Participatory video is accessible to all genders and levels of education

Participatory Video is a method pioneered by Insightshare whereby a community of people are taught the basics of video production, how to plan a story and create a storyboard and then given a video camera and computer to produce a short film of their own choosing.

The purpose of the video is to create discussion, communicate issues, and ultimately make change.

Most documentaries are made by professional filmmakers who have years of experience behind a camera, and who have their own agenda, but through Participatory Video, putting the camera into the subjects hands helps them to express themselves and tell their own story exactly how it is.

In April 2011, supported by the AusAID-funded project “Building the resilience of communities and their ecosystems to the impacts of climate change in the Pacific”, led by The Nature Conservancy, I facilitated the first Participatory Video activity in the Solomon Islands, in the remote village of Chivoko on the north-west tip of Choiseul Island.

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A starving and unwell Grey-headed flying-fox stays in a fruiting Cocos Palm through the day. Photo: Andrew Smith.

20 May 2010

Bat Conservation & Rescue Qld., President, Louise Saunders is alarmed by the large number of reports about hungry flying-foxes staying by food trees through the day and not returning to their camps.
“This is of huge concern as bats will stay by food trees until the food runs out. They will then be too weak to fly further afield and will die in people’s gardens like we saw in the winter of 2007. This is starvation” Louise said. Read More & Comment →

Imagine an ocean without fish. Imagine your meals without seafood. Imagine the global consequences. This is the future if we do not stop, think and act.

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When protecting your fruit trees from raiding animals such as birds and flying foxes make sure you do it the right way to prevent any injuries or deaths to wildlife.

Many gardeners neglect to think about the consequences of using improper netting and methods. Read More & Comment →

As day turns to night and mosquitoes become more active, tiny insect eating microbats are stirring in their hollow tree roosts, getting ready to devour their own body weight in pest insects such as mosquitoes, midges, flying termites, weevils and lawn beetles.