Wednesday 15 September 2010

The Lost World Project Filiming Complete!



The Lost World Project - Filming Complete...


First and foremost, I would like to say thank you to each of the participants of The Lost World Project who have been an absolute inspiration in terms of how they went about fundraising to get a place on the expedition to Mount Roraima - I've met the group as a whole on two occasions and can honestly say that I've never met a nicer bunch of people, all thoroughly deserving their place on the trip to Arthur Conan Doyle's 'Lost World'. Simply put, without the groups fundraising we would not have been able to complete The Lost World Project.

This was the first time that anything like this has ever been attempted and it looks as though we might have actually discovered a total of four new species (certainly two!), which is an incredible achievement and just goes to show the overall importance of The Lost World Project - if four new species can be discovered in just a four week expedition imagine how many other species remain undiscovered, how many new plants, insects and mammals might be on the base or summit of one of the plateaus that make up the Guiana Highlands.


When expedition leader, Stewart McPherson, returns to the UK I will make sure he puts up a much more detailed description of what we have found during the expedition and will use this blog to keep you informed of our progress - after all, The Lost World Project, does not just stop at making a documentary but will really look to raise the importance of protecting and safeguarding the world's most spectacular natural wonders, such as Mount Roraima.


So what next? Obviously there is the short measure of having to get The Lost World Film produced and find a broadcaster who will show the film on national television, but The Lost World Project isn't just about the film - instead we are wanting to highlight the conservation needs of Mount Roraima and the Guiana Highlands and to promote sustainable and regulated tourism.

We are in the process of preparing a report that we will submit to the United Nations about the initiative, which will be before the Year of Biodiversity comes to an end (so 31st December 2010) - we are getting input from some of the world's leading figures in this area and fingers crossed it will land on the right persons desk! Obviously we are still looking for support and if you would like to get involved in the initiative you still can by visiting www.justgiving.com/lost-world - every donation gets us closer to our goal of raising £750,000 via the initiative.

Thanks for reading the blog and I will make sure we have a lot of new pictures from the expedition on the next one!

Chris

Tuesday 7 September 2010

What a Relief...

What a Relief - Lost World Project Update Time...





We are absolutely delighted to announce that all of The Lost World Project Participants are back safely from Mount Roraima and from the sounds of it they have all had an absolutely fantastic trip and we are now looking forward to getting all of their photo's up on our various websites (http://www.ibexearth.com/, http://www.thelostworldproject.org/, Facebook, MySpace etc)- we've had a brief look at some photographs already sent across and they are absolutely spectacular. Now we just have to see if their camera work is as good as their photography!








The participants took part in a 14 day expedition led by world leading expert Stewart McPherson and Adrian Warren who has actually worked with Disney Pixar in relation to their animated blockbuster 'UP'. The participants were able to work with Adrian and Jesse Wilkinson (BBC Springwatch) as they learnt how to shoot sequences for a broadcast quality documentary. Having spoken to Stewart the shots that have already been filmed are incredible and we really can't wait to see them when the film crew gets back to these shores!

Hopefully we will soon start generating quite a bit of publicity for the cause, after all The Lost World Project's aim is to safeguard the long-term future of Mount Roraima and the Guiana Highlands, which are sadly under threat from illegal mining, unregulated / unsustainable tourism and the introduction of foreing species - to support project why not visit www.justgiving.com/lost-world and donate - everyone who donates over £10 will be invited to the Premiere of the final film at the Royal Geographical Society in May/June 2011...must be worth it!

The next blog will provide you with a few more details and some exciting news about some new discoveries of species which the group have found whilst on the expedition - its probably now a great chance to say thank you to everyone who has supported this project, without your help this really wouldn't have been possible, so keep spreading the word and keep a look out on the Ibex Earth website for updates about the project!

Cheers

Chris