OneDayOnEarth, the first film of its kind that included footage from around the world, premiered to a packed audience last Sunday the 22nd April at the Labia cinema in Cape Town.

NHU Africa presented the film to interested members of the film community, environmentalists and members of the public as a celebration of the global initiative of Earth Day.

The film was screened in over a 160 other countries around the world on the same day, in venues that ranged from UN buildings to art galleries to make-shift home cinemas.

Here in South Africa the film was screened in two venues, the Labia in Cape Town and the Pumpkin theatre in Ballito, hosted by the Zulu Coast Film Office and Ilemee Chamber of Commerce.

The film has been described as a ‘truly global film experience’ by the UK telegraph and is certainly a one of a kind production, that completed the large task of using footage from every country around the world.

NHU Africa would like to thank everyone who came through to support, as well as Canon for sponsoring a camera as a grand prize, BOS ice tea for their contribution of beverages and GreenPop and WESSA for getting involved and supporting the initiative.

To learn more about the film, go to www.onedayonearth.org

GLOBAL PREMIERE OF ONE DAY ON EARTH IN CAPE TOWN THIS EARTH DAY

NHU Africa (The Natural History Unit Africa) is proud to present the Cape Town iteration of OneDayOnEarth’s Global premiere this Sunday 22^nd April, Earth Day at the Labia cinema in Orange street.

OneDayOnEarth is a new feature-length documentary film — the first to include footage filmed in every country on earth captured all on the same day, and created with the help of the United Nations and an international community of filmmakers. It is due to debut on Earth Day, April 22, 2012 at screenings in more than 160 countries worldwide.

NHU Africa has partnered with Canon and will be giving away a SX130IS powershot camera on the evening as well as some BOS ice tea, while GreenPop will be there giving people the opportunity to buy a tree in support of Earth Day.

Four years in the making, “One Day on Earth” is a video time capsule of one day – 10 October 2010. More than 19,000 filmmakers, both professional and novice, contributed 3,000 hours of footage. The project, headed by Founder/Director Kyle Ruddick and Co-founder/Executive Producer Brandon Litman, donated video cameras to more than 95 UN country offices, which resulted in unusually intimate access, including footage of remote villages of Papua New Guinea and Abyei, a district of South Sudan with a history of border disputes. The UN has extended their logistical support of the project through 2015. 

Featuring music by Grammy winners Paul Simon and Tinariwen, Fela Kuti, Sigur Rós, and DJ Cut Chemist, “One Day on Earth” captures a dazzling array of human experiences, from the birth of a newborn in Mongolia to a woman who collects clocks in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. The film fluidly links how crises confronting the world – from the water shortage to poverty – connects us all and offers rarely seen images from life in North Korea, Iran, and Kosovo. Beyond the film, the project has established a community platform of filmmakers worldwide and a shared public archive of video footage. The film has been financed by an array of sources, including significant support by the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms initiative.

 The screening is free and open to the public, however due to limited seats it is essential to RSVP to the following address to secure a space: shani@nhuafrica.com

 For more info visit

 http://www.onedayonearth.org

Paseka- The Easter Elephant has officially won a merit award for ‘conservation message’ at the International Wildlife Film Festival, set to take place in Missoula from the 5-12 May this year.

NHU Africa commissioned Afriscreen to produce Paseka in 2010 and the film was completed in 2011, just in time for submissions to IWFF, DIFF and Encounters film festival.

To watch the trailer of the film and find out more about it, click HERE

NHU Africa has partnered with Frontier.ac.uk, Wild-eye and Wildlife-film.com in an exciting new wildlife film competition that launched today.

The competition encourages aspiring wildlife film makers to submit their 3 minute wildlife orientated video entries for judging. The judging and feedback process is where NHU Africa will become actively involved, by reviewing and judging the best entries and feeding back to the entrant. This process will imitate the submissions process that film makers would normally encounter at NHU Africa and provide feedback to the aspiring film makers as to how they would go about developing a good idea into a great natural history film.

To enter to competition please refer to guidelines and rules below: 

The Rules

Running from 1st March until 26th March, the competition will challenge entrants to submit two elements: 1. A three minute (max) wildlife video. 2. A 150 word (max) production proposal explaining how the concept could be made into a feature length natural history programme, film or series. Note: Wildlife may include plants and/or animals. Videos may be edited in any way, but this is not absolutely necessary. Remember, our main interest is in finding promising talent and ideas.

The Judges

The overall winning entry will be chosen by leading experts in the field from both Wildeye International School of Wildlife Film-making and NHU Africa.

How to enter

The competition opens on the 1st March 2012 and closes at midday on the 26th March 2012. Entries should be submitted via an email to marketing@frontier.ac.uk titled: 2012 Wildlife Film Competition Entry

The email must contain:

• A URL link to your three minute (max) video on YouTube.

• An attached document containing your 150 word (max) proposal.

• Your full name. Alternatively, the video may be submitted via an online video sharing platform. However we would prefer the original method outlined above.

Wildlife Film Making Course Terms and Conditions

1. Competition ends at 11:59 GMT on the 26th March 2012.

2. Winners announced on 2nd April 2012 on the Frontier website.

3. The winner will receive a 25% discount on the ‘Introduction to Wildlife Film-making’ course from Wildeye, a selection of eBook titles from the Wildeye publishers on Wildlife Film-making, a year’s membership to Wildlife-Film.com and feedback and advice from influential and experienced industry professionals from Wildeye and NHU Africa.

4. There is no purchase requirement to enter the competition.

5. Competition entries must be made in the manner and by the closing date and time specified in the competition. Failure to do so will disqualify the entry.

6. Only one entry per person, although group entries can be permitted.

7. Only one person from group entries will be eligible for the discounted Introduction to Wildlife Film-making’ course.

8. Prizes are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative. Frontier reserves the right to substitute prizes of equal or greater value at any time.

9. Winners may be requested to take part in promotional activity and Frontier reserves the right to use the names and addresses of winners, their photographs and audio and/or visual recordings of them in any publicity.

10. The competition is open to all citizens around the world, except employees of Frontier. If a winner is selected from outside of the UK postage fees may have to be paid.

11. Frontier may cancel or amend any competition, competition information, or these terms and conditions without prior notice. Any changes will be posted either within the competition information or these terms and conditions.

The Prizes

We are launching an exciting competition for aspiring wildlife film-makers, giving you the opportunity to win a discounted place on the extremely popular ‘Introduction to Wildlife Film-making’ course from Wildeye! Not only that, as part of this fantastic prize one lucky person will win: • Invaluable exposure to NHU Africa, an established and world-class production company. • Feedback and advice from influential and experienced industry professionals from Wildeye and NHU Africa. • A selection of titles from the Wildeye publishers on Wildlife Film-making. • A year’s membership to Wildlife-Film.com. This competition is truly unique and is perfect for aspiring makers of natural history film who want to get their creative video shown to influential and experienced industry professionals from Wildeye and NHU Africa.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition has been running at Iziko natural History Museum for the past 3 months. With only a week left of the exhibition, Chris Mason, marketing manager of NHU Africa and renowned Wildlife photographer Peter Chadwick went on Expresso morning show to discuss the exhibition before it ends. 

LATEST ON RHINO POACHING IN SOUTH AFRICA

South African National Parks announces that 52 rhinos have been poached and 30 arrests effected throughout South Africa to date. 

The hardest hit areas continue to be the Kruger National Park (KNP) and Limpopo province with 26 and 13 rhinos poached in both areas respectively. 

The CEO of SANParks, Dr David Mabunda, said “it is worrying that we are still losing such a high number of rhinos throughout the country. The most encouraging area in this whole saga is the increasing number of arrests and the steeper sentences that are being imposed on convicted criminals.”. 

Conservation agencies and the police are seeing increasing cooperation from the public which has resulted in arrests in the KNP and some provinces being effective before the criminals even enter the parks. The difficulty is pinning a suspected criminal to the actual crime because we are dealing with very wily and sophisticated individuals. 

International news release

Top wildlife experts from around the world have allocated $US 3.3 million to 23 species conservation projects. Gorillas, cockatoos, and frogs are some of the many threatened species that are receiving a helping hand from SOS (Save Our Species), a global conservation fund initiated by IUCN, the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Drawing on species conservation knowledge accrued over decades by IUCN, for the first call for proposals SOS focused on species groups that were completely assessed on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species™ and already had specific conservation action plans in place. According to IUCN’s Red List, one in three amphibians, one in eight birds, and one in four mammals are at risk of extinction in the wild. Nineteen different organizations will use these funds to conserve threatened animal and plant species and their habitats.

“The dire situation facing the world’s biodiversity calls for urgent action. SOS is seeking to bring knowledge, expertise and funding together in order to address the plight of threatened species,” says Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN’s Director General. “Through these exciting projects we hope to show that, if properly implemented, conservation works.” 

A high variety of different species is crucial for ecosystem health and SOS aims to conserve a multitude of threatened creatures, focusing on Asian and African mammals, amphibians and birds with the new round of funds. SOS supports a variety of mammal projects such as conservation programmes targeting the critically endangered Cross River Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli) and Black Rhino (Diceros bicornis) in Africa, in addition to the endangered Snow Leopard (Panthera uncia) in Pakistan. 

Mammals represent the largest portion of the SOS portfolio, but they are not the only species at risk. SOS also supports bird and amphibian projects, protecting the critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus) in Asia; a project to re-introduce the Philippine Cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia); and an initiative preserving the Golden Mantella Frog (Mantella aurantiaca) in Madagascar.

“Ignoring species conservation means ignoring a world in which species are currently disappearing at a rate 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal. The loss of wild plant and animal species is a real threat to human well-being, sustainable development and poverty reduction. In these times of economic turmoil, it would be wise not to further damage nature—our ultimate safety net,” says Jean-Christophe Vié, Deputy Director of IUCN’s Global Species Programme and SOS Director. “By implementing on the ground conservation action, the projects SOS select help protect entire habitats which both people and wildlife depend on.”

In October 2010, SOS was established with more than $US10 million in financing commitments in order to build a global coalition to protect threatened species and their habitats. This unique international alliance aims to raise awareness of biodiversity conservation and looks for participation from innovative companies across all industries. Nokia was the first company to join SOS.

“SOS was established to use the charisma of wild animals to explain the role of nature, generate interest in the plight of threatened species, and shed light on the complexity of conservation work,” says Monique Barbut, CEO and Chairperson of the GEF and Chair of the SOS Donor Council. “Today, with our core funding we are adding 23 new projects covering a large number of threatened species, including around 60 that will be closely monitored. So far we are on track. The only thing missing now is the private sector’s commitment to join our endeavour to save the planet’s captivating wildlife before it is too late.”

This decade has been declared by the United Nations as the Decade of Biodiversity. Issues surrounding species survival will be discussed at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju, Republic of Korea, from 6 to 15 September 2012.

For more information or to set up interviews, please contact:

• Elke Blodau, SOS Marketing and Communications Officer, t +41 22 999 0372, elke.blodau@iucn.org 

• Maggie Roth, IUCN Media Relations, m: +1 202 262 5313, maggie.roth@iucn.org  

Saving Rhino Phila has garnered a great deal of interest since it’s completion in late 2011 due to the sensitive and topical nature of Rhino poaching in South Africa. The film uses high production value dramitisation to re-enact poaching scenarios, bringing a sense of tension to the film that would otherwise be unattainable. Watch this behind the scenes look at how director Richard Slater-Jones aims to ‘hit the audience between the eyes’.

Towards the end of January a cheetah skin was spotted by environmental journalist Marcy Mendelson being sold in Greenmarket Square, Cape Town. The sale of any spotted skin in South Africa is illegal, and knowing this she acted quickly to alert Annie Beckhelling from Cheetah Outreach who acted fast to confiscate the skin. Watch how it went down in this short produced by NHU Africa.

The following was issued by SAN Parks yesterday evening, and seems to be a small win for the dwindling Rhino population of Southern Africa:

PRESS RELEASE

Wednesday 1 Febuary, 2012

75 years for 3 Rhino poachers

South African National Parks (SANParks) announced on the 31 January 2012, that three Rhino poachers from Mozambique were found guilty of illegal rhino hunting at Phalaborwa Regional Court and sentenced to a maximum of 25 years imprisonment each. A fourth suspected poacher died in custody in 2011 after attempting to escape.  The three poachers found guilty are Aselmo Baloyi, Jawaki Nkuna and Ismael Baloyi.

According to Dr David Mabunda, CEO of SANParks the accused were arrested on 10 July 2010 in Mooiplaas, Kruger National Park. “They were found with two freshly chopped rhino horns, an assault rifle, a hunting rifle and an axe.”  The poachers admitted to camping in the Kruger National Park prior to poaching the Rhinos.

The poachers were found guilty on 4 counts:

1. Illegal hunting of a rhino – 10 years imprisonment with an option of a R100 000 fine.

2. Possession of a prohibited firearm (automatic rifle) – 15 years imprisonment.

3. Possession of a firearm (hunting rifle) – 8 years imprisonment.

4. Possession of ammunition – 15 years imprisonment.

Last year 232 suspected poachers were arrested, of which 26 were fatalities.  Dr Mabunda said “the sentencing of these poachers is an indication that as a country we are taking more stringent measures in the fight against rhino poaching. I am glad the sentence is harsher than it has been in the past.”

ENDS

Rhino Phila, who survived being shot 9 times