On a cool rainy day in the middle of this month near the northeast coast of Taiwan, a group of volunteers checked their equipment on a rocky shore, before diving into the water with two fagots of bamboo to be used to create a “delivery room” for bigfin reef squid. The marine volunteers have been doing this since 1998, with the lens of a camera constantly trained on them for the past eight years.
Forty-six-year-old cameraman Ke Chin-yuan (柯金源) has been dedicated to environmental activities for more than two decades and has produced 11 environmental documentaries.
Ke, who started out as a journalist, made his first documentary in 1993, seeking to portray the environment from a perspective that differed from that of the mainstream media.
PHOTO: CNA
His work, which has become increasingly vital in light of the world’s environmental problems, shows his love for nature.
In Ke’s documentaries, humans play a central role, suggesting that their behavior cannot be separated from the cause and effect of environmental and ecological changes.
As Ke says in his latest documentary, released earlier this year, what people do unconsciously on the other side of the Earth can seriously affect Magellanic Penguins in coastal Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands.
“I pray in my heart that this scene of multitudes of penguins wandering near the coast will always exist,” Ke said in one of his documentaries that featured a voyage to the Antarctic.
Ke’s camera has focused on the interaction between humans and nature, especially on changes in primitive environments following human intervention. The images captured are sometimes of positive action — as in the case of volunteers’ efforts to protect squid — but more often they are negative, as when showing people capturing wild orangutans to train them to perform on TV shows.
“It is almost impossible to strike a balance between humans and nature. When the two sides come into conflict, humans have to concede — that is to say, not reclaim land in ecologically sensitive areas,” Ke said at a mountain barracks in northeastern Taiwan that serves as a base for marine volunteers.
In this rough shelter that lacks electricity and other basic necessities, the group of 10 divers and oceanology and marine life researchers gather regularly to plan the repopulation of bigfin reef squid.
Such is their passion for their work that two of the volunteers plan to get married undersea, near the squid “delivery room.”
Ten years ago, some of the divers found that bigfin reef squid were spawning among old fishing nets and trash because typhoons and artificial pollution had destroyed their usual spawning grounds.
With a plan in mind to save the squid, the divers built a “delivery room” during the April to September spawning season, using fagots of bamboo to simulate the environment of natural coral where the squid usually lay their eggs.
The idea proved successful, as a great number of squid came to the improvised bamboo grounds to spawn. Since then, the marine lovers have continued every year to construct new spawning grounds, as the bamboo deteriorates naturally over the course of a year.
On the day of the interview, Ke filmed two volunteers going underwater to add two bamboo fagots to the “delivery room.”
Since Ke’s documentary The Squid Daddy’s Labor Room was released last year, his interest in the project has not waned.
Expounding on the relationship between humans and nature, Ke cited Chingjing Veterans Farm as an example of humans gradually expanding their living place — starting in coastal areas and plains to medium, even high elevation areas destroying nature in the process.
The Chingjing Veterans Farm, located in Nantou County in central Taiwan at an altitude of about 1,800m, is famous for its grasslands and magnificent mountain views. A popular destination for tourists, the region is now dotted with legally and illegally constructed hotels and homestay accommodations.
Ke says that when a natural disaster occurs, it is an occasion for humans to reconsider their relationship with nature.
“What is a ‘natural disaster’? It is considered a disaster only when humans are hurt, otherwise it’s seen as just a natural phenomenon,” Ke said.
He sees people’s values as the fulcrum of environmental destruction. If people want a certain type of tourism, they request convenient transport and luxurious hotels, which encourages excessive development, he said.
Ke shows his dedication over the past 20 years to environmental education in local communities through his films, speeches and a personal blog, on which he records his observations on environmental and social issues.
He said that 20 years ago, a person was thought crazy if he or she talked about environmental protection, but now most people understand what environmentalists do.
“Also, the government is now considering practices that do less harm to the environment when it undertakes new construction plans, even though some of these plans are still environmentally harmful,” he said, adding that there has been some progress in environmental awareness in Taiwan.
“If the viewers gain a new understanding of the environment, a better idea of nature conservation, feel anger or joy when they look at my films, that is rewarding for me,” he said.
“Now that the idea of environmental protection is generally accepted, the next step is to create values and motivate people to take action,” he said.
“Then they will give priority to nature rather than to economic development when the two come into conflict,” he said.
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