If you like a thrill, it’s easy to fall for New Zealand. Adventure tourism is one of the country’s most lucrative industries, and bungee jumping was practically invented there. But not everyone walks away from an extreme sports experience in New Zealand. Over the past eight years at least 50 people have died in accidents that may have been preventable if stricter litigation and compensation guidelines had been in place. Tour operators scoff at what they feel is a lawsuit-happy mindset, and recommend that those who are “scared of getting their knees dirty” go elsewhere for vacation. Is it possible to keep visitors safe without taking the adventure out of adventure tourism? This program examines New Zealand’s adventure tourism industry and exposes significant flaws in the country’s safety regulations. With A. J. Hackett, founder of the first commercial bungee-jumping enterprise.

When seasonal rains sweep across South America, the Amazon River and its tributaries overflow their banks to create an ecosystem unlike any other—a place where, for six months out of each year, land-dwellers and water-dwellers mingle. This program joins an expert Amazon biologist in a journey into the flooded forests of the Amazon Basin to film dolphins navigating through treetops, a male “water monkey” releasing a cloud of babies from the nest in its mouth, and the usually lethargic three-toed sloth swimming agilely among branches. The video also explores the depletion of the region’s natural resources, both by indigenous inhabitants struggling to survive and by outsiders eager to clear land for mass crop production. A National Geographic Production.

The ecotourism model that has been developed in Australia is now being used as a model for the development of ecotourism internationally. This program uses the Phillip Island Nature Park as a case study to explore and illustrate the principles of ecotourism. The Park is an excellent example because it has tours and attractions at all three levels of NEAP accreditation—nature tourism, ecotourism, and advanced ecotourism—and has been involved in ecotourism for many years. We follow Andrew, the presenter, as he travels to all the attractions and meets a wide variety of employees, from rangers to marketing executives.

In 1851, word spread of California’s beautiful Yosemite Valley, attracting visitors who wished to exploit the land for commercial gain as well as those who wished to keep it pristine. This episode relates how a Scottish-born wanderer named John Muir made protecting this land a spiritual calling. In 1864, Congress passed an act that protects Yosemite from commercial development—the first time in history that any government put forth such an idea. Control of the land was given to California. Meanwhile, a “wonderland” of geysers, mud pots, and sulfur pits in the Wyoming territory was also protected. Since it was located in a territory, rather than a state, it became America’s first national park: Yellowstone. Distributed by PBS Distribution. Part of the series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.

This feature-length documentary follows naturalist Bill Mason on his journey by canoe into the Ontario wilderness. The filmmaker and artist begins on Lake Superior, then explores winding and sometimes tortuous river waters to the meadowlands of the river's source. Along the way, Mason paints scenes that capture his attention and muses about his love of the canoe, his artwork and his own sense of the land.