Above picture: Yvonne Pennington, Chairperson, BirdLife South Africa Board of Directors and Director of the Mouse-Free Marion Non-Profit Company, who received the award on behalf of the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project, and Dr Mavuso Msimang, Chairperson of the MFM Non-Profit Company Board, pose with the ITFFA Silver Wreath certificate and sculpture
“Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds – the Conservation Campaign for Marion Island” has been awarded a Silver Wreath in the Documentaries, TV and Web Programmes: Wildlife and Conservation thematic category by the Jury of the International Tourism Film Festival Africa (ITFAA) 2024. The festival was held in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, over five days in June 2024. Winners were announced and their awards presented at a gala dinner on 14 June, five days before World Albatross Day.
The Silver Wreath certificate and carved sculpture
The film was produced in 2023 for the Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project by Art Lewry and Morag Wood of Culture Communications Collective, a UK-based media agency which have been helping develop the profile of the project. It is narrated by South African singer Zolani Mahola “The One Who Sings” and features evocative video footage taken on Marion Island by researchers Ben Dilley, David Hedding, Janine and Stefan Schoombie, and Otto Whitehead. In the 6 m 45 s film, Dr Anton Wolfaardt, MFM Project Manager, describes the plan to eradicate the island’s introduced House Mice. Peter Harrison MBE, MFM Patron, Dr Mavuso Msimang and Her Imperial Highness The Princess Takamado, Honorary President of BirdLife International, all call for international support for the project.
Art Lewry and Morag Wood from Culture Communications Collective said “It was a real privilege to be involved with the MFM Project and to have had the opportunity to make such an important film using our creative skills to tell this story as powerfully as we could. It was helped by the fact we had such wonderful footage to use and an incredibly important message to get across in a compelling way. We hope the film continues to support the project in delivering this ambitious conservation project.”
For its part, the MFM Project team is both excited and proud that a film about Marion Island and its conservation, including the necessity to eradicate its albatross-killing mice, has received an international award.
Marion Island, along with neighbouring Prince Edward Island, is a Special Nature Reserve, affording it the highest level of protection under South African law. Under the provisions of its reserve status, and the Prince Edward Islands Management Plan, tourism activity ashore is precluded.
With thanks to Yvonne Pennington and Morag Wood.
John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 27 July 2024
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The Mouse-Free Marion Project supported World Albatross Day 2024 through its social media
The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean. The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate. For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.