Bear Matters BC

Happy New Year to you all! I thought that this would be the perfect moment for a BEARTREK update as we head into a brand new year of possibilities.

It’s finally happening! Since the dream for BEARTREK began about five years ago, our campaign for global bear conservation has become a reality! The campaign is starting to bring much-needed funding to the bears of the world and the dedicated biologists who are working hard for their conservation. The main component of our campaign is our documentary movie, which will highlight some of these fascinating bear projects in the world’s wildest places - an epic, high definition film that will capture the beauty of our planet on my motorcycle adventure through the bear’s world.

We’ve been busy. In the last few months we’ve set up our new non-profit organization (Wildlife Media) to oversee BEARTREK; we’ve raised $180,000; gathered a small team of committed film makers; conservationists, and business people; and filmed brown bears in Alaska and sun bears in Borneo. Our team is still small, but Joe Pontecorvo (cinematographer and producer) and I have been sincerely overwhelmed by the generosity and enthusiasm of the many people who are drawn to the BEARTREK movement. Because of them we’re making this work.

So, we’ve made a good start, but we have a long way to go to reach our $1.6 million target over the next 12 months that will allow us to fund bear projects and film them in the remaining 4 BEARTREK locations - Mongolia, Peru, Canada, and India. We need your help.

I’ve been very lucky over the last 20 years, having been involved with bear conservation projects in far flung places like the Pakistan Himalaya, the Canadian Arctic, Ecuador, and my home here in Washington State where my work focuses on a tiny population of about 10 remaining grizzly bears. For me, it’s about way more than bears though. It’s about a place for bears. Where ecosystems are wild and healthy, there are bears. Bears are one of the best barometers of our planet’s health, and in that way they represent the needs of countless species - including our own.

During my work I’ve met some wonderful people along the way (there are around 600 bear biologists in 60+ countries!), and I have always been drawn to their stories, and the fact that they struggle on two main fronts - lack of funding, and lack of exposure. We’re trying to help with both of these by telling their stories, and generating funds for them at the same time.

Our campaign aims to raise millions of dollars for bear conservation, but any campaign needs exposure. We think that the best way to generate that exposure is through film, and that’s where BEARTREK comes in.

Good films evoke wonder, inspiration, and emotion. Do you remember the energy you feel when you leave the movie theater after watching a good film? I recall watching Superman when I was a kid. As I emerged from the theater jostling through the crowd I threw my arms up on the air and swore I could take off and fly if I really put my mind to it. I think we can harness that energy to promote change. And that is our intention with BEARTREK - it will inspire huge audiences to learn more, and energize people to take action. Our sights are set high - we want BEARTREK to become the tipping point for bear conservation in the way that An Inconvenient Truth has been for climate change.

In September we began production, filming the biggest bears on earth as they gathered in southwest Alaska for their annual salmon feast - it’s a place I know well as I go there every year with small groups of people who love the magic of bears. Then in October we traveled to join my colleague Siew Te Wong in Malaysian Borneo - a completely unfamiliar environment, and the experience of a lifetime in Asia’s richest ecosystem. Mr Wong has committed his life to understanding and saving the rare and highly elusive sun bear - perhaps the least known of the world’s eight bear species. Borneo is suffering from rapid, extensive habitat loss, and only islands of old growth rainforest remain intact - that’s where the sun bears are, and subsequently where Mr Wong focuses his work.

Mr Wong, and others in the bear community are embarked upon truly imaginative conservation projects that change the world in their own small way. They hire local people, conduct quality science, and also stress the importance of education. These are the types of efforts we are supporting and looking to replicate. In Peru we’ll see how villages eagerly sign up for a local soccer league by vowing to protect Andean bears; in Mongolia we’ll track the mysterious Gobi desert brown bear among nomadic herdsmen; in Canada we’ll look at the relationship between polar bears and Inuit and the impact of climate change on both of them; and in India, where four species of bear span the country from the Himalaya to the coast across a land of exotic extremes we track sloth bears by elephant back in tiger country and learn about the complex relationships they have with local villagers.

What next? At the moment, all of our attention is focused on editing a 15-minute demo reel of our Alaska and Borneo footage (we shot about 100 hours in total!). It will look and feel like a portion of the final full-length feature film and will become a key fund-raising tool. The demo reel will be ready in April, but in the meantime, you can watch a clip of raw, non-narrated footage at the link below - from it you’ll get a feel for the images and emotion we’re going for with BEARTREK. The final feature length film is due for completion in 2009.

Links:

Here’s to your happiness and health in 2008.

Very best wishes,

Chris

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Chris Morgan (M.S. Ecology)

Executive Director

WILDLIFE MEDIA

Producer and Featured Conservationist

B E A R T R E K

Four continents. One biologist. A thousand stories.

www.BEARTREK.org

Washington State 98228-0656, USA

Tel: (+1) 360 734 6060

Fax: (+1) 360 734 0800

email: chrismorgan@insightwildlife.com

Other projects Chris Morgan is involved with: