A new leaf: the hardy trees reforesting the Amazon

Scientists in Peru have found tree species that thrive in land poisoned by gold miners; now they have started plantingFlying above the Tambopata River in a single-engine Cessna turboprop, the panorama is desolate. Jungle rivers are ripped open into a delta of sand dunes and stagnant, discoloured ponds. Ant-sized bulldozers roll down mud paths on the soggy moonscape dotted with glinting corrugated iron rooftops.Amid the roar of the propellers, Cesar Ascorra eagerly points to a cluster of newly pl