Michel Roggo is based in Switzerland, and this has a lot to do with his passion: He started freshwater photography in the countless crystal clear rivers and lakes of the Swiss Alps. With 25 years of experience and about 100 expeditions worldwide, he has the skills to work on a global freshwater project: Produce a photographic documentation of 30 important freshwater environments from across the globe, focusing on underwater images. This as a contribution to safeguarding the future of the world's wetland areas. The duration of the project is 4 years, starting 2011. So far, about 20 locations have been photographed.
			The Freshwater Project at National Geographic
Rotomairewhenua, New Zealand - the clearest freshwater ever reported
Te Waikoropupu, New Zealand - a sacred place for Maori
Pantanal, Brazil - the world’s largest wetland
Plitvicka Jezera, Croatia - sixteen lakes created by travertine barriers
Kuril’skoye Ozero, Kamchatka - hundreds of fishing Brown Bears
Rijeka Gacka, Croatia - giant karst spring
Gunung Mulu, Sarawak - rainforest rivers flowing through caves
Verzasca, Swiss Alps - beautiful but dangerous mountain torrent
Adams River, British Columbia - millions of spawning Sockeye salmon
Thingvellir, Iceland - the entrance to the underworld
Rio Negro Igapó, Brazil - the flooded Amazonian rainforest
Mountain lake, Valais Alps - seven months under thick ice
Wadi Wurayah, United Arab Emirates - freshwater in the middle of the desert
Québec rivers, Canada - Atlantic salmon on spawning migration
River Itchen, England - crown jewel of the chalk streams
Abismo Anhumas, Mato Gross du Sul - an abyss filled with crystal clear water
Northern Rockies lakes, British Columbia - untouched waterscapes
Serra da Bodoquena, Brazil - crystal clear rivers full of life
Alpine spring, Switzerland - an aquatic garden eden
Floridan Aquifer, USA - artesian water from the underground
Zelenci spring, Slovenia - where the Sava Dolinka is born
Ume älven, Swedish Lapland - in the tracks of Carl von Linné
Freshwater ecosystems represent one of the Earth’s richest pools of biological diversity, and are also hotspots of human use and alteration. Consequently, freshwater fishes and numerous other aquatic species are declining and disappearing at rates exceeding most other ecosystems (Cambray and Bianco 1998; Dudgeon et al. 2006). Unfortunately, freshwater biodiversity is not only critically imperiled, it is also highly obscure (Harrison and Stiassny 1999). As threats to freshwater ecosystems continue to grow, the vast majority of their inhabitants remain “out of sight, and largely out of mind” (Rolston 1991). This lack of public awareness of freshwater life may ultimately limit freshwater conservation as a popular cause, or movement. (Freshwaters in the Public eye. Jeremy B. Monroe, Colden V. Baxter, Julian D. Olden, and Paul L. Angermeier, Fisheries Vol. 34, No. 12, 2009)
About Michel Roggo			©2009-2013 Michel Roggo | last update 29-04-2013