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BIFF Supports One Tree for Every Bajan

by | Jan 29, 2020 | BIFF in the News | 0 comments

           

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BIFF Supports One Tree for Every Bajan

January 14, 2020, WALKERS RESERVE, Saint Andrews, Barbados. 

Forty international and local filmmakers and actors from the 2020 Barbados Independent Film Festival (BIFF) visited Walkers Reserve, St. Andrew, today to plant trees on the eastern shore of Barbados. In a show of support for the One Tree for Every Bajan program, festival directors and actors planted trees to offset the carbon footprint of their travel for the festival.

Walkers Institute for Regenerative, Research, Education and Design (WIRRED) is committed to partnering with the creative sector in the promoting and building of environmental awareness. BIFF’s collaboration with WIRRED to participate in the One Tree for Every Bajan  program is a great example of how the creative sector can take the lead in promoting environmental awareness on-screen and off.

With Climate Change being one of the most challenging issues of our time, building resilience is a must and one way this can be accomplished is through tree planting.  Trees not only remove carbon from the atmosphere, filtering our air and water but they also increase biodiversity and generate livelihood opportunities.

BIFF recognizes the power of trees and supports the overarching goal and commitment of the One Tree for Every Bajan program to engage a diverse community of stakeholders in a holistic manner to:

  • Promote a culture of environmentally conscious volunteerism,
  • Create a movement of environmental stewardship in Barbados (inclusive of vulnerable groups),
  • Effectively leverage partnership towards the long-term goal, and
  • Do our part in working towards Barbados’s 2030 net zero climate mitigation target and the national goal of planting 1 million trees starting in 2020.

The film industry has been working around the world to bring attention to climate change issues and to raise awareness for trees, and the vital role they play in our future. This year the festival features Baux and the Giants – Wildlife Extravaganza and Uncivilized on Saturday, January 18, at 12 noon and 2pm respectively at the EBCCI. The first film peers into biodiversity conservation and the other reflects on one of the most catastrophic consequences of climate change for our region to date, category 5 – Hurricane Maria.  New films by National Geographic filmmakers also appear with the screening of Last Wild Places: Gorongosa and Birth of Pride alongside the moving short films Stolen Apes and Sides of a Horn. BIFF encourages all Barbadians to embrace environmental stewardship and join the tree planting movement! To join the movement contact: onetree@wirred.org.