Daniel Beltra won in 2009 the Prince's Rainforests Project Award (PRP). The PRP commissioned Daniel to photograph for a month each rainforests in the Brazilian Amazon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia. The photos that Daniel produced during this time, along with some from his archive from previous years, were edited together to produce a book, online multimedia presentations, pamphlets and print exhibitions around the world. These various forms of media were aimed to help people make the connection between tropical deforestation and global warming and how their own consumption habits impact these processes.
Tropical deforestation is responsible for a fifth of the world's carbon emissions. The economic forces of logging, mining and agricultural development destroy nearly 60 million square miles of virgin rainforests every year. Native plants are made extinct before they are ever documented and indigenous peoples find their land ever more encroached upon. Stopping, or at least slowing, tropical deforestation will mitigate the impact that global warming is already having on the planet. Daniel hopes that the photos he produced for the PRP will help the public understand the environmental consequences of tropical deforestation.
Daniel Beltrá is a conservation photographer based in Seattle. Originally from Madrid, Daniel began shooting for Greenpeace in 1990. His work has been recognized by the World Press Photo awards, the Pictures of the Year International and the National Press Photographers Association.
http://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org/events/iris_nights.asp#db
