Overview of the Project

Background

In 2001 I was on assignment in the Taita Hills reserve, Kenya. The reserve dissects East and West Tsavo National Parks and is an important elephant migration route. I was working on a story about the impact on elephant populations of human encroachment into the region. A few days into my visit we got a call from a Kenya Wildlife Service official to say that an elephant had been found dead, apparently killed by villagers. As I set off with my guides to photograph the scene, I was angry at yet another example of human intolerance of wildlife.

At the scene I took some images and listened to the ebb and flow of impassioned, sometimes-fiery conversation between the KWS authorities and the villagers. Seeking the inside story, I started asking questions. That was when I met Matunde, a man who, in one short exchange, was to change my attitude towards conservation.

Matunde was an uneducated but intelligent man. He lived in a mud hut on small plot of land with his wife and 5 children. To provide for his family and to pay the pittance of fees needed to send his two eldest children to school, Matunde grew lettuces, which he then carted several miles to a nearby market to sell. On the subject of the dead elephant he said, "I can tell you the value of every square foot of my land. If an elephant wanders through here and tramples half my crop, that's not just a few lettuces it's destroyed, that's half my annual income." He continued, "Let me ask you, Mr Chris: If someone or something came to your home and took half of your annual income, how would you react? What action would you take - honestly?"

Matunde opened my eyes to the real issues surrounding wildlife conservation. Specifically, we will never solve the problem unless we fully understand the root cause, which, almost always, is linked to human financial poverty. That afternoon, during the drive back to camp, I determined that one day I would tell Matunde's story in the context of my work. The seed for Animals on the Edge had been sewn.

Scope

The project is a huge and complex assignment and my initial task was to determine its scope. There are over 10,000 animals classified as threatened to one degree or another; too many to contemplate. So, I contacted IUCN The World Conservation Union and, with its help, narrowed the list to terrestrial mammals that are categorised as endangered or critically endangered, which resulted in a shorter list but one extending still to over 750 different species and sub-species.

Planning

Having decided the scope of the project it was important to begin planning its execution. I segmented the world into geographic regions and constructed a travel schedule around the species to be photographed.

Research

With the scope of the project determined, next I spent hours researching species, habitats and locations. I have spent a lot of time sitting in front of a computer typing variations of search strings into Google, wading through thousands of pages of written material; and dialing phone numbers that invariably begin zero-zero. I have called in favours, spoken with biologist friends and colleagues working in conservation, spoken to friends of friends of friends and complete strangers, and even to the odd government department.

The journey begins

In December, I booked the first plane tickets, bound for central India to photograph tigers. As I sat in the departure lounge of Heathrow's Terminal 4, I thought of Matunde, who is now working in a community project in Taita, successfully helping to conserve elephants, and of how one brief conversation seven years ago was responsible for my being there. Then, I picked up my bag containing the majority of my camera gear, showed my boarding pass and stepped onto the plane.

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