No Water No Life ®
NWNL Seeks Funding for a Mara River Expedition”
• GOOD NEWS!!! NWNL has received 2 grants this week from The Scott Pearlman Field Awards for the project’s upcoming “Length of the Mara River” Expedition. This fund provides grants for professional artists, writers, photographers, film-makers, and journalists in support of scientific expeditions sponsored by The Explorers Club. This grant was requested by the Pearlman Awards and is the second NWNL expedition they have funded. As well, the NWNL Mara Expedition has received the honor of carrying two Expedition Flags – from The Explorers Club and from Wings World Quest.
• WHAT IS NWNL? It is a project that combines the powers of photography and science to raise awareness of fresh water availability, quality and usage. Contrasting these issues in developed and developing nations, NWNL researches and documents six cases-study watersheds: the Columbia, Mississippi and Raritan River Basins in North America; and the Nile, Omo and Mara River Basins in northeastern Africa. For more information about the project, go to the NWNL website: www.nowater-nolife.org
• ABOUT THE MARA EXPEDITION: NWNL’s Mara River Expedition (late August-early October 2009) will document the Mara River from its deforested headwaters in Kenya’s Mau Forest, through the Maasai Mara and Serengeti Ecosystems and to its terminus on the Tanzanian shores of Lake Victoria. The only perennial river in this ecosystem, Mara River dried up this year for the first time, threatening the survival of world-renowned wildlife species and the sustainability of local human communities.
If this ecosystem loses its famous wildebeest/zebra migration and “Big Five” wildlife species due to lack of water, it will lose its tourism, a highly-valued revenue to East Africa and one of Kenya’s principle providers of employment. When Kenya’s tourism declines, crime and poaching climb to high levels, infrastructure disintegrates and ethnic violence escalates. The implications of that in today’s world is lack of regional stability combined with poverty, which tends to foster violence and terrorism. Beyond that there is the spiritual and ecological loss of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem and its biodiversity – a uniquely protected balance of predators and prey.• PAST PERFORMANCE: To see how NWNL conducts its expeditions check out our ’07 Columbia River Expedition itinerary and report. This expedition also received funding from the Scott Pearlman Field Awards.• DONATIONS: Best made via checks. For a tax-deductible donation, please write your check to “WINGS World-Quest -No Water No Life.” (WINGS is NWNL’s fiscal sponsor and covers NWNL with its 501c3 status, deducting 10% for administrative fees.) Otherwise, please make checks out directly to No Water No Life ®. Either way, checks should be mailed to Alison Jones, Director of No Water No Life at the address below. (alison@nowater-nolife.org).
Many Thanks for everyone's support in this project, I Timothy Jackson, owner of Vintage Destinations, am simply supporting this venture, and hope you can too. Please feel free to contact Alison directly or myself, at info@Vintage-Destinations.com
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Tim, Thanks for this plea! There is such intense excitement that comes from helping save East AFrica's annual wildebeeste MIGRATION, the MAASAI MARA, and the SERENGETI. The survival of these great wonders of the world depends on the health of the MARA RIVER, on which they rely. Alison, No Water No Life, Director
ReplyDeleteTim I'd like to thank you also in my capacity as the video photographer for this amazing and critically-needed MARA RIVER expedition. I am donating my services for less than a 1/10th of my normal fees. I ask all others who care about biodiversity to jump in to support us. Peter, No Water No Life, Videographer.
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