DEFORESTATION

Storyboarding for a low-fi film/immersive filmic installation i'm making

Hinting at the fact that the ground you own, and ground you work on, the ground you walk across, has an impact on something bigger than you; on an elsewhere and other people.

I'm working on developing my past project I Wander Weather (which is a filmic installation and event that looks at walking as a way to experience both the physicality and the social histories of the natural world).

My development is turning the basic installation structure and some of the ideas about physical experience being linked to immensity of experience, into a project specifically about deforestation.

The aspects of deforestation that I am focusing on (the implications of it, and social difficulties associated with it) are:

Food security

Food sovereignty

Globalisation

Other effects on local and indigenous communities (slave labour, cultural exploitation etc)

Habitat degradation (due to erosion etc)

I am looking at how consumer demand in developed countries fuels deforestation.

This is because that's the only direct experience surrounding deforestation that I have known. I have obviously seen land clearance and deforestation in places near my home, and this is currently about to happen exactly outside my house, due to human demand for burial sites on local wilderness land. I have been to a meeting of the group that is campaigning to save the local wilderness and have it classed as a nature reserve.

I am particularly interested in effects on indigenous and local communities. I can however only speak for my very local, very low scale versions of that: because I live in a city in a developed country where none of us have to rely on the local forest areas to supply us with food or jobs. So the message wouldn't sink so deep for an audience that lives beyond my postcode area - and even then we'd only be worried about the local wilderness as a space for tranquility and preservation of habitat for a few butterflies and insects etc. I obviously find that totally important, but I don't think the importance translates to the masses. 

I also cannot attempt to make any specific comments on effects on, or exploitation of local communities in deforestation areas such as Brazil, Peru, Equitorial Guinea, India, Kenya or Bulgaria. To do so would be exploitation in itself because I know nothing about it, other than what i've read. I can't claim to be a voice for such communities.

Nor can I say much about local communities' impact on deforestation (such as subsistence agriculture, slash & burn farming, bushmeat hunting) - many of which I am aware are in motion because of demands from developed countries.

e.g Petrol industry has attracted many locals to urban areas of Equitorial Guinea leaving remote agriculture with a minimal workforce.

SO - i've decided I'll draw attention to the demands of people like me that affect those communities and those forests: by making a point of the large amount of everyday products that we consume that demand deforestation and forest degradation.

The video above shows how Brazilian authorities are trying to, and succeeding in, halting deforestation.

And above is a great documentary about the Amazon, that we may not be aware of

And this video is just great

And above is a beautiful and sad song by Aussie musician Tully about the wrong choices humanity is making for the environment.