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The Key Themes

Biodiversity

The key themes of this film project will share the objective of reflecting the intertwined relations between nature, humans and animals related to the questions on Climate Change, Environment and preservation of our Planet described here below, with a particular emphasis on:

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Nature conservation

Human activities have direct effects on species and ecosystems, such as habitat loss and degradation, overexploitation and the spread of non-native species and diseases. Many species are increasingly isolated and their sources of water, food and shelter are in decline. Human-wildlife conflicts have also risen in number because without sufficient natural habitat species come into increased contact with humans, often being killed or captured as a result.

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Ecosystems and biodiversity 

Everywhere on the planet, species live together and depend on one another. Every living being, including mankind, is involved in these complex networks of interdependent relationships. All animals play important roles in their ecosystems and there appears to be an ecological balance between all animals in nature. Strong functioning ecosystems contain robust healthy animals within them. Biodiversity is the key indicator of the health of an ecosystem. Even if certain species are affected by pollution, climate change, or human activities, the ecosystem as a whole may adapt and survive. But the extinction of a species may have unforeseen impacts, sometimes snowballing into the destruction of entire ecosystems.

A wider variety of species will cope better with threats than a limited number of them in larger populations.

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Water

Water is essential for wildlife to thrive, but it isn’t just for drinking. Animals need fresh water for their body functions such

as temperature regulation, nutrient uptake, removing wastes, body weight, and health. Losing one tenth of the body’s water can result in death as the body will shut down. The aquatic animals play an important role on our planet. Their biodiversity provides humans energy and even jobs for humans. Especially freshwater animals are often in danger because of the fragility of their environments, they are subject to pressure from overfishing, destructive fishing, marine pollution and climate change.

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Deforestation

Deforestation is one of the leading causes of climate change and species extinction. Deforestation has dramatic effects for all animals, whether they live in rivers, oceans, forests, mountains, or skies. The removal of trees and other types of vegetation reduces available food, shelter, and breeding habitat. Wildlife habitats become fragmented and with increased habitat edge, wildlife may experience an increased vulnerability to predation, poaching, wind, sunlight, and other factors such as direct exposure to natural disasters that were not as much of a threat prior to the deforestation event.

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Animal Rights

Possessing certain physiological, emotional, psychological, and cognitive capacities, over-and above mere sentience, makes the animal a subject-of-a-life*, whose value cannot be reduced to their utility to humans: animals possess a value that is intrinsic, independent of how animals are valued by – or valuable to – humans... (Tom Regan:

The Case for Animal Rights,1983) *To be the subject of a life involves more than merely being alive and more than merely being conscious. [I]ndividuals are subjects-of-a-life if they have beliefs and desires; perception memory, and a sense of the future, including their own future; an emotional life together with feelings of pleasure and pain; preference and welfare-interests; the ability to initiate action in pursuit of their desires and goals; a psychophysical identity over time; and an individual welfare in the sense that their experiential life fares well or ill for them, logically independent of their being the object of anyone else’s interest.

 

Animal Abuse and Trafficking

The incessant trade and trafficking in endangered animal species puts large numbers of nonhuman species at risk, both in terms of animal abuse and environmental degradation.

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