From 1-4th November 2021, a team of National Museums of Kenya (NMK) scientists and audio-visual technicians gathered to shoot a documentary about the biodiversity, ecology, and economic importance of the Tana River Basin. This activity is part of the JRS supported project “Developing a biodiversity data and information system for the Tana River Basin for improved ecosystem management and development planning.”
It’s a bit unusual for scientists to work alongside an audio-visual team in the field and resulted in a great learning experience. The documentary will serve as critical outreach material to help disseminate the scientific results of the project to a broader audience. The documentary tells the story about the ecological and socio-economic significance of Tana River Basin using video, images, and narration and shows the beauty and diversity of different habitats that are home to the basin’s wild heritage and diversity of species. Several local economic activities are showcased and depend directly on the Tana River including fishing and large-scale irrigation for rice farming.
The documentary is now in the final editing stages and plans are to play it on electronic screens at the Nairobi Museum billboard and at other NMK venues within the Tana River Basin. Other dissemination platforms will include social media channels such as YouTube. The following images show some of the habitats sampled and scenes from the documentary shoot.
