Dr Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE
Founder – the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace
“Earth League International is building an independent organization made up of former intelligence officers, analysts, and undercover agents, who are not only willing but also more than capable of fighting the criminal exploitation of nature. The aim is to investigate at the very highest level, global environmental criminals, international traffickers, and their networks.
The mission is to support the work of partner governmental and law-enforcement agencies, and to inform the public about the role of these powerful networks have in the criminal exploitation of nature, which is endangering the wildlife and ecosystems of planet Earth, and our own future. Because we humans are part of the natural world, and we depend on it for air, water, food, clothing, everything.
I’m so very grateful to Andrea Crosta for his dedication to this so important cause.”
Paul Nicklen uses his camera to reveal the nature of a world melting away under human-induced global warming. “I call myself an interpreter and a translator,” says Nicklen. “I translate what the scientists are telling me. Paul Nicklen has specialized in photographing polar regions since 1995. A unique childhood among the Inuit in Canada’s Arctic and a professional background as a biologist in the Northwest Territories enable him to take on the most inhospitable places on our planet. Nicklen has published eleven stories for National Geographic magazine, including 2011’s August cover story on the elusive spirit bear. His latest book, Polar Obsession, was published by National Geographic in November 2009 and was in its third printing within months of publication. He has received more than 20 international awards, including five awards from World Press Photo (Nature: First Prize Story 2010), three from Pictures of the Year International, two from Communication Arts, and ten in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. His TED2011 talk and appearances on television shows such as Jeopardy and in YouTube videos receiving millions of hits have recently thrust him into the popular culture spotlight.
Cristina Mittermeier is one of the premier nature photographers in the world and a marine biologist who for the past 20 years has been working as a writer and photographer. In 2005 she founded the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP), a consortium of some of the best photographers in the world, whose work is dedicated to visually communicating conservation issues. She has been the Series Editor for the CEMEX Conservation Book Series since 2007 and in 2008 she was named one of Sony’s Artisans of Imagery. She spends most of the year traveling to photograph the fragile relationship between humans and nature. She offers first and foremost a vehicle for raising awareness—the first step in inspiring change—and she does it with the deliberate use of her camera. Ultimately Mittermeier goes beyond the sound bite to reveal a story that offers hope. Her images focus on the increasingly fragile relationship between human cultures and the planet, and her work encompasses important sustainability topics such as biodiversity and indigenous peoples.
Ian Redmond is a tropical field biologist and conservationist, renowned for his work with great apes and elephants. For more than 30 years he has been associated with Mountain Gorillas, through research, filming, tourism and conservation work. He served as Ambassador for the UN Year of the Gorilla 2009. As with his mentor, the late Dr Dian Fossey, the main focus of his work shifted in 1978 from research to conservation work, after poachers killed Digit – a young silverback in one of the Karisoke study groups – to sell his skull and hands. Finding the headless, handless body of a gorilla he regarded as a friend was a turning point in his life. Ten years later in Kenya, the experience was repeated when some of the cave-elephants he was studying were killed by ivory poachers. To encourage groups to work together, he established and chairs the Ape Alliance (70 organizations linked via www.4apes.com), the African Ele-Fund and the UK Rhino Group (www.rhinogroup.org.uk). He is now Chief Consultant for GRASP – UNEP/ UNESCO Great Apes Survival Partnership he helped launch in 2001.
