Archive for the ‘background information’ Category
First of all, apologies for the lack of blog entires these past few weeks: I’ve got so much on my plate at the moment, and blogging sadly just doesn’t seem to make it to the top of the list very often! Nonetheless, there has been a lot of positive talk about AEFF on the net recently, which goes to show that more and more people are hearing about our educational film work and are interested in becoming involved with and supporting AEFF’s mission. Here are a few tasters of what is being said: The Mara Conservancy has been reporting on screenings of AEFF’s film, Natural Security in the Dupoto Forest, where elders from the community who saw the film requested for it to be replayed so that they could round up all the children and other community members to watch it, a clear indication of the importance they attached to the messages conveyed in the film. You can read more about it and see photos of the outdoor film showing here: You can watch a video of AEFF’s Simon Trevor filming scenes of a dead lion in a poachers’ camp and interviewing the rangers who caught the perpetrators in the Mara here:
I have also been busy with interview requests these past few weeks. Here I am on Babelgum TV, discussing the importance of film as an educational tool for conservation: Safaritalk is a vibrant online forum for lovers of Africa and her wildlife. I recently conducted an interactive interview with members of this forum, resulting in a wide-ranging discussion covering a wide spectrum of African conservation and travel issues. Read the full interview here:
More publicity for AEFF was gained from my interview with ExpatWomen, which you can read here:
Thanks to Matt Wilkinson, founder of Safaritalk, who kindly put in the time to create our profile, AEFF is now on Facebook - please come and join our network:
It occurred to me, as I was posting my previous entries here, how easy it is to enjoy the pretty pictures of all the incredible wildlife that surrounds the AEFF headquarters, and our home, here in the Tsavo region of Kenya. It struck me that it might be easy to forget sometimes that our work here has a very serious and critical mission, for the natural wonders which surround us are every day are being threatened across the continent – indeed across the world. Everything we enjoy today, could be gone tomorrow… For example, while the river below our house is a daily delight to behold with all its wildlife dramas unfolding before our eyes (and yours through this blog), take a look at these images taken from AEFF’s films which show what is happening to the environment not so far away from here, and in many other parts of Africa…
Here’s what’s happening in many of the great forests around the world. It begs the question: What happens when all our natural resources are stretched beyond all endurance?
What happens to the people when all the trees are cut down?
What happens to cattle and other domestic livestock when there’s no grass left to eat?
What happens to the wildlife when there’s no water left? This is why AEFF makes films: to show people what is happening to their environment (both positively and negatively) and, through showing successful working examples and highlighting role models in the environmental field, illustrating how people really can improve their livelihoods by adopting environmentally sustainable ventures. And does education through film really work?To answer that question, I’d like to quote from a report sent to us by one of our key distribution partners, Amara Conservation (a US non profit working alongside AEFF in Kenya, who using their mobile cinemas show our films to over 100,000 children and adults each year). It’s quite a long account, but please do read it if you can, for I think it clearly demonstrates the very real effects our films are having in the rural areas of East Africa, as well as highlighting the important role played by our distribution partners in disseminating our films far and wide: “…We have shown films all over Kenya but mostly focused our work on the borders of the Tsavo National Parks. We focus here for several reasons including the remoteness of the populated areas and therefore the need for the information, the significance of the habitat for wildlife, and the infrastructure that is in place in the communities whereby most people belong to groups of various kinds and therefore have the ability to come together to institute changes. These changes can only occur if people want to make them, and through your educational films, we have clearly seen changes in the minds of many. These are manifested in many different ways. Indeed, if we didn’t see these changes occurring, we would not show the films! What has happened in our areas of key focus in the Taita Hills region (an area of highest human wildlife conflict in Kenya according to the Kenya Wildlife Service) is that people are now asking to be helped to make the changes that they now see as important. They are living rather marginal lives eking a living growing traditional crops of maize, cowpeas and holding minimal livestock, mostly goats and sheep. The area is very arid and the soil is not conducive to farming – the people have only moved into the area in the last 60 years due to population growth. They are now seeing that the agricultural practices they are maintaining are actually causing damage to the land, that the bushmeat they consume is destructive and not sustainable, and they want to make changes. This has come to be because we have shown films repeatedly, in several communities/schools/churches/market centres around the area. Over time, people have come to know that when the Amara Land Rover arrives it means “CINEMA” and they all come. They are taking in the information in the films in a very real way. In some key areas, specifically the Group Ranches of Mbulia, Kishushe, Maungu, Sagalla, and Mugeno – the people are now looking to form wildlife sanctuaries on their land. For Mbulia and Kishushe this is very critical – as each ranch is in a key elephant migration route/seasonal feeding ground, and outsiders before have approached each to lease land and make sanctuaries/put up camps or lodges - yet they have always refused. NOW, they are actively seeking to make these sanctuaries a reality as they know the benefits to them in terms of financial gain and more importantly – they now want to stop the destructive practices they have been engaging in for years. The fact that these communities who live on the border of the biggest Park in East Africa, with the highest level of human elephant conflict – have formed committees, lobbied amongst their members, made trips to view their areas for tourism, attended workshops to learn about running sustainable group projects – this has come to be because of what was learned in the AEFF films, combined with the meetings and discussions that we have held in conjunction with those films. There are innumerable instances when I have seen eyes wide opened, people from 5 to 80 years of age really beginning to understand the role that humans play in the larger environment, even beyond the village boundaries where they may not ever have traveled, and the evidence of which can only be shown through the medium of film. Once they learn about how the animals live, how the trees and water are intertwined, once they SEE THIS – it’s not just ‘film’, but the AEFF films in particular…” Lori Bergemann Executive Director - Amara Conservation
The Amara Conservation mobile cinema screen is erected on the side of their specially adapted Land Rover, ready for the screening of one of AEFF’s educational films.
I thought it would be helpful to tell you a little bit about where my husband, Ian Saunders, and I live, as our home will feature in many stories recounted in this blog:
‘Kulafumbi’ is our family home in Kenya, East Africa, situated on the confluence of the Athi and Mtito Rivers. The property borders the Tsavo National Park - with no fences between us and the Park, the wildlife comes and goes of its own free will and treats our land as its own. Ian and I were married here on 22nd September 2007 (after having talked about it for no less than 7 years!)
We work from here too, in office space which is donated to the Film Foundation by my father, Simon Trevor, who owns the property. It’s a very special place, and many of the tales recounted in this blog will be about our lives here “in the middle of nowhere”, and the animals and birds that are our neighbours… Read more about Kulafumbi - the house and land - and see some photos of our unconventional house…
The African Environmental Film Foundation (AEFF) is separately registered as a US non-profit organization and as a UK Charity, with its operational base in Kenya, East Africa. The Foundation has a bold vision for transforming the face of environmental education in Africa, primarily through the medium of educational films, supported by modern technology and communication methods.
Our aim is to significantly contribute to financial independence in Africa by increasing people’s awareness of conservation-based enterprises and environmentally sustainable ventures. Education is crucial for personal empowerment, resulting in local and national development. African people hunger for knowledge, but are starved of learning resources – especially those relevant and applicable to their own particular situation. We believe that if people do not KNOW about their wildlife and natural resources, they cannot care about them. More to the point perhaps in Africa’s many poor rural and urban areas, even if people know that killing wildlife and over-exploiting their natural resources is wrong and harmful in the long term, if they do not know of any ALTERNATIVE methods to make a living without destroying the very resources they rely on in the long term, it is impossible for them to change their ways. Therefore, education is crucial, and we believe that film is one of the most powerful ways of imparting information in a memorable way, and also of sharing information between communities so that they can learn from each other. Films made about Africa for Western television do not have much resonance in Africa itself; hence the reason for the birth of the African Environmental Film Foundation. Since its launch in 1998, AEFF has been producing and distributing educational films about environmental issues in Africa, for the people of Africa, in their own languages. These films are distributed free of charge and are seen by millions of people, predominantly in East Africa and increasingly further afield on the continent and internationally. By making films exclusively about African issues, in multiple African dialects and languages, and by presenting the facts and working examples in a balanced and impartial way, AEFF enables people to make informed decisions about their own environment, and shows them ways to forge a way out of poverty without depleting the very natural resources on which they depend for a healthy and sustainable future in the long term.
One of our distribution partners sets up the screen for a film showing in Maungu Town, rural Kenya.
As with many of our audiences, this one at Maungu consisted of eager kids as well as knowledge-hungry adults.
Welcome to ‘Filming Wild’, the new blog featuring the work of The African Environmental Film Foundation (AEFF). My name is Tanya Trevor Saunders, and I work as AEFF’s Director of Strategy. AEFF makes educational films about environmental and conservation issues, for the people of Africa, in their own languages, for free distribution across the continent.
I am not entirely new to the world of wildlife blogging, as since October 2007, I have been documenting the wildlife dramas occurring daily around my home and office, which lie in a beautiful wilderness area of Kenya, bordering the mighty Tsavo National Park. You can catch up with all my previous stories and photographs here. I have also been keeping people updated on AEFF news on our website here. From now on, while also keeping both these blogs going, I shall be combining the two in this brand new Filming Wild photo-journal, so this will become a record of AEFF’s work as well as of the wildlife with whom we share our home, and the particular challenges faced day to day in a life far from the modern trappings of urban convenience [and inconvenience!] Here at AEFF, we are all excited to be a part of this important and vibrant hub supporting conservation initiatives across the African continent, and indeed further afield, and I look forward to telling you more about our work and our life in the bush. Thank you for having us!
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