As the world’s population tops 7 000 000 000, the pressure on our environment intensifies. Land is cleared to grow crops and rainforests are hacked down, leading to the destruction of animals’ natural habitat. We have more hungry mouths to feed with fewer resources. Our oceans are catastrophically overfished. The demand for exotic pets and traditional medicine in Asia means that the trade in endangered wildlife is now the second largest illegal industry in the world.
Over the last few years my partner Gemma, filmmaker Chris Scarffe and I have travelled the world reporting on wildlife crises. This has included shooting a documentary on shark finning in Mozambique; an undercover mission to report on Namibia’s annual seal cull; chasing the ‘tortoise mafia’ through Madagascar’s sacred forests; training as an anti-poaching ranger in Zimbabwe; shooting a documentary on thousands of elephants that are dying of malnutrition in Hwange National Park; and, amongst others, reporting on Africa’s most controversial lion breeding initiative.
In order to raise awareness of critical conservation issues, we have set up a media and production company Ecomentaries (www.ecomentaries.org). We produce mixed-media content and eco-documentaries (‘ecomentaries’) to tell some earth-changing stories. And we work with environmentally-aware corporations and individuals and help them broadcast their green initiatives to the rest of the world.
Because, as wildlife legend George Schaller so eloquently put it, ‘Pen and camera are weapons against oblivion, they can raise awareness for that which may soon be lost forever.’
This is our photographic journey through the last couple of years.
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Mozambican fisherman happy at day's catch - sharks this size are becoming increasingly rare in Mozambique.
A dead elephant in front of a crowded waterhole at Hwange National Park. Every summer a manmade resource is having catastrophic consequences on the Park.
The radiated tortoise is in deep trouble in Madagascar. A variety of factors, including habitat destruction is leading to their demise.
Rangers at the International Anti Poaching Foundation go on an early morning march.
Lions frolic at controversial Antelope Park in Zimbabwe. The Park is working towards a four-step rehabilitation and release into the wild programme.
Rehabilitated cheetah are rereleased by the Cheetah Conservation Fund into Erindi National Park, Namibia.
There are less than 3,000 great whites left worldwide. Diving with the sharks in Gansbaai offers tourists the opportunity to come nose to nose with these mighty animals.
It's not just tortoises who are facing tough times. Marine turtles are being targeted around Africa for their meat, eggs, skin and shell.
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