Voices of the Galapagos

by iLCP

The film showcases the people who live on the Galápagos Islands and highlights their perspectives, goals, and on-going efforts to preserve the place they call home.

iLCP Fellow Ralph Lee Hopkins set out to tell the story of the Galápagos Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site protected for all humanity. He wanted to make photographic images that capture this fragile eco-region, its rich biodiversity, the people who live on the islands, and the threats the archipelago faces today.

During many consecutive trips to the Galápagos, Ralph found the threats and the challenges: unsustainable development; overfishing; invasive species; increased tourism, and a rift between decision-makers and those who live on the islands. He also found a network of international conservation groups working with Galapagueños who are passionate about saving a place they love. Today, new coalitions are improving environmental education; organic farming; recycling; GPS tagging of sharks and other sensitive species; high-tech monitoring of the Marine Reserve, and enforcement of environmental laws.

The Alliance team included writer Carol Ann Bassett; iLCP Director of Communications and Production Jenny Nichols; videographer Jeff Litton, and Ralph Lee Hopkins, who created the Alliance Project with the iLCP to produce this documentary. One outcome of the Alliance is “Voices of the Galápagos.” The film showcases the people who live on the Galápagos Islands and highlights their perspectives, goals, and on-going efforts to preserve the place they call home.

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Wild Salmon of the Pacific

by Jenny Nichols, iLCP

Messaging video produced by the iLCP in partnership by the Wild Salmon Center.

The mission of the Wild Salmon Center is to identify, understand and protect the best wild salmon ecosystems of the Pacific Rim. We devise and implement practical strategies, based on the best science, to protect forever these extraordinary places and their biodiversity.

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Fraser River

by Chris Linder

The Fraser is unique—it escaped the flurry of dam building that has altered nearly every other large river on the planet.

by Chris Linder

The Fraser River watershed, located in the Canadian province of British Columbia, includes the rain-soaked peaks of the Coast Range, the Canadian Rockies, and the dry sagebrush prairie ecosystem in between. The Fraser is unique—it escaped the flurry of dam building that has altered nearly every other large river on the planet. Yet, the Fraser faces other threats. The mountain pine beetle epidemic, which is raging unchecked due to a string of mild winters, may eliminate up to 80% of the native pine forest. As these dead trees are harvested, the exposed soil will receive more of the sun's heat, which will increase the temperature of the river water. If the water temperature exceeds 20 degrees C, salmon will no longer return to the Fraser—dubbed "the World's Greatest Salmon River"—to breed. Pollution from logging and pulp mills and excess nutrient input and contamination from mining operations also impact the health of the river.

In May 2011, when the Fraser swelled to overflowing with meltwater and rain, Dr. Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink and graduate students Britta Voss and Sarah Rosengard traveled the length of the river, from the delta to the headwaters, taking samples from both the main stem and critical tributaries along the way. Their data, supplemented by more frequent measurements made by students from the University of the Fraser Valley, will be used to assess how the river and its watershed are changing—for better or worse—over the coming years.

I am grateful for aerial support provided by LightHawk for this assignment. This project has been featured as a Tripods in the Sky initiative by the International League of Conservation Photographers.

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Patagonia Sin Represas - Bridget Besaw

by Bridget Besaw

A first hand account from Bridget Besaw on the Patagonia RAVE and efforts to stop the proposed dams on the Baker and Pascua Rivers.

Patagonia clothing company asked me to make a slide show of my Sin Represas exhibit images for the video section of their catalog site. Instead I decided to make this video about my experience of following the story of the proposed dams on the Baker and Pascua Rivers in Patagonia.For more information about the mega-dam proposal please visit Patagonia Sin Represas, NRDC or Conservacion Patagonica.

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