As China pours hundreds of billions of dollars into South American infrastructure, jaguars are disappearing from the continent’s most protected rainforests. Targeted as substitutes for tigers, historically used in traditional Chinese medicines, jaguars are now being trafficked at dangerously high numbers to fill new market demands. We follow Marcos Uzquiano, the director of Bolivia’s Madidi National Park. As he and his rangers journey deep inside Madidi for answers, Marcos realises that the politically-economic forces between China and Bolivia may be fueling the very trade itself. On the other side of the world, Hong Kongese journalist Laurel Chor decides to investigate the quickly rising jaguar trade in China. Along the way, Laurel grapples between her duty as a conservationist and the desire to defend the culture of her own people.

Our team sees the potential for this film to open up dialogue within Chinese communities instead of pointing fingers and vilifying them. This is a crucially different strategy to previous environmental films about wildlife trafficking and seeks to work on a solutions-based approach. Building a long-tail strategy with a Chinese impact producer could produce tangible results that could scale within this vast country. We already have willing grassroots partners who can supplement and support their work alongside this impact producer. Finally, we would like to promote an anti-racism agenda in Bolivia. Racism creates separation and misunderstanding, which subsequently creates more opportunities for wildlife trafficking. We hope this film will battle misconceptions and give Bolivian audiences a better understanding of Chinese culture and tradition pertaining to wildlife consumerism