It was after reading the Living Planet Report, published by WWF in 2018, that my commitment to the environment was sealed : nearly 60% of wild animal populations have declined. Many of them are critically endangered such as the Sumatran orangutan, the angel shark (which gave its name to the famous bay in the city of Nice), the african elephant and the black rhino, ...

How can such unchallenged information have such a low impact on our behavior ?

 

Probably because scientific knowledge alone is insufficient, but also because the decline of these animal populations is the consequence of unprecedented human activity. This has allowed us to achieve a historically unmatched level of comfort that we never want to do without.

From this observation, I wondered about the contribution that could be mine. Of course, I am a diver and a naturalist photographer, but it is not enough to photograph a shark or a glacier to be engaged.

Jean Cocteau used to say : "you say you love flowers and you cut their tails off. You say you love dogs and you put a leash on them. You say you love birds and you put them in a cage. You say you love me so I'm scared ".

 

Since admiring Nature did not make me useful for all that, the need to combine information with emotion came upon me; showing the beauty of Nature during photographic exhibitions had to go hand in hand with a process of information, exchange and sharing of experiences.

My conferences are also an opportunity to question our behaviors and their impact together, without giving a lesson, but by offering keys to understanding our relationship to biodiversity.

Human beings have shown that by linking reflection to observation they are also capable of the best. The rebuilding of humpback whale populations following the creation of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and the establishment of a moratorium on whaling in 1982 is proof of this.

 

What if enlightened emotion brought us to our senses ?