Ecuadorian Amazon

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Monday, September 12, 2011 | 5 photos

I think I am addicted to travelling. Every time I return to Australia from a big trip I start thinking about where to go next. But it is only this year that I bought a digital SLR to take with me on an 8 month trip to South America. I am discovering that photography not only documents adventures but can be a really powerful medium for telling stories about life in different places. I spent 5 weeks volunteering at a research station in the Ecuadorian Amazon, carrying out animal surveys in a protected reserve, working with the local communities on environmental projects, and teaching english at the local schools. While the destruction and threats to the Amazon are widely known, the complexity of the issues involved and the conflict of interests were much more apparent on visiting the area, speaking with people whose lives it is impacting, and experiencing the impacts first hand. People there understand the argument of the western world that the Amazon should be protected, not only for its biodiversity but also as a carbon resource, but at the same time they want a better life for their families and children - access roads, schools, health care, agriculture and development - all of which mean encroaching on the natural environment around them, something that city dwellers like me take for granted.