THE GREAT APE CONSERVATION FILM PROJECT: Using Film for Conservation Change

“The Great Ape Film Conservation Project strives to move the conversation from anecdotal to data-driven as well as more accurately measure and evaluate film’s conservation impact.”

The Great Ape Conservation Film Project is a partnership between GLOBIO and Ape Action Africa. This project builds and expands upon previous community film conservation initiatives in Africa and SE Asia. GACFP will use the uniqueness and power of film to raise and amplify awareness, improve knowledge of and attitudes toward great apes, address conservation education research gaps, and inspire impactful conservation action in communities living in close proximity to great apes and threatened habitats.

This project is a multi-year endeavor and will be carried out and completed in phases.

The first phase, which we implemented in Cameroon, includes the training of five questionnaire facilitators and the administering of questionnaires* to local teachers. The data obtained from the questionnaires will drive not only the creation of student questionnaires, but films which will be primate and region specific.

“With the current state of threats to primate survival, specifically the great apes living within the Western African country of Cameroon, primate conservation is of the utmost importance.”

PROJECT GOALS

Short-term Goal:

We are creating four 5-7 minute ape conservation films that align with the 4-part education course partners Ape Action Africa have been teaching in local primary schools. The goal is to engage kids more actively in the course materials, encourage teachers to remain in the classroom and create greater awareness with public presentations in communities and villages.

Long-term Goal:

The project has unique replicable components and approaches that can benefit primate conservation knowledge acquisition and action for threatened and endangered primate species community across Equatorial Africa and more broadly SE Asia and the Americas. Our objective through strategic use of film, as a stand alone tool and more powerfully in collaboration with other resources, is that the project positively impacts and amplifies local awareness, understanding, conservation, and protection of great apes and the living value of primates using film as the central communication vehicle.

“The Great Ape Conservation Film Project is prepared for the long-term commitment to testing and evaluation, editing and re-editing of film content, and continued collaboration.”

* Miami University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved this project including all of the questionnaires and data collected by the questionnaires. IRB approval ensures that any research with human participants adhere to strict ethical regulations.