If a Forest Goes Silent

This month, we hear from award-winning conservation photojournalist and wildlife crime consultant?Paul Hilton. He has spent the past three decades documenting deforestation, the shark-fin trade and sustainable pole-and-line tuna fisheries worldwide. Paul’s investigative work was featured in the 2015 documentary Racing Extinction and it was instrumental in the creation of the latest WaterBear Original, Broken Wings.

If a Forest Goes Silent

The truth seen through the lens of a conservation photojournalist?

Over the years the bird trade has always been at the back of my mind, as I was encountering poachers deep in the jungles of southeast Asia and always in places where you wouldn’t expect to find anyone. They'd just appear out of nowhere with cages full of birds for a number of reasons; either for the songbird trade, exotic pet trade or for food.?

In early 2022, I was allowed to travel again after the Covid pandemic, returning to Asia and on that trip, I decided to walk through an animal market to understand what species were in demand. It was business as usual, iguanas, hedgehogs, sugar gliders, civet cats, bats and hundreds of exotic birds on sale, stacked on top of each other: a breeding ground for the next pandemic! It was my wishful thinking that anything might have changed after Covid.

I stopped in front of one trader as he started to transfer birds from a cage to another, at the same time a few birds were put aside and then forced into small tubes, some were made of plastic, and others of bamboo, they looked like a sort of ‘Avian Straight Jacket’.

It was then, when I realised: it was time. Time to shine a light on this cruel trade because when we harm nature, we harm ourselves.

Just imagine: you’re flying through the treetops at top speed, hearing fellow bird calls and landing on a branch to satisfy your curiosity. A branch that you’ve landed on many times before, but only this time, you’re stuck. You take a breath and try to fly again, your heart rate starts to increase, your tiny heart pumps, faster and faster. Then someone approaches, a hand wraps around your body, pulling feathers off in different directions, off different parts of your body, you scream out, but your calls go unnoticed by those who captured you. Next, you’re stuffed into a bag, on top of other species of bird.

Before you know it, you’re behind bars for the rest of your life.

Throughout my years of working as a conservation photojournalist, I’ve noticed the forests becoming silent and the bird songs becoming a distant memory.

Obviously, this is a story about cruelty but also about the survival of many other species, from pollination of trees and flowers or even your favourite fruit. Ecosystem services are paramount for a thriving planet.

Ecosystems need biodiversity to function, the more biodiversity, the healthier the system which all works in our favour.

Bird droppings, also known as guano, play a key role in spreading seeds and nutrients into the soil; by ensuring that plants continue to grow in new places. Recently scientists have found that certain birds eat truffles. As they dig up a fungus, eat it, and move to the next one, they spread the spores around and propagate a diversity of tasty mushrooms. The truffles are actually the fruiting bodies of an intricate underground fungal network that keeps surrounding trees alive. The below-ground fungal filaments transport nutrients to the roots of trees in exchange for sugar. This mutually beneficial partnership is the building blocks that support the whole forest ecosystem. Birds ensure it stays intact. We need birds not only to hear their beautiful songs, but we need birds for our very own survival.

Impact Spotlight

Globally,?49% of bird species are declining, one in eight are threatened with extinction.?Bird poaching is a global problem that has devastating consequences for ecosystems and biodiversity. WaterBear and Studio Birthplace teamed up with Thrive Conservation to raise awareness on this critical issue.

Learn more about the global bird trade and?what you can do to stop it.

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