 of damage was done to the tropical environments that these 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:15.520 things came from, and it can take, you know, hundreds 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.280 of years for those populations to recover. 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:28.280 Eventually, the pillagings spread home to Britain too. Take the 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:33.040 lady slipper orchid siper Pedium calciolis. It bloomed across the 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:37.360 north of England until local hunters wiped it out in 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.920 twenty ten. The last remaining wild orchid in the country, 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.680 which was one hundred years old, had to be protected 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:49.439 by its own police detail. Even the country's botanical gardens 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:53.600 are extra vigilant with these prized plants, locking many of 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:58.160 the rarest orchids under cages. But during the height of 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.880 orchid fever, the flower weren't the only thing in danger. 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:11.240 The hunters were too. Guns, machetes, knives. These were the 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:16.120 orchid hunters go to tools. They trapes the forest, knowing 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.040 that at any moment they might have to fend off 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:26.040 wild animals, hostile locals, and other orchid hunters. One young 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.720 German hunter named William Arnold bragged that he once turned 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.960 down a high paying orchid hunting job because his client 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:37.400 failed to give him a trustworthy pistol. The gun wouldn't 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:42.240 have saved him. Arnold ended up drowning in Venezuela's Orinoco River. 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:57.200 His death was typical orchid hunters. Died of dysentery and malaria. 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.839 They fell off cliffs and had their heads shrunken. Many 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:06.040 stepped into the mists of the jungle and simply never returned. 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.120 Some were murdered by local rebel groups, others by competing 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:15.760 orchid hunters. Orchid hunting was a job for the few, 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:23.680 the proud, and the very very reckless, but the potential 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.280 for striking it rich was two appealing, and the orchid 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.760 beef Orlean describes the fate of one cursed orchid hunting 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.960 party in the Philippines, writing within a month, one of 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:37.880 them had been eaten by a tiger, another had been 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.840 drenched with oil and burned alive, five had vanished into 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.040 thin air, and one had managed to stay alive and 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:49.360 walk out of the woods, carrying forty seven thousand Fallinopsis plants. 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.080 To pursue the plant was to embrace a curse to 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:59.000 chase a blood diamond laced with petals. Few survived its seduction. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:05.960 Those who did reaped life changing rewards. Decades later, Tom 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:22.800 hart Dyke heard the same siren call. Minutes before the ambush. 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.880 Tom hart Dyke and his hiking buddy Paul had been 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:30.800 making jokes about lollipops. Then their world is turned upside down. 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.040 People in full camouflage rush out from the jungle foliage, 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.360 and suddenly Tom is staring down the barrel of an 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:45.080 automatic rifle. The armed strangers command that Tom and Paul 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.480 come with them. As the young men are ushered through 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:52.080 the jungle, their hands tied and guns jammed into their backs, 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:57.480 they are convinced they are about to die. Then the 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:00.760 group stops its trek and the gorillas ask the hikers 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:05.000 to empty their pockets. The only thing that tumbles out 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:11.360 are a few seeds. Now this is a pretty good 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:15.840 indication that Tom and Paul are harmless. Still, the gun 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:19.720 toting kidnappers keep the two men captive in the forest 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:22.359 for ten long months. 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.240 So we spent from March to Christmas of the year 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:27.880 two thousand with this Colombian gorilla. 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.200 Group, and it was unclear exactly who the gorillas were. 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.440 They might have been rebels fighting the Colombian Civil War, 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:38.280 like members of Marxist Leninist group FARK, then a recognized 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:42.760 terrorist organization. All Tom could make out was they were 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:43.640 very young. 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:45.880 To this day, we don't really know who they were 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:50.120 or what they wanted, at average age of fifteen sixteen 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.320 years of age. A third girls, two third boys, I 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.480 suppose made up the units, about seven hundred of them 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:01.360 in total, seven hundred different faces he saw during the 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:02.040 whole time. 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.439 Over the months, the duo started to get used to 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:10.399 the feeling of having automatic weapons pointed at them, even 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.080 when they had to squat behind a bush or strip 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.920 in a creek in private moments. The guys give their 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:21.679 captors nicknames, Will Smith, Lucy M sixteen to name a 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:26.040 few they create a secret code to communicate, dream up 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:30.440 imaginary escapes, and even steal from their hostile hosts. 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:33.720 We stole food from them. We stole a machete from them. 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.000 Paul was an amazing thief, so subtle and so cool 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:37.600 about it. 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.119 One day, one of the gorillas, the one named M sixteen, 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:43.919 asks Tom why he was in the Darien Gap in 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:48.120 the first place. Tom tells them, I'm in love with plants. 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:51.320 I thought to extend my life as much as possible. 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.320 My tactic was to show them who I was, a 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:58.440 gardener from Kent in southeast England and paul a mountaineers. 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:01.480 And that was a tactic we employed because inside, you're 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:05.040 absolutely peeing yourself. I mean, you are going to die, 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.119 so your survival strategy kicks in and you have this 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:11.400 faulty fact sort of thing. So on the inside you're like, oh, 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:15.320 we're screwed. On the outside, excuse my language, on the outside, 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:18.159 you're very much like, look at that wonderful butterfly flying, 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:21.000 but oh, thanks for the tarantula. The hair's got stuck 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:22.960 in my throat. But it was good to eat. The 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:27.160 armadillo and the hell the monkeys were absolutely gorgeous, they weren't. 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.199 They were awful and they're all protected. But it was 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.560 a way of sort of dealing with the situation. And 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:35.480 the captors didn't know what to do with this. I mean, 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.679 if you showed pleasantries, they couldn't deal with it. You 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:42.679 show a negativity and they feed off it. It's quite weird. 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:45.159 But if you did say that, they'd get, oh, i've 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.680 got a sore throw I missed my granny, and they 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.119 loved that. They fed off that and got very aggressive. 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:54.080 It's quite bizarre human nature, certain human nature. So we 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.359 had to just show that enthusiasm all the time and 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.280 that they didn't know what to do with us. 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:03.520 At first, the militants, like M sixteen, thought Tom was 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:07.520 bluffing about all this plant stuff. They were convinced the 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:10.720 men were trafficking drugs to North America or maybe they 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:15.399 were Cia. But as time wore on, their minds began 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:19.399 to change. Because as the duo followed the gorillas deeper 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:24.680 into the jungle, Tom was getting distracted on sidiums pleurithallus, 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:26.760 lumbo glossoms. 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.719 The orchids were fantastic. After we were kidnapped, it took 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:33.520 us right up to these isolated areas in Panama in particular, 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:36.359 and I mean there were orchids just dripping from the trees. 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.000 There were literally hundreds worthy of Granny's name. I mean, 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:41.960 you could name it after all the dogs and cats, 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:44.040 all the fish in the lake, all my friends I 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:45.960 haven't known over the years, people in the pub down 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:48.080 the road. Everyone could have had a new species of 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:52.600 orchids and named after them. Absolutely, it was astonishing. I'm 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.920 not an expert in orchids, but even I knew there 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:58.880 weren't just new species that I was coming across. There 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:03.800 were new genera. We saw quite literally hundreds of varieties, 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:07.439 and my guess was that some were highly endemic to 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:08.879 this area, the darry And Gap. 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.280 Thinking that as time was up, Tom did something that 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:16.720 technically is illegal. He began to pluck the orchids. 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:19.840 During captivity, going from camp to camp with the orchids. 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:22.240 I thought, there's no harm in that. It's aware of me, 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:23.879 keeping my sanity. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.920 Really, he later wrote in his book The Cloud Garden, 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:31.040 I was taking orchids from everywhere, from trees and from rocks. 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:33.880 I carried them behind my ears and in my hair 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:40.960 to get them to the camp. Eventually, Tom's orchid fever 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:45.800 takes over. He had to explore this irresistible array of flora, 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:49.280 so he asked the gorillas to come with him. 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:51.159 I asked if we could go on these armed or 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:54.200 kid patrols to our captors that untied as by them 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.679 and were reasonably nice. They wanted to kill you, that 0:20:57.840 --> 0:20:59.879 talked to you and kill you, but they were nice 0:20:59.880 --> 0:21:02.680 to a decree, so they allowed us to gun these 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:05.560 old orchid controls, bring back orchist to the cap and 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.360 I started to make gardens. I started to make these 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:12.560 orchid gardens, Bromeliad gardens. Was quite bonkers, and it was 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:15.760 aware of me, completely distracting myself from from the thought 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:22.520 of execution. The scariest time was three months into our captivity, 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.000 during the sixteenth of the year two thousand, when they said, 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:28.560 you've got five hours mate, before before we blow your 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.800 heads off, and horribly talk to you beforehand. Then blow 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:35.160 your heads off. Oh okay, And as he turned his back, 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:37.880 he was just thirteen in this chat with a gun 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:41.040 that was with rocket launcher attachment, about four foot taller 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:41.320 than in. 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:47.640 I mean, that's terrifying. How do you find solace when 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:51.879 you're in captivity? You got endless time to kill and 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:55.679 are a constant threat of being killed. But Tom was 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.960 finding ways to both kerbis fears and fill the hours 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:01.640 gardening and planning, and. 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:04.480 Opened up my diary and started scribbling. I started to 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:06.600 draw a mini map of what would turn into the 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:09.480 world garden. Were just a way of distracting myself, ware 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:12.040 of me trying to think of Granny and to try 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:14.280 and show them who I was a gardener. 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:20.600 Turns out the kid never returned to finish them off, 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:24.639 and as time went on, Tom started thinking more and 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:27.480 more about this world garden idea what. 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:30.360 Turned out to be the next six months in captivity 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:34.480 until Christmas, drawing and fantasizing about this garden that I 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:37.800 could do in the Tuaca Old area back home. It 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:42.679 literally saved my life, just distracting myself from these murderous thoughts. 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.640 Far from home and far from his dream garden, Tom 0:22:46.760 --> 0:22:49.560 kept tending to his orchid plot and his captor's encampment 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.240 until one day it was all gone. 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:57.560 When they really became very murderous. They burned all the orchids, 0:22:57.560 --> 0:22:59.920 so I never had any orchids to bring back. Of course, Leek, 0:23:00.240 --> 0:23:02.760 I can't bring them any orchids back anyway, but they 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:04.840 burned them, They stamped on them all in the end, 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:06.400 and never brought one back. 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:15.880 Tom the gardener was now without a garden. But then 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:20.520 around Christmas time, after months in the jungle, one of 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:23.679 the gorillas turned to Tom and Paul and began speaking 0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:25.560 in Spanish. 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:27.320 And my Spanish was not brilliant, so it was very 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:30.560 much trying to get everything, trying to desperately understand some 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:32.840 us what they were saying, you know where we're gonna 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:35.199 die or not, And they just turned around to Just 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:38.600 and said, Happy Christmas. Get lost. If you come back, 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:41.160 will horribly kill you. And if you bring me friends back, 0:23:41.200 --> 0:23:42.240 we'll kill them as well. 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:58.280 Not everyone is conscious of how what they do affects 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:03.160 the natural world and how much we've displaced. The house 0:24:03.240 --> 0:24:06.679 that I live in is in a very beautiful neighborhood. 0:24:06.720 --> 0:24:11.320 We've got wild open spaces and pastures. But I look 0:24:11.400 --> 0:24:14.480 out my window and I don't see any native plants 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:17.800 in my environment. The land that I live on was 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:21.560 once a sugar plantation, so all the native plants that 0:24:21.560 --> 0:24:26.040 were here were removed to plants. We've completely altered the 0:24:26.119 --> 0:24:29.080 landscape here in terms of the plants that are here. 0:24:29.560 --> 0:24:33.879 The only native plants that you can find are often 0:24:33.920 --> 0:24:37.680 in very remote areas, often on cliffs that are inaccessible. 0:24:38.359 --> 0:24:41.199 And I think this is true all over the world. 0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:48.080 True native plant communities are incredibly difficult to find, and 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:53.480 all of them are threatened by climate change, deforestation, exploitation 0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:54.960 by humans. 0:24:56.440 --> 0:24:59.240 Tom Arenda pinpoints one of the great ironies of a 0:24:59.280 --> 0:25:03.440 place like Dari Gap, it's not suffering from these problems. 0:25:04.160 --> 0:25:07.400 It remains one of the most biodiverse, species rich places 0:25:07.400 --> 0:25:11.639 in the world. And it's not because it's a protected area. 0:25:12.760 --> 0:25:16.840 It's because people are too afraid to go there. In 0:25:16.880 --> 0:25:20.600 a twenty twenty study in Scientific Reports, researchers wrote that 0:25:20.760 --> 0:25:27.280 armed conflicts can create quote positive effects for biodiversity. Conflicts 0:25:27.320 --> 0:25:30.720 have disrupted illegal timber poaching in Nicaragua and harmful farming 0:25:30.760 --> 0:25:35.359 practices in Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, some peace agreements have been 0:25:35.400 --> 0:25:39.000 shown to hurt the environment. When FARK, the armed guerrilla 0:25:39.040 --> 0:25:41.479 group in Colombia, signed a peace agreement with the government 0:25:41.520 --> 0:25:45.840