Species that go extinct daily, are to me as precious as any life on another planet, says Yuri Sanada

#NatureConservation; #EnvironmentalBalance; #CasaOrganica; #IMAX; #Ecosystem   #AmazonAdventure3; #HenryWalterBates; #CharlesDarvin; #EvolutionTheory; 

Canada, Oct 25 (Canadian-Media) : Several conservation-centred projects, as well as self-designed film studio and home, “Casa Orgânica”, sustainably built with recycled materials like old tires and PET bottles,  were developed by Brazilian film producer and environmentalist, Yuri Sandra.

Image: Yuri Sanada. Image credit: Screenshot

​Yuri Sanada. Image credit: Screenshot

Collaborating with the United Kingdom (U.K.) and Canada, including the first Brazilian IMAX educational film, Amazon Adventure 3D, the studio produced a suite of environmental films.

His latest project was a TV series titled Phoenicians Before the Columbus Expedition, in which a replica of a 600 BC Phoenician ship is sailed from Tunisia to the USA, measuring the number of micro-particles of plastic in the water along the way. Sanada is currently developing his latest film, Amazon River: from Ice to Sea Expedition, and will travel the entire length of the most powerful river on Earth.
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Yuri Sanada talks about his projects in the following video:

Asha Bajaj, Editorial-Director of Canadian-Media brings you the excerpts:

Excerpts:

To Sanada: Tell us about some of the projects you’ve worked on.

Most of our projects and series productions were based on nature, travel, ecotourism, social inclusion, history, and adventure with an important message to preserve the world we live in. Our series about wildlife were produced in different ecosystems, urban families experiencing nature, indigenous tribes, scuba diving destinations, and more. Our co-production with Canada and the UK called Amazon Adventure 3D, the first Brazilian IMAX film, our biggest production is about a young Englishman Henry Walter Bates, who spent 11 years in the forest capturing species, cataloging and sending them to museums and private collections in England. Apart from cataloging 14 thousand species, 8 thousand of which were new to science, and his discovery of the concept of mimicry, he also authenticated Charles Darwin’s unproven theory of evolution by showing the evolution of one species of the butterfly into another.

Amazon Adventure 3D. Image credit: Facebook page

​To Sanada: Why do you think it was important to tell the story of Henry Bates?

With his life dedicated to science, Henry Bates felt that filming the story of exhibits in museums around the world would encourage the young to be curious, and would set the stage for future education, research, conservation, and discovery.

He stressed the importance of the Amazon Forest, the single most biodiverse place on the planet for keeping a balanced atmosphere and regulating the climate for the whole South American continent. Treasures hidden deep in the Amazon needs to be researched.

Henry Bates. Image credit: Screenshot

To Sanada: What was the experience of making the film like?

Although being adventurous with actors and not a classic documentary, our film was shot on-site in the Amazon forest to stay as true as possible to the scientific aspects of the story adhering to the demands of the museums for a high level of veracity. We got advice from top scientists from many countries and were permitted by the Natural History Museum in London to use some insects Bates captured in Amazon, to bring them back to Brazil for the filming. Hundreds of people from different countries were involved in the production of the film in Brazil and in England in the forest with no roads. We had to use rivers to transport personnel and equipment with special animal handlers to our locations. My personal favorite experience was traveling for 2 hours on a van with the huge powerful jaguar we used on the film sitting by my side like a kitten.

To Sanada: What other environmental topics have you explored in your projects? What challenges did you face?

In our recently developed project on an archaeological expedition aboard a replica of a 600 BC Phoenician ship with an international crew, we sailed from Tunisia in the North of Africa across the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean until we reached the Caribbean and later Florida in the USA. During the 5-month period of the journey, partnering with the UN Environment Clean Seas Campaign, we promoted the need to reduce the use of single-use plastics. The effect of the plastic we ingest along with seafood is still unknown.

Environmental Clean Seas. Image credit: UNEP

​The difficulties we faced while we shot with our utmost efforts for lower carbon footprint productions, were encountering the natural conditions we were subjected to.

To Sanada: What is your message to the people about the Amazon?

The most important thing we need to understand is the dependency of the forest and the river on each other during their formation by different ecosystems and that the disappearance of the Amazon will affect the whole planet. We are developing a series to show, Amazon River: from Ice to Sea, to reveal how Amazon is formed by different ecosystems. Amazon river’s long journey starts in the ice-covered mountains of Peru and travels for almost 7 thousand kilometers until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean during which everything is in balance.​

Amazon River. Image credit: Unsplash

We should learn not to disturb or destroy nature to ensure environmental balance. We plan to give for free the solar and pedal-powered boats we are developing for this project to the river communities to promote an affordable alternative to the gasoline outboard engines used on their boats. Fossil fuel not only pollutes their environment but can cost twice as much as the price in urban centers.

To Sanada: What is your advice to those interested in supporting efforts to conserve Amazon?

They need to understand that to prevent the devastating effect on the world by destroying the Amazon, they should get involved with organizations that contribute to the preservation of the Amazon and all of the ecosystems. We can start by acting locally, reducing consumption, producing less garbage, saving water, and denouncing wildlife illegal trade. Instead of concentrating our efforts on trying to find life in the cosmos, we should devote to the preservation of the real wonderful life we already have here. If we don’t learn to respect and protect all animal life on Earth, how can we expect to do better if we find life out ​there?