In Singapore, greenery everywhere provides shade, cools the city, absorbs carbon dioxide and benefits people in many other ways.

       Half a world away, the Amazon rainforest in South America, the largest of its kind, is helping to do the same for the planet, partly by storing an enormous amount of carbon emissions and curbing global warming.

       Equally important, but less in the spotlight, is the 6,400km-long Amazon River and its 1,100 tributaries.

       Not only do they sustain the rainforest, but they also support over 47 million people living near them and house eight per cent of all fish species in the world.

       However, deforestation, which reduces rainfall and spurs soil erosion into rivers, and other threats are harming the waterways.

       To evaluate the Amazon River basin’s health and find ways to better protect it, Swiss watchmaker Rolex, through its Perpetual Planet Initiative, and the National Geographic Society launched a two-year study in 2022.

       Seven teams of explorers and researchers were sent across the basin’s vast expanse, from its source on the Andes mountain range to its mouth at the Atlantic Ocean.

       The multidisciplinary teams include climate scientists, ecologists, geologists and cartographers, who have been named as National Geographic Explorers.

       From installing the highest weather station in the Andes to sampling microbes in the waters of deforested areas, their work is critical to understanding the impacts of climate change in order to protect the world’s largest rainforest.

       One of these explorers is Mr Angelo Bernardino, a Brazilian marine ecologist who led a team to survey mangrove forests at the mouth of the Amazon River.

       He shares: “The National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition brought together people with different specialties and different research areas, making our trip so much richer.”

       The teams have already made astonishing discoveries and shed critical light on the Amazon’s ecosystems. Among other findings, Mr Bernardino’s team identified the world’s first-known freshwater mangroves, unlike other mangroves that grow in intertidal zones’ salty seawaters. This has increased the known area of mangroves in the region by 20 per cent.

       Besides assisting the team, digital ecologist Thiago Silva used drones and laser scanning and manually measured trees to create the first 3D models of the Amazon’s wetland forests that are flooded annually.

       This enabled greater insight into how the forests have adapted to survive, and which are most vulnerable and need protection.

       The National Geographic Explorers involved in this study also include Andressa Scabin and Rolex Awards Laureate Joao Campos-Silva, who have partnered with local communities along the Amazon River, to tag and track large, over-exploited freshwater species, such as giant otters and pink dolphins.

       Their work has aided unprecedented wildlife recovery, including the release of nearly 42,000 giant turtle hatchlings in 2022.

       Up where the Amazon originates is the Andes, where in 2022, climate scientists Baker Perry and Tom Matthews, also National Geographic Explorers, installed the highest weather station.

       Positioned at 6,385m near the summit of Nevado Ausangate, this station monitors a crucial water reservoir, a frozen cache of ice and snow, that sustains downstream communities during dry seasons.

       The station has since produced unique, real-time meteorological data to help illuminate the effects of climate change on this primary freshwater source.

       Mr Matthews, who also worked with Mr Perry on a National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Expedition to Mount Everest in 2019, says: “It’s incredibly exciting and surreal to scale these remote mountain peaks and witness the changes in real time, but what drives us and the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative is the desire to preserve and protect these resources.”

       That same year, scaling a different peak was climate scientist Alison Criscitiello, who led her own team on a 10-day National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Expedition. Their destination was the ice-covered plateau on the peak of Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada.

       Due to its altitude and unique weather conditions, the summit is one of just a handful of places outside of the polar regions where ice does not melt in the summer months. This means that its 400m-deep ice cover holds a perfectly preserved story of the region’s climate over tens of thousands of years.

       When Ms Criscitiello and her team of world-leading specialists, including geologist Rebecca Haspel and glaciologist Seth Campbell, reached the plateau 6,000m above sea level, they drilled down to collect an ice core to a depth of 327m, a record depth for a high-altitude mountain glacier core. It may contain as many as 30,000 years of climate history.

       Such data had only been collected in the polar regions in the past. Ms Criscitiello’s expedition, which complemented previous National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet ones to high mountain environments, including Mount Everest in 2019 and the Andes’ Tupungato volcano in 2021, will help paint a more complete picture of the global climate through time.

       By analysing deposits in the ice core, from volcanic and wildfire ash to marine aerosols from the sea, she and her colleagues are reconstructing different eras of the region’s environmental history.

       With this look into the past, they can also better predict what today’s changing climate signals for the future. She shares: “I hope what we learn from the core is something so new that I couldn’t tell you right now what it is.”

       Working in similar icy conditions was the all-female team of the Before it’s Gone North Pole Expedition.

       This year, Felicity Aston, known for her solo Antarctic crossing, led her team in collecting critical Arctic sea ice data. This rapidly diminishing frozen seawater plays a crucial role in ocean currents, atmospheric patterns and regional climate.

       The team's findings will enhance the understanding of Arctic environmental changes, as thinner, less extensive sea ice continues to alter the region's delicate balance.

       With these expeditions, Rolex continues its long history of supporting exploration, including to the farthest reaches of the globe. For nearly a century, since it equipped Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay for the 1953 British expedition to scale Mount Everest’s summit for the first time, it has assisted pioneering explorers in pushing the boundaries of human endeavour.

       With the perils of climate change and other threats to the world’s natural ecosystems, Rolex has moved from championing exploration for the sake of discovery to protecting the planet, committing for the long term to aid individuals and organisations using science to understand and develop solutions to today’s environmental challenges.

       It strengthened this commitment in 2019 with the Perpetual Planet Initiative, initially focused on the Rolex Awards as well as longstanding partnerships with Mission Blue and the National Geographic Society.

       The Initiative now has a diverse and growing portfolio of over 30 partnerships, concentrating on ocean conservation, wilderness protection and the living world’s preservation, including with Rewilding Argentina and Rewilding Chile, which protect landscapes in South Africa; Under The Pole expeditions for underwater exploration; and Rolex Awards Laureates.

       For example, through the Initiative, Rolex is supporting conservationists, scientists and explorers working to preserve Earth’s poles, mountains and forests. Among them are Mr Inza Kone and Mr Constantino Aucca Chutas, two 2023 Rolex Awards Laureates, who are leading ambitious forest conservation projects in Cote d’Ivoire and the Andes respectively.

       Rolex also supports organisations and initiatives that are fostering the next generations of such experts and advocates through scholarships and grants. These include the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society and The Rolex Explorers Club Grants.

       For National Geographic Explorer and wildlife biologist Ruthmery Pillco Huarcaya, the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative’s wide reach has enabled her to collaborate with other scientists and experts. She took part in the Amazon expedition to study how Andean bears forage, dispersing plant seeds and contribute to maintaining the forests’ ecological health.

       “Being part of the project is such a great opportunity to meet other researchers and exchange knowledge,” she says. “Rolex plays a key role in all of this, because the brand trusts science and research and can help us work towards better conservation strategies.”

       We The Earth is a partnership between The Straits Times and Rolex and its Perpetual Planet Initiative. These explorers and researchers are stellar examples of the many individuals who are doing their part to solve the issues Earth faces.