Swedish filmmaker Mattias Klum screened his award-winning film “Vamizi, Cradle of Coral” to a prominent group of decision makers and journalists at the Oceanographic Museum during Monaco Ocean Week.
Mr Klum’s film brings attention to the fact that more than half of the coral reefs in the world are populated by more than two million species, but more than half of the coral reefs have now disappeared. According to current forecasts, all of the world’s coral reefs will be eradicated by 2050. By the same year, the population of the world will have exceeded two billion people. Today, 850 million people depend on the sea for their direct sustenance.
“Keeping the ocean eco system intact is absolutely critical to avoid a global catastrophe,” said Mr Klum.
These issues are more crucial now than ever, since the new US administration recently declared it will abandon important parts of the new climate legislation initiated by President Obama.
When the new US government chooses to abandon their new climate legislation, it’s more important than ever to show the direct consequences, but also where to find hope. Vamizi is in many ways a perfect positive example, Mr Klum commented.
Mattias Klum was in Monaco, together with his fiancée and artist partner, Iris Alexandrov, the Secretary General of WWF, Håkan Wirtén, and Carl Gustaf Lundin from IUCN. Queen Noor of Jordan was present and took part in a Q&A session during the event.
The film portrays Vamizi as a so called ”hope spot” in a time where we’re losing or destabilising our ocean environments at a rapid pace. For most of the tropical coral reefs, natural resilience is a key factor. Located off the coast of Mozambique, Vamizi has been named a mother reef by leading scientists, as it has a central role, now and in the future, in saving other reefs that are in danger. Vamizi has so far managed to resist the environmental effect and one of the key messages of the film is what made this possible.
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