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Andean ‘dream maker’ on Japanese TV

04.03.2015

Dr Bibiana Vilá, the Mountain Partnership focal point of Argentinean environmental conservation group, VICAM: Vicuñas, Camélidos y Ambiente, was featured in a Japanese television program among the winners of the 2014 Midori Prize for Biodiversity. The show, Sense of Wonder, aired on 20 February 2015 on Jib TV, documenting why andhow the four winners strive to conserve biodiversity. 

Calling her the ‘dream maker who brought back a species from the brink of extinction in collaboration with local communities, while simultaneously vitalizing the economy,’ the television program traces the drive behind Vilá’s interest in the camel-like animals that live in the Andes. Their wool, coveted for generations, was in such great demand that they were on the verge of extinction. Vilá established VICAM to save them by employing traditional Andean knowledge to capture and shear the wild animals in a sustainable manner, combining conservation science with traditional knowledge.

Vilá said that the key is to promote thinking about wild animals  in terms of the future, to encourage caring about the planet rather than dominating nature and to take a smaller profit in the short term. “It’s impossible to conserve a species if you don’t include the people who live near that animal and in the same environment as that animal,” she says, explaining why she also works in environmental education.

The Midori prize is awarded biennially by the AEON Environmental Foundation and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to honour individuals for their outstanding contributions to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

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Photo: jibtv.com