NEW FILMS ON ECO-DETECTIVES PREMIERE IN USA
Get on the front line with the Environmental Investigation Agency LONDON: Three gripping new documentaries following the work of undercover investigators from the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) will premiere in the USA on Tuesday, September 6, 2011.
Launched as a three-part special under Nat Geo Wild’s Crimes Against Nature strand, the programmes have been a year in the making and will take viewers into the murky and high-stakes underbelly of global environmental crime, from Scandinavia and Africa to Southeast Asia and China.
The full line-up for US viewers on September 6 is:
• Crimes Against Nature: Blood Ivory 8pm ET/PT (Eastern Time/Pacific Time) The EIA team heads to Kenya, Hong Kong and China to investigate the world of elephant poaching and the international ivory trade. Following claims of an upsurge in poaching and ivory smuggling, EIA wants to establish firsthand what’s really going on. Visiting Kenya's national parks, it documents the horrific reality of elephant poaching, and in China its undercover investigations discover startling revelations about how the ivory smuggling underworld works.
Read about the investigation behind the programme at http://www.eiainternational.org/files/news654-1.pdf
• Crimes Against Nature: Making a Killing
9pm ET/PT Only a handful of countries continue to practice industrial whaling; Iceland is one of them, pursuing endangered fin whales in order to turn a profit. But rumours have persisted that there is a lack of demand for this whale meat in both Iceland and Japan, its main export market. With this in mind, EIA investigators pack their undercover cameras and attempt to locate and understand the driving force behind this trade.
Read about the investigation behind the programme at http://www.eiainternational.org/cgi/news/news.cgi?t=template&a=649&source=
• Crimes Against Nature: Chainsaw Massacre
10pm ET/PT EIA’s undercover agents head to Laos and Vietnam for a new investigation into the notoriously dangerous timber trade. Vietnam is fast becoming a major global player in the timber industry, but with little forest left of its own it is largely dependent on importing timber from other countries. EIA suspects a lot of this timber is being taken illegally from Southeast Asia’s rapidly declining tropical rainforests and will stop at nothing to expose this devastating environmental crime which has the potential to affect us all.
Read about the investigation behind the programme at http://www.eiainternational.org/cgi/news/news.cgi?t=template&a=651&source= “With powerful and haunting images, criminals caught in the act by hidden filming and courageous investigators operating on the dangerous front lines of environmental crime, these films will dramatically show viewers just how much a small but tightly focused and endlessly dedicated organisation can achieve,” said EIA Executive Director Mary Rice.
The three Crimes Against Nature programmes are due to be broadcast on Nat Geo Wild in other territories, including the UK, later this year – watch http://www.eiainternational.org/cgi/news/news.cgi?t=template&a=658&source= for details!
Internet users in the US can see previews of two of the films on YouTube at: • http://www.youtube.com/user/NatGeoWiLd?blend=4&ob=5#p/u/8/1WvAE4AJgic • http://www.youtube.com/user/NatGeoWiLd?blend=4&ob=5#p/u/9/WpzuPNywtfE • http://www.youtube.com/user/NatGeoWiLd?blend=4&ob=5#p/u/10/-vaCBpAZE44 • http://www.youtube.com/user/NatGeoWiLd?blend=4&ob=5#p/u/11/_myiYrepTQ8
Interviews are available on request: please contact EIA Press Officer Paul Newman at paulnewman@eia-international.org or telephone 020 7354 7960. EDITORS’ NOTES 1. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is a UK-based Non Governmental Organisation and charitable trust (registered charity number 1040615) that investigates and campaigns against a wide range of environmental crimes, including illegal wildlife trade, illegal logging, hazardous waste, and trade in climate and ozone-altering chemicals. Environmental Investigation Agency 62-63 Upper Street London N1 0NY UK www.eia-international.org Tel: +44 207 354 7960 Fax: +44 207 354 7961
