Filming Wild

Wild waves and leaking canoes, but no dampening of spirits…

Category: filming news, inspiration series | Date: Mar 26 2008 | By: admin

Simon Trevor went back to the coast in the middle of March to film the ongoing story of Kuruwitu – the marine protected area originally set up by a group of local land owners and the local fishermen. Following on from his earlier report (which you can read in my previous post on this blog), he now has the following news for us:

“One set back was immediately explained to us. The Kuruwitu boat, which we had intended to use to film a patrol, had been turned over and as a result the engine was no longer functioning. Oh well.

Every time we look below the surface of the sea new events are happening as the underwater environment ‘comes back to life’.

This time Lesley Hannah [freelance Kenyan camerawoman working wih AEFF on marine cinematography] filmed baby Trigger Fish. The Trigger Fish is one of a number of creatures that kill and eat sea urchins. The sea urchins kill the coral so when the fish are over exploited the sea urchins proliferate and down comes the whole balanced ecosystem.

She filmed the dreaded Crown of Thorns starfish, a sinister looking creature covered in poisonous spines which is one of the main predators on coral.

Also filmed were the sellers of sea shells in Malindi [town 100km north of Mombasa], where there are usually hordes of tourists eager for a bargain. These traders buy many different marine animals from fishermen who have no idea the effect this has on their livelihoods. (There were masses of cowries, clams, helmet shells, conch shells, shark heads and the remains of many other creatures.)

If you take the Helmet Shells for example. These beautiful brilliant red creatures, sometimes larger than a tennis ball, eat sea urchins. So when they are removed the urchins multiply, the coral dies, there is nowhere for certain species of fish to lay their eggs, the young fish who use the coral to hide from predators have nowhere to hide and before long there are no new fish to take the place of those caught by fishermen. So the man who sells the shell to the trader for short term gain is destroying his own life. The tourist, who should perhaps know better, but probably doesn’t either, needs to be educated as well.

There’s so much we can teach people through our programs if we capture the information on film.

There was much excitement when I arrived as Lesley had just finished filming a spear fisherman diving outside the reef. It took some courage to go into the rough surging water and follow him down as he free dived with his homemade spear gun to a depth of fifteen metres. Spear gun fishing is illegal in Kenya but many local people practice it. The man Lesley filmed has been doing it for 25 years and is an ardent supporter of Kuruwitu.

Some people will not appreciate that we filmed this but we believe that it should be shown so that everyone can form their own opinion as to what is right and what is wrong. He fires his gun many times before he makes a strike. Then when he has three fish, with a total weight of around a kilo, he calls it a day. That is what he eats for that day, with a little left to sell. He has to live off this kind of fishing until such time as alternative ways of supporting himself are found. That is precisely what Kuruwitu will provide once their plans for tourism ventures mature and when the fish stocks inside the protected area spread out into the fishing areas.

Up to now this kind of spear gun fishing has not made much of a dent on the fish stocks but more and more people are becoming fishermen – of sorts – and so now the environmental balance is under threat from this kind of fishing too. Another good reason for the formation of marine reserves such as Kuruwitu.

We rounded up with hiring a plane and filming the coast from the air. This revealed graphically how much development has taken place along the coast and how much forest has been cut down to build hotels and residences.

Yesterday we went to Mida creek [near Watamu, north of Mombasa] with the idea of filming fishermen at work. However, as we set out on foot towards the creek, carrying cameras and all our equipment, the heavens opened and we had to beat a hasty retreat back to the camera car, where we consoled ourselves with a hot cup tea from our thermos.

With the skies clearing, we headed back and boarded a rickety dugout canoe. Dugout canoes are notorious for their lack of stability and it didn’t take me long to wonder how I was going to handle a movie camera from such an unstable platform. At the same moment - to my horror - I saw water rising rather fast in the bottom of the canoe. Our canoe-man cheerfully said he would start bailing soon but I insisted we return immediately because by then the water level was only an inch or two from the camera bags.

So that was the end of that episode. We plan to start again with a larger and more stable boat with no leaks.”
I have asked Simon to send us some photos so we can see images of all this action! He has promised to do so… watch this space…

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Of corals, turtles, and fishermen…

Category: filming news, inspiration series | Date: Mar 26 2008 | By: admin

Filming on AEFF’s Inspiration Series of films is well underway. As explained in the previous post, this is a series which highlights individuals and small organizations who are making a living out of doing something positive for conservation and their environment - in the films, these individuals are presented as role models, setting a good example which others can emulate when they see the films. In this way, shared experiences can be passed across the continent, bringing benefits to people, wildlife and the environment on a wide scale. The power of the moving image for imparting information that is inspiring, memorable and useful cannot be underestimated, which is what makes AEFF’s films such potent educational tools in the conservation field.

Simon Trevor, at the head of AEFF’s film production team, sent in this report at the beginning of March, updating us on two of the Inspiration film projects he is spearheading, both of which are being filmed on Kenya’s coast north of Mombasa, and feature important marine issues:

“Watamu Turtle Watch:

This film, about the work of the Kenyan NGO Watamu Turtle Watch, is now about 80% complete. It follows the activities of WTW’s Field Manager Kahindi who is an exceptional man. His meticulous approach to his work to rescue turtles that have been caught in fishermen’s nets comes across as we see him going about his daily activities. WTW have now rescued over three thousand six hundred turtles in the last seven years. Villagers take the unfortunate turtles back to their homes and alert Kahindi who duly comes along, collects the turtle and returns them to the sea. The villagers are paid for keeping the turtles alive. The alternative would be that in most cases the turtles would be killed and eaten.

Kahindi also documents all turtle movements and knows almost to the day when a turtle is likely to return to Kenyan shores to lay her eggs. This is done at night and one has to be very careful not to disturb the turtle. We are now hoping to film this during March.

Freelance camerawoman, Lesley Hannah, filmed two outstanding sequences recently for AEFF. The first one featured 100 baby Green Turtles hatching during the afternoon. The second sequence shows a Hawkesbill turtle feeding on sponges, while a small black fish frantically rams itself at the turtle’s head. We think this was to try and distract the turtle away from its eggs.

Kuruwitu: Between a Rock and a Hard Place:

Forty years ago, this area on the coastal reef just north of Vipingo, near Mombasa, used to be one of the most extraordinary coral gardens on the entire Kenya coast. However, due to the ravages of the aquarium trade, the tropical fish and the corals themselves were virtually destroyed. The number of sea urchins covering the entire area bears testimony to the fact that the fish that eat them had been fished out, the helmet shells and the starfish, which also eat them, had been sold to tourists. The sea urchins undermine the corals by feeding on algae causing them to collapse and die.

In 2002 a group of local people, wealthy homeowners and local fishermen joined forces to declare the area a ‘No Fishing Zone’. Although at the time they had no legal status, they persevered and today the area has been legalised as a Community Marine Reserve. They have just received a grant of 17 million shillings ($250,000) from a donor organisation to allow them to diversify their activities and earn a living from the area without resorting to fishing.

We have been filming here for almost two years now, with all the underwater sequences being shot by Lesley Hannah.

One hundred thousand years ago, the sea was much higher than it is today and in a patch of coastal forest nearby there are caves, which would have contained fish and other marine creatures of that period. Today, just offshore in the existing reef there are more caves and we filmed a fishermen swimming deep into them to catch small fish with primitive nets made from mosquito nets. He was able to hold his breath for three minutes and Lesley was able to follow him by using diving equipment. With breakers crashing overhead and the current swirling back and forth, this was no mean feat on her part. We wonder if the same scenario was carried out by primitive man all those years ago?

We also filmed the work of Dr Tim MacClannahan who has been monitoring the marine environment here for ten years. We filmed him lifting out a chunk of concrete into which he had inserted a thermometer a year ago. Since then it has given him around one thousand readings – as I was filming him and he was saying it would take a chisel to open it, the concrete suddenly parted and there was the thermometer, still intact and working away. We were able to film a starfish devouring an urchin by straddling it and crushing it. We wonder how many tourists realise they are upsetting the whole ecological balance, and even the livelihoods of people in the long run, when they buy dried starfish to take home.

We also filmed the demise of a number of turtles caught in illegal nets set by fishermen from Tanzania. These people had come up the coast, stolen five hundred metres of nest, set them and left them for two nights. The Kuruwitu Conservation people saw this activity and went to collect Kenya Wildlife Service rangers who were able to arrest the culprits.

We hope to finish this film during the next six months and to narrate it in several languages, including Giriama, the local language of this section of the coast.”

—

We are seeking funding for the production of DVD copies of these two films in several African languages, for free distribution to conservation organizations and educational institutions continent-wide. When you consider that most local fishermen (let alone people living further inland) have never seen below the surface of the sea, it is clear these two films will have a tremendous educational impact, showing how it is not just ecosystems on land which are jeopardized by mismanagement, but ecosystems underwater too. Equally, marine environments also have the potential to earn revenue for local communities, if managed correctly.

Because high quality replication facilities do not yet exist in East Africa (we tried to produce a recent batch of DVDs in Nairobi, only to have to recall them all due to malfunction), AEFF uses a DVD replication service in London. The total cost per DVD is $7.50, which includes the replication cost, the printing of the cover and the shipping to Africa from UK.

On average, we produce 1,000 DVD copies of each of our films, for free distribution to all our distribution outlets, at a total cost of $7,500 per film. For the two films mentioned above, therefore, we are seeking a total of $15,000 to produce 1,000 copies each, in various languages, print the covers, ship them to Africa and distribute them.

Please help us if you can by making a donation - large or small, it all adds up and makes a positive difference.

Thank you.

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Conservation films currently in production

Category: filming news, inspiration series | Date: Mar 26 2008 | By: admin

AEFF’s major new project, currently underway, is a series of half-hour films, under the heading “Inspiration”. Each film focuses on a particular individual (or small organization) who is doing something positive for conservation and the environment, with a view to improving their community’s quality of life, and preserving biodiversity. These people/organizations are presented as role models, and will illustrate that even a single person or a small local project can have an impact and make a real difference.

As a whole, the series will cover a broad range of environmental and conservation issues, and show ways of dealing with them, from the rural village level to government level. For example, the people featured may range from a rural villager who is planting trees or looking after the coral reefs in his area, to the Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service who is operating at a policy level.

In addition, AEFF is in the process of re-narrating some existing films into new languages. These are “Tiva: A River of Sand” and “The Rains Came”. The former tells the story of one of the longest droughts ever in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park, where no rain fell for four years, apparently devastating the landscape. The film shows how the wild animals were able to survive, against incredible odds. “The Rains Came” illustrates the miraculous way in which nature bounced back when the rains did eventually fall, and Tsavo was transformed almost overnight for a desert into a lush green and productive habitat.

Finally, a new film edited entirely from existing AEFF library material, is entitled “Cats and Dogs”: a fascinating insight into the lives of predators in the Ruaha National Park in Tanzania, specifically Lions and Wild Dogs.

Read about AEFF’s completed films

Read about AEFF films planned for the future…

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Calling All Conservation Organizations

Category: completed films, distribution partners | Date: Mar 26 2008 | By: admin

AEFF’s 12 completed films to date

The African Environmental Film Foundation produces broadcast quality educational films about conservation issues in African languages. Our films are available free of charge to conservation organizations who wish to use them as educational tools.

For the past 10 years, our films have proved extremely useful to conservation organizations which are initiating new projects by “winning hearts and minds”: the films can pave the way for the implementation of new conservation projects by informing local communities and policy makers alike, and showing them the importance of conservation, from an ecological and an economic perspective - showcasing working examples of successful alternative livelihood methods whereby people have improved their standard of living while protecting their wildlife and natural environment.

The films also assist ongoing conservation projects by spreading awareness and garnering community support for conservation projects. The films can also show how conservation projects in one area can have much wider, positive repercussions not just in that particular area, but much further afield.

You can read testimonials from organizations that use our films here.

If you represent a conservation organization (or indeed an educational institution) in Africa, please email us to request a set of our films.

We currently have 12 one-hour films available, and several more currently in production, covering a variety of conservation issues. All the films are narrated in both English and Kiswahili, and several are also available in Maa and Kikamba. (The DVDs are multi-language, so you can select whichever language is most suitable for your audience as you show them).

Films currently available are: