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, including well known locations as for example the Amazon, but as well less known as for example a wadi in the desert. Animals and plants may be included as part of the ecosystem. The duration of the project is 4 years, starting 2011.
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								©2012 Michel Roggo | last update 16-04-2012