A historic year for the future of our planet
The world is coming together in New York to decide on the Sustainable Development Goals (or SDGs for short).
These SDGs will help direct the global effort towards sustainability – the most critical challenge of our time. Forests are mentioned in only one draft SDG – the one on environment – yet they contribute to almost all of them (see our Facts and Figures for examples).
We asked you to put forests in the frame
The Think Forests challenge was to tell the world why forests are vital for sustainable development, in a video of no longer than 2 minutes.
Now the results are in…
With over 80 entries from 29 countries, it was a tough decision for the judges and the public, but the results are in … and we are excited to announce the winners!
All accepted entries are displayed here.
A big thank you to our expert judging panel (see below) and the thousands of people who commented on the videos!
There were two prizes – one chosen by judges and one by the public.
THINK FORESTS VIDEO AWARD WINNER: OUR LAND
The best video as selected by the judges.
Prize: US$4,000
By Amin Panji Wijaya, Agrita Widyasari, Ardiles Rante, Nehemia Pareang, Fennysia Wijaya and Zacharia Dwiky Erlangga
Runners up:
One Single Tree
By Carolin Winter and Florian Schnabel
Prize: US$500
Behind The Tree
By Ludo Pigeon, Marco Bustamante, David Torres and Frank Hajek
Prize: US$500
SHARE YOUR VISION AWARD WINNER: #FEELFORESTS
The video that engaged the public the most.
By Luis Alberto Ramírez, Juan Bejarano Varela, Walter Martínez Sáenz and their team.
Prize: US$1,000
Runners up are ‘Think Forests’ by Carly Johnson and ‘Think Forests, Think Life’ by Sujan Adhikari and Madan Poudel.
The judging panel
Will Goldenberg is an American cinematographer, producer and director specializing in natural history filmmaking.
After attaining a master’s degree in wildlife behavior, he accepted a full academic scholarship to pursue a master of arts in wildlife filmmaking with the BBC Natural History Unit. Since then, he has contributed to factual television programs, independent documentaries, commercial advertisements and environmental education films in the US, UK and abroad.
Find him at: www.willgoldenberg.com
Gaby Bastyra is an accomplished producer, director and AP specializing in wildlife documentaries.
She won Best Newcomer at Wildscreen 2008 and was nominated at Jackson Hole 2009 in the same category for her film The White Wood. Her film Gloop has been nominated and won five awards in the Best Short categories.
Gaby has been working on BBC’s Natural Worlds for the past two years at Passion Pictures, amongst other freelance work.
Find her at: www.ecotales.co.uk
Sebastien Rombi was born in Libreville, Gabon (Central Africa), where from an early age his first passion was African wildlife conservation. After studying in France, he returned to Central Africa and took an active role in a Gorilla rehabilitation project with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Seb found his true passion at the Sabi Sands Game Reserve, working as a 2D/3D Camera operator, editor and presenter for Wildearth.TV.
During his film career, Seb has edited numerous projects for wildearth.tv, his flagship being a 13 part 3D series about safaris in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve.
He is now an independent wildlife film maker under Beyond Borders Productions.
Find him at: www.beyondborders.co.za
Swati Thiyagarajan is one of India’s top environment and conservation journalists.
She has worked in NDTV, India’s most trusted and best known news media house, since 1997. She has won national and international awards for her show Born Wild, which focuses on the environment and conservation challenges facing the wildlife and wild natural places of India.
Swati has a Masters Degree in English literature, a Masters Diploma in Print Journalism and a double Masters degree in Mass Communication and Film and Video.
Find her at: www.ndtv.com/author/swati-thiyagarajan
Sabyasachi Patra is an award winning Director of Photography, Filmmaker and Conservationist based out of India. He is passionate about filming taking up causes and projects that he believes in. He is Publisher and Editor of IndiaWilds monthly Newsletter as well as CEO of Wild Tiger Productions, a film production house based in India. He also shoots for International Broadcasters and recently shot for HBO USA.
Sabyasachi also worked on the film Leopards: The Last Stand.
Find him at: www.indiawilds.com/about.htm
Lutfi Pratomo started his career in media the year 2005 as a reporter at PT Republika Media Mandiri.
In 2010, he joined Gekko Studio as a Film Director and Camera Operator. Lutfi is also active in helping post-production with GEKKO STUDIO on a short documentary video campaign for NGOs concerns on environmental issues.
At the present time, he is a freelance film director, camera person, active in documentary film workshops in several state universities in Malang city, East Java.
Find him at: www.youtube.com/user/xlutcieferx
Giuseppe Bucciarelli is a film-maker and a biologist with fifteen years of research experience in ecology, molecular biology, population genetics, speciation, foreign species invasion and genome evolution. He has worked for the University of Firenze (Italy), the University of California Santa Cruz (USA), and the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station (Italy).
Giuseppe’s documentaries have been aired on PBS (USA) and the National Geographic Channel. His films have received several awards around the world.
Find him at: www.terraconservationfilms.com/giuseppe-bucciarelli
Chris du Plessis is a video producer and photographer showcasing the wildlife of South Africa in travel films, still photography and documentaries. His South Africa Travel Channel features free travel documentaries for various resorts, safaris and National Parks.
Driven by the need to help conservation in Africa, du Plessis is passionate about filming his country to bring attention to the beautiful landscapes and wildlife.
Find him at: PhotosofAfrica
Intu Boedhihartono has a multidisciplinary background (Anthropology and Fine Arts). She has a Doctorate in Ethnology & Visual Anthropology from the University of Paris 7, France.
Her goal is to have an influence on global efforts to support indigenous people and communities to improve their livelihoods whilst retaining their cultural identity, diversity, natural assets and traditional knowledge.
Find her at: research.jcu.edu.au/portfolio/agni.boedhihartono/
Jeff Sayer is a British ecologist who began his career as a wildlife researcher in Africa. He subsequently worked on conservation programs in many African and Asian countries before moving to IUCN to direct their tropical forest conservation program.
In 1993 he was appointed founding director general of CIFOR which allowed him to live in Indonesia for the following 9 years. He is now a Professor of Conservation and Development at James Cook University in Cairns, at the Center for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, splitting his time between Indonesia and Australia.
Find him at: research.jcu.edu.au/tess/people/staff/Sayer_J