Portrait of a myth...

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” (Friedrich Nietzsche)



One never knows when dreams can become true...
Just this morning I had my first photographic opportunity with a true myth of the mountains, here in Abruzzo as elsewhere in Europe, the wallcreeper. I ran after this acrobatic and restless flyer for half hour. Up and down on a very steep slope, partially covered by snow and ice, holding the breath to not shake the handheld camera, I obtained a couple of nice images of this rare and elusive creature - a little milestone in my commitment to document the wildlife of the Apennines! Then, suddenly as it had appeared, the bird flew away, straight into the blue mountain sky.


ARTICLE IN NATURFOTO 03.2009
My images from Morocco are featured in a 12 pages article in the German magazine Naturfoto.

No peace for Italian wildlife

"Fox in the snow, where do you go
To find something you can eat?
Cause the word out on the street is you are starving
Dont let yourself grow hungry now
Dont let yourself grow cold..."
(Belle & Sebastian)



The past weeks have seen me often out in the cold, well before dawn, to work on a few remarkable photographic opportunities. I wanted to write about eagles, vultures, rock partridges, foxes and all the nice animals that somehow shared their life with me. But there is a more urgent and unpleasant matter to report. A few days ago, an Italian senator, Mr. Franco Orsi belonging to the governing party PdL, came out with an ominous law proposal which plans to completely change the hunting rules and therefore affect the destiny of the wildlife in Italy.

Among the many wicked points of this law are the opening of hunting in the national parks and nature preserves and that of the hunting of "pests" such as wolves, bears, swans and many other rare and protected species. For more information (only in Italian, unfortunately), you can visit this webpage and sign the petition here. If you would like to get more information in English, please feel free to write me as I would be eager to spread the word about this horror.

Unfortunately this is not an isolated case. This is just one of the many horrible things I see happening everyday here in Italy (or elsewhere) against nature and against people. One of the many attempts to limit our freedom and the one of whom cannot speak. Today, I can still retreat in my hermitage of mountains and old beech forests, smelling the silence of the snow and waiting for a fox to appear in the morning. But for how long?

KAFFA, the birthplace of Coffee

"Coffee is the best thing to douse the sunrise with." (Drew Sirtors)

To see the slideshow in full-size, please click HERE or, if you want to see all the images at a glance, please click HERE

Kaffa, the birthplace of Coffee. Yes, the world-famous, delicious, black drink really comes from this mountainous region in the Southwest of Ethiopia. Protected by very steep slopes, wide chocolate-coloured rivers and fabulous rainforests, the Wild Coffee plants thrived here for centuries, providing the precious beans -possibly the best in the world- to the people living in the area. A thick array of hundreds of moss-covered trunks, silvery-green leaves and bright red beans, the coffee forest is truly a unique place to be in. Unfortunately, current population growth compounded by increasing poverty levels has led to rapid deforestation. People living in these areas are forced by their economic situation to convert the rainforests to farmland and/or sell them to foreign investors. With a loss of 15-20% each year, the rainforest, which previously covered more than 30% of Ethiopia, now only stands at three. To save this land and the people, NABU, GTZ, "GEO-Schützt den Regenwald" and several other partners are running a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) conservation and development project in the Kaffa Province, contributing to improving the livelihoods of coffee producers and to developing sustainable coffee production and marketing to international quality standards. The living conditions of the coffee farmers are being improved through higher income and flanking social measures. Moreover, there is the plan to establish the first ever "UNESCO Man & Biosphere Reserve" here in Ethiopia , always with the goal to involve people in the management and protection of their land.

At the beginning of December, the German environmental organization NABU assigned me to travel to the Kaffa province and photograph as much as possible of the land and of the incredible biodiversity featuring these endangered forests. Once arrived in Bonga town, with less than 10 days to work there, I had the privilege to roam freely among the last afromontane rainforests of Ethiopia, but also had to face the frightful, impossible task of giving justice to this incredible place with my humble work. Blown away by the abundance of wildlife and the beauty of the different landscapes, I worked very hard, bringing home a little less than 4000 digital images.
Speeding across the dusty roads and sweating on the steep slopes of this region, with the valuable help of my friend and guide Yahiya Adem, I portrayed curious Guereza monkeys, angry Hippopotamus, mystical Bamboo forests and elusive Turacos. I have stepped across a Leopard trail and got painfully bitten by huge leaf-cutter ants. I admired dozens of bird species and met some of the most pleasant people ever. And, on my very last afternoon in Addis Abeba, I even had the chance to advocate for the establishment of the UNESCO Man & Biosphere Reserve in Kaffa! In a borrowed white shirt and grey jacket, I spoke and showed some quickly prepared pictures during a workshop day attended even by the President of Ethiopia and the Minister of Science and Technology!

(photo © S. Bender)