honorable mention
Andrea Boccini italy
title
The Missing Link: People of the jungle
With the project "The missing link" I was looking for the real bond between humans and wildife, so the research brought us in the buffer zone at the boundaries of the park. There are two great apes that live in this jungle: Orangutans and Humans. We used to be part of the same family. Orangutans, in Indonesian means "men of the jungle", because they are like us, we share with them the same 97% of our DNA. Now orangutans have been pushed away inside the park, we are not keen to share this land anymore, so their only choises are being a touristic attraction good for selfies or been killed. As touristic attractions, Orangutans get protection and land, granting people good incomes. That is the meeting point. But sometimes the line is crossed. To offer a better selfie to turists, some people offer food to orangutans, that makes them dependent on humans "tips" and changes their behavior: they walk on ground, like luring divas, looking for food from people, becoming vulnerable to poachers and diseases passed from people. Double threat for surviving. Outside the park boundaries is even worse: we live large, and leave so small to our brothers. Because of global consumption, we took every inch of their home converting it in monocultures. Local people are just answering a demand, so they erase the forest little by little, cutting down trees that are essential bridges not only for Orangutans to move freely for food and mating, making them even more dependant on people to survive, but for the whole biodiversity itself to grow and provide life foundations for us all, cutting with them what remains of our ancient bond with nature.
Volunteer in conservation of endangered habitats and animals in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, India.
Producer of educational contents about environment and wildlife conservation.
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entry description
Leuseur National Park, is the last piece of primary rain forest survived in North Sumatra, Indonesia.With the project "The missing link" I was looking for the real bond between humans and wildife, so the research brought us in the buffer zone at the boundaries of the park. There are two great apes that live in this jungle: Orangutans and Humans. We used to be part of the same family. Orangutans, in Indonesian means "men of the jungle", because they are like us, we share with them the same 97% of our DNA. Now orangutans have been pushed away inside the park, we are not keen to share this land anymore, so their only choises are being a touristic attraction good for selfies or been killed. As touristic attractions, Orangutans get protection and land, granting people good incomes. That is the meeting point. But sometimes the line is crossed. To offer a better selfie to turists, some people offer food to orangutans, that makes them dependent on humans "tips" and changes their behavior: they walk on ground, like luring divas, looking for food from people, becoming vulnerable to poachers and diseases passed from people. Double threat for surviving. Outside the park boundaries is even worse: we live large, and leave so small to our brothers. Because of global consumption, we took every inch of their home converting it in monocultures. Local people are just answering a demand, so they erase the forest little by little, cutting down trees that are essential bridges not only for Orangutans to move freely for food and mating, making them even more dependant on people to survive, but for the whole biodiversity itself to grow and provide life foundations for us all, cutting with them what remains of our ancient bond with nature.
about the photographer
Visual artist, documentarist and wildlife ambassador.Volunteer in conservation of endangered habitats and animals in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, India.
Producer of educational contents about environment and wildlife conservation.
back to gallery