Author: Luca

The Italian deer, once widespread across much of the peninsula, was progressively decimated due to habitat transformation and hunting, until only a few isolated individuals remained in the “Bosco della Mesola” State Nature Reserve. Thanks to protective measures introduced by the State Forestry Corps (now Carabinieri Forestali), which manages the area, this subspecies managed to escape extinction. Today, the long-term conservation of this deer population is threatened by several factors, including low population numbers and high inbreeding rates, as well as competition with the fallow deer, which, if present in large numbers, can limit access to vital resources for the Italian deer. Currently, the population counts about 300 individuals. Recent genetic studies have highlighted the value of this precious population, recognized in recent years as a unique subspecies.To ensure a future for this population, a new area suitable for reintroduction has been identified: the Serre Regional Nature Park in Calabria, where competition with other wild ungulates is minimal. The goal is to introduce a sufficient number of individuals to ensure the long-term survival of the population. Launched in 2023 by WWF (World Wildlife Fund), the repopulation project is carried out in collaboration with the Serre Park, Carabinieri Forestali, the Calabria Region, the University of Siena, and Dream Italia, aiming to preserve and strengthen this unique species. This reportage, part of a larger project called Wildlife and Community Survival, is promoted by Witness Image, funded by the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation, and supported by WWF Italy. (text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

The waters of West Africa are among the richest in the world, but the growing population in the area is putting strong pressure on fishery resources. Overfishing, climate change, pollution, and destruction of critical habitats are endangering the survival of millions of people and local communities that rely on fishing for their livelihoods. Cape Verde, an archipelago of 10 islands off the coast of Senegal, is not immune to this situation. Its waters are rich in tuna, small pelagic fish, and demersal species, but excessive industrial fishing is endangering the survival of these species and the local communities that rely on fishing for their sustenance. The European Union and the islands of Cape Verde established an agreement in 2018 to manage fishery resources sustainably. However, this agreement has been criticized for the lack of adequate control over the activities of foreign vessels in local waters, along with discrepancies between the benefits obtained by community fleets and the financial compensation provided by Brussels. This agreement seems to fall short of achieving all its objectives in terms of sustainable fishery resource management, limiting the effectiveness of one of the EU’s main tools for international cooperation in the fishing sector. Furthermore, artisanal fishing, which should be protected and supported to maintain a balance between industrial and local fishing, is facing unfair competition from foreign industrial vessels that operate illegally in local waters. This phenomenon is known as “Ocean grabbing,” or the wrongful appropriation of oceanic resources by external actors. To address this problem, the government of Cape Verde has increased the number of licenses for artisanal vessels from 467 to 1,082 in the period 2016-2020. However, this increase was influenced by exemptions from payments during the COVID-19 pandemic, in an attempt to address the economic recession caused by the crisis. Industrial fishing continues to be an important source of income for Cape Verde, representing about 17% of all the country’s exports in 2021. (Text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

There are about 900 young men and women, primarily drug addicts but also alcoholics and gamblers, who come to San Patrignano, also known as “Sanpa”, with the hope of returning to living. Today, Sanpa is considered the largest recovery community in Europe and one of the most important in the world. It’s a recovery program for hundreds of lost young people, filling it not only with affection but also with strict rules, study, and work. It was born from the intuition of Vincenzo Muccioli, a pioneer in the treatment of drug addiction. When it was founded on the hill of Coriano in Rimini in 1978, in fact, the heroin phenomenon had just exploded and little was known about its effects, detoxification, and implications. Muccioli created workshops, which today are excellences, in which young people find the first reason for living, feeling indispensable, becoming artisans, and competitive professionals in the delicate phase of social reintegration. Currently, the length of stay in the community is about three to four years. 60 percent of those who complete the program do not relapse into drug addiction. Assistance and recovery are free: there is no fee to enter nor does the state contribute. The community relies on donations and, since the 80s, partly on economic activities such as the production of wines and other food and craft products. Addiction is not treated using pharmacological treatments (no methadone or other synthetic opioids), but with a recovery program that is essentially educational and rehabilitative. The rules and discipline are strict. Cell phones and computers for personal use are prohibited. Leaving the community is not allowed. Contact between males and females is prohibited. Drinking wine is prohibited. Recently, smokers are rationed to 5 cigarettes per day. Communication with family members is only allowed via mail and visits are only allowed after one year. Music is limited to only 1 hour in the evening, before the news and a movie projected on a big screen inside a large shed. After each phase of the program, there is a verification. The most important one is the one that allows returning home for a week after three years. At Sanpa, they work 8 hours a day. The young people are taught a trade that they will need once they are out in the world. Each new guest is assigned a tutor who has been in the community for at least a year and who follows them 24 hours a day. The ratio is very simple: the person who has overcome drug addiction is the best educator for those who suffer from it. “Taking responsibility for someone who is further back in the program and who you understand, because they think like you did a year ago, is the winning key to rebuilding oneself,” says Massimo, who works in the decorations sector. (text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

In Liberia, international companies are taking over 1.5 million acres of land, causing problems for local communities, including loss of their land, livelihoods, and negative environmental impact. One of these companies is the multinational Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO), accused by various NGOs of illegally clearing land and not consulting or supporting local communities. Many of the land acquisitions in Liberia were made during the country’s civil war and in the subsequent period, when the government was weak and unable to effectively regulate property transactions, often without local community consent and with little or no compensation. Child labor is also a significant issue in the palm oil industry in Liberia. Children are employed for tasks such as land clearing, planting, fruit picking, and heavy lifting. They are also used for dangerous tasks such as using machinery and handling chemicals. Poverty and lack of labor regulation are some of the main reasons for this phenomenon. In Buchanan, in particular, there have been serious human rights violations in the palm oil industry, including forced eviction of local communities, destruction of their homes and agricultural land, and exploitation of workers, including children. (text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

Families involved in palm oil cultivation in Liberia face significant difficulties in their daily lives. They often live and work in precarious conditions, with few opportunities for a stable and dignified life. They are paid extremely low wages and often face dangerous and unhealthy working conditions. This makes it difficult for families to meet their basic needs, such as food, housing, and medical care. In addition, many of these families have been evicted from their lands to make room for palm oil plantations, which has resulted in the loss of livelihoods and a threat to their safety and well-being. The difficulties are further exacerbated by the lack of basic public services, such as health and education, which are often inadequate or non-existent in the rural areas where these families live. Finally, the massive deforestation to make room for plantations is putting the country’s biodiversity at risk and threatening local communities that depend on these forests for their livelihoods. (Text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

Cocoa was brought to West Africa by European chocolate companies in search of cheap labor, leaving a colonial legacy in the chocolate industry. This colonial legacy is still evident in the chocolate industry, which is now worth a fortune. However, most of the profits end up in the hands of large foreign multinational confectionery companies that control the chocolate trade. Over 60% of globally produced cocoa originates from West Africa, with Ghana recognized as one of the world’s leading producers, second only to the Ivory Coast. The contribution of the cocoa industry to the Ghanaian economy is significant, employing around 850,000 farming families and generating approximately 800,000 tons of cocoa every year. However, the pandemic has reduced cocoa prices, further reducing the profit margins of farmers. Currently, cocoa farmers in Ghana earn about $2,000 for the entire harvesting season (6 months), which is less than $6 a day for the entire year. On a 100-gram chocolate bar, which has an average cost of $3.5, the Ghanaian farmer receives only $0.15. As a result, farming families often resort to using child labor as a means of livelihood for the entire family. Additionally, children who work on cocoa plantations are exposed to agricultural chemicals and the risks associated with using machetes. To cope with prolific insect populations, tropical regions like Ghana use large quantities of hazardous chemicals such as glyphosate, which can have harmful effects on human health and the environment. Furthermore, cocoa production poses serious environmental problems, with much of the crops originating from illegally cultivated plots, theoretically protected forest areas that have instead been deliberately deforested. Despite the chocolate industry’s turnover constantly increasing, reaching $100 billion globally in 2022, cocoa remains associated with poverty at the base of the production chain, while the finished product is considered a luxury. (Text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa in the world with an estimate of about 1.6 million cocoa farmers. Many farmers struggle for the harvest. They are mostly smallholders with aging plantations that are susceptible to disease, and drought brought on by climate change is making life even more difficult. They can’t afford decent housing, food, education for children, and other basic expenses. Most earn only about 5 dollars a day, and many younger people are leaving their communities in search of prospects elsewhere. (Text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

Poachers continue to push endangered species towards extinction – but with the support of groundbreaking tech, the Zambezi authorities are fighting back. The Kafue National Park, located 200 kilometres west of the its capital Lusaka, with an area of 22,000 km², is the largest park in Zambia. However, despite its multifariousness of natural resources, the national park is more and more under threat due poaching, illegal fishing around Lake Itezhi-Tezhi and uncontrolled bush fires. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Arts, it is estimated that between 4.000 and 6.000 poachers are operating in Kafue National Park, endangering fauna and flora. In the last few years, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Zambia undertook a project called Kafue National Park Connected Conservation (KNP CCP) – a project that integrates the internet and cutting-edge computing with a virtual fence of networked thermal imaging cameras across the key trafficking routes of Lake Itezhi-Tezhi. For this reason, leading technology companies such as CISCO, FLIR, and SMART Parks came together to provide vital communications and surveillance hardware and software aiming to protect the population of elephants and to control the activity of illegal fishermen and poachers’ hotspots in the Kafue National Park, also optimizing the coordination of patrol teams thanks to the enhanced control room operators, resulting in improved safety of scouts and rangers during patrols. Established with the support of Game Rangers International (GRI), the Wildlife’s Marine Anti-Poaching Unit is born, specializing in daily patrolling of Lake Itezhi-Tezhi, in order to control illegal fishing and prevent poachers entering Kafue National Park from the lake, carrying out activity day and night, impounding boats and arresting fishermen who operate in areas or schedule prohibited by law. (Text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

The sugarcane industry in Malawi is directly connected to land-grabbing, which has led to the displacement of local communities. In 2009, the government of Malawi began promoting commercial agriculture and supporting land acquisition on behalf of investors interested in conducting large-scale agriculture. The aim was to encourage local farmers to substitute their traditional rice and cassava crop with sugarcane plantations and sell their yield to large sugar refining factories, such as the one in Dwangwa, run by the South African firm Illovo. The problem is that sugar production with its high demand for irrigation and other inputs, only requires large plots. Most of Malawi’s farmers, managing fields of less than a hectare, are forced to give up their land or alternatively to incur in high costs for the farming of their plantations; in the end, they are forced to sell their harvest to the Illovo Company imposing monopoly prices. The injection of outside Government money has been an incentive for wealthy local leaders who used their power to grab land from members of their own communities and then sell it to foreign? investors. This has become a serious problem as entire communities lost their land and their livelihood. Illovo Sugar Malawi is the country’s only sugar producer with over 60% of total sugar sales sold to domestic consumers and industrial markets whilst the rest gets exported to preferential markets in the EU and the US. Illovo Sugar Malawi, in Dwangwa, cover an area of 13,300 ha. Together with the remaining smallholder farmers, Illovo has the capacity to produce 2.4 million tons of sugarcane annually. Today, Illovo Sugar Ltd. is the largest (and cheapest worldwide) sugar producer in Africa, with extensive agricultural and manufacturing resources in six South African countries. Despite being a pan- African Group, its main shareholder is Associated British Foods plc – the second largest sugar producer in the world – which owns 51% of the company’s stock. (text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

Illovo Sugar, which is owned by Associated British Foods (Ryvita, Patak’s, Primark) is the biggest sugar producer in Africa and among the six southern Africa countries in which Illovo operates, Malawi generates the highest profits. However, gains from increased sugar exports to Europe and other African markets have brought few benefits for low-grade workers at Illovo Malawi. Things are particularly bad for those who do the backbreaking job of sugarcane cutting – most of whom are employed as seasonal or casual workers. Less than fifty percent of Illovo Malawi’s 10,000-strong total workforce are outsourced workers – they are not covered by health care and guaranteed wages. The reportage, by Luca Catalano Gonzaga, shows a series of portraits of these workers.