Ibex Earth's Mount Roraima Pictures

Just a few additional shots from the latest Ibex Earth expedition to Mount Roraima, Venezuela - we wont bore you with the stories of being held at gunpoint though!

Robbie Miles - Winner of The Lost World Project

In January / February 2010 Ibex Earth began a nationwide tour of UK universities to provide 10 students with the opportunity to take part in the adventure of a lifetime and work with a BBC film crew to help us make a documentary about Mount Roraima the plateau that inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Lost World' novel,'

The winner of The Lost World Project was Robbie Miles and here is a short video that shows you his experience of joining our filming expedition for what proved a trip of a lifetime!

David Attenborough and Mount Roraima

We're going to be uploading a few new videos this evening - the first is when the legendary Sir David Attenborough featured Mount Roraima in the BBC's Life of Plants. There really is no one like him, he's been an inspiration to everyone who is involved in the environmental and conservation spheres and has been a major influence behind Ibex Earth's 'The Lost World Project'.

He is quite simply irreplaceable and we have added this video so you can listen to SDA discussing the wonderful summit of Mount Roraima, a place that "haunted his imagination" and somewhere the Ibex Earth team has been travelling to quite a lot over the last 24 months. Hope you enjoy and don't forget that you will soon be able to come and watch our film about Mount Roraima and South America's 'Lost World'.

WWF Camera captures tiger cubs

WWF camera captures pictures of tiger cubs and triggers a call from the conservation group to urge timber companies to drop plabs to clear Indonesian forest areas.

With the advances of modern technology surely one of the best ways for conservation groups to promote the importance of their work is to set up similar schemes in order to capture endangered wildlife - one of our Environmental & Conservation Partners, the World Land Trust, regularly features footage from their webcams all across the globe.

The Rainforest Alliance Forestry Programme

Here's a video by the Rainforest Alliance, which sets out a good overview about their organisation, the importance of preserving rainforest and how they helped establish the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) - and all in five minutes!

Some Additional Pictures from The Lost World...

Flying Penguins

One of our favourite natural history clips from the BBC and with over 1.5million youtube hits is a short film introducing the world's first colony of flying penguins, which were only discovered in 2008. Each winter the colony flies thousands of miles to the tropical rainforests of South America to soak up on their tans and avoid the harsh winter ahead.

Interestingly the clip was released on 1st April 2008 and the flying penguin colony hasn't been seen since...

The Gaia Foundation interview Nigel Crawhall

The Gaia Foundation are one of Ibex Earth's Environmental & Conservation Partners - in this clip they interview Nigel Crawhall who gives an outline of how the world interlinks and how we all need to consider our actions in order to protect the global environment. Think of it as the Circle of Life, made famous by Disney's 'The Lion King'.

When Celebrities go Green

Anyone ever hear of Global Green? We hadn't but it appears to be quite a big thing in the USofA - here's a short clip of some 'A' List celebrities including the UK's James Blunt on why environmental issues are important - the video features incredibly short interviews with Penelope Cruz, Benji (or Joel) Madden from the band Good Charlotte and Orlando Bloom, who by the way, has just been announced as one of the main stars of the new Lord of the Rings film...

It really does seem that celebrities could be key to getting the environmental message out there to the wider public, but is there really a true push in the UK to get the most out of our celebrities with a 'green' heart?

An Unsustainable Future? Mount Roraima, April 2011

In April 2011, Ibex Earth led an expedition to Mount Roraima, Venezuela as part of The Lost World Project - an initiative designed to safeguard the long-term future of the plateau that inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write his famous novel 'The Lost World'. One aspect that is threatening the future of the plateau is unsustainable tourism, this video features a series of short clips, which aim to give an indication of the number of tourists who are now visiting this incredible region.

The very first scene is taken from a beauty spot called 'Jasper Creek', which is about a 40 minute drive from the start of the trail to Mount Roraima - it is one of the most incredible scenes in nature, a river that runs over a bed of jasper, caught in the right sunlight the river looks as though it is flowing with blood. The short clip shows how many Venezuelans visit the area to swim and enjoy the waterfalls.

The remaining scenes are all taken during the three day trek to the foot of Mount Roraima and show just how many people do take up the challenge to reach the summit - at the first camp there were at least 100 tourists, plus another 30-40 porters camped overnight. This number is actually sustainable, but unfortunately there is a real lack of sustainable infrastructure at each camp, mainly toilets, and if this isn't addressed soon then it is extremely likely that that area could be increasingly damaged by tourists.

Over the next few months we will be looking to create a series of sustainable tourism videos that we will give to local tour operators and those that target European and American tourists - we hope that education on sustainable tourism is the way forward and will keep you updated with our progress.

For more information please visit http://www.ibexearth.com/.

Ibex Earth - promoting sustainable tourism....

Saving the Atlantic Rainforest - with Bill Oddie

How many people remember Bill Oddie from the biggest comedy hit of the 70s - the Goodies? Since then he has become one of the UK's favourite wildlife presenters regularly fronting Springwatch and Autumnwatch. This video shows Bill visiting the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil in 2010.


Bill visited the Reserva Ecológica de Guapi Assu (REGUA) as part of the preparation for the World Land Trust’s exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2010. He was able to see first hand what the Trust’s partner organisation REGUA has achieved in the past few years, in particular the restoration of rainforests and wetlands.

We've somehow managed to fight the urge to post a clip of Bill being taught to play guitar by Dire Straights legend Mark Knopfler for the BBC programme Play it Again.

GREEN TEAM

Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and John C Reilly entertain with their own unique tips on how to save the environment - GREEN TEAM...

Now we think that every business would benefit greatly if they listened to Ferrell and co's Green Team message, though at present we are not 100% convinced whether listening would actually help save the environment, but... 

Introducing our new Ibex Earth Blogger Site...

The Ibex Earth Blogger Site is changing - We will now be using this site as an area where we will be uploading videos and news from our Environmental & Conservation Partners, together with some of the more entertaining environmental videos that promote conservation and the ongoing protection of the planet's biodiversity.

We are all for making environmental issues more interesting and entertaining, which is why we start the first new blog with a clip from the fantastic Conservation International who use Harrison Ford in an interesting way to promote the preservation of the planet's rainforests, which involves chest hair and wax strips...bet he didn't get that on the set of Indiana Jones...

Harrison Ford is one of the more proactive celebrities in terms of raising environmental awareness and if only more would get involved and wax all their chest hair for the cause!

The Lost World Project - Sunrise on Roraima



One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen - a sunrise over Mount Roraima. Will do a full update very soon but tickets for the premiere are now available at http://www.lostworld.eventbrite.com/