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Video Documentaries of Karl Ammann
Karl has created or been involved with a number of startling and revealing documentaries. These are found on Karl's Youtube channel. In addition, several have been loaded as podcasts, as indicated below, on Lemonz Dream. To view these you must scroll the list that appears when you link to Lemonz Dream. Listed below are what is presently available online; more to come. If you are interested in using these videos, or parts thereof, of if you have other related needs, please contact us with your needs or questions.
This is the tale of a prominent ape trafficking family operating from the Central African region into the Middle East. The family and associates are responsible for hundreds of orphaned chimpanzees and dozens of gorillas having been trafficked along this route. The Egyptian authorities, despite a wide range of evidence being available, have never prosecuted the individuals in question or their well connected buyers. Private wildlife collections in the Middle East are today one of the main sources of demand for endangered wildlife.
This film is about establishing the role of a German logging company in the bushmeat trade, especially IN the hunting of bonobos. In various written exchanges the logger in question stated there was no problem with bushmeat in their K7 concession. The film documents otherwise. The team entered the logging area through a ‘back door’ rather then seeking official access. Discussions are under way to repeat the trip and visit the same locations again some 10 years later with Jeff Du Pain (one of the protagonists in the film) AND set up a major conservation project in the area.
A documentary about the illegal poaching of endangered Bushmeat in the Congo and Cameroon along the timber roads and rivers. The footage is circa 2002. Featured is Joseph Melloh, a former poacher who now works with Karl to investigate existing poaching practices and educate the populace about alternatives.
When it comes to creating awareness of the problems affecting the natural world, Non-Governmental Oraganizations (NGOs) are often on the front line of trying to mitigate the impact man and our activities are having. They believe raising money is only possible by presenting 'solutions' and 'happy endings'and at worst heroes fighting against almost impossible odds. Often the end result is more 'Feel Good Conservation'. Another band aid being applied to a patient which is dying of terminal cancer. Gombe National Park in Tanzania is one such example. The human population growth in the region is still 4.9 % and the chimpanzee population has been declining for decades. There is not a single baboon left outside the park boundary. The question is: Would the same resources being spent somewhere else have more impact on chimpanzee conservation.
South East Asia and especially the more affluent segments of society in China and Vietnam have become the major consumers of wildlife products being sold as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TMC). Mong Lah is a semi autonomous region on the Myanmar China border where anything goes. What god, and national laws have forbidden in China is practiced just a short walk across the border into this enclave ruled be 'ex' drug lords. The wildlife trade is totally out of control and involves fresh bush meat from the surrounding forests but also all kinds of other wildlife products.
The Convention for the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is meant to control the commercial trade of listed and endangered species. As this example shows this does not stop a range of players bending the law from the hunting grounds in the forest of the DRC to a wildlife exhibit at San Diego Zoo to get some of these rare primates from A to B. Hundred thousands of dollars were spent to supposedly 'save' some 130 protected primates from the DR Congo with the end result being that more and new demand at the production end.
Elephant poaching for ivory has been going on for decades. In the Central African region however elephants are also hunted for their meat. In remote parts of the Congo and the Central African Republic the returns from smoked elephant meat are often higher then what hunters get from middle men for the ivory. The end result being that curtailing the trade in ivory would not solve the problem of elephant poaching in these parts.
In 2010 333 rhinos - nearly one a day - were killed by poachers. Conservationists think that this figure may have doubled in 2011.
Documentary about a Bear Bile Farm in Boten, Laos.
Investigators claim smugglers have shipped endangered chimpanzees and gorillas from Africa to buyers in the Middle East. They blame governments, airlines and international law enforcement for failing to protect Africa's great apes.
Additional videos will be made available. Please contact us if you need information on or are interested in acquiring or using these videos either in part or in their entirety.
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