On the move exhibition: Geneva Chapter

On the Move exhibition is set to make its third stop in Geneva at the Natural History Museum… With 30’000 visitors in the month of July, On the Move promises to reach a large Swiss and international audience. For the first time, our photographers will be present to see how their work has come together. The launching of the event will be on 11 October until 30 November 2014.
On the Move in Geneva will also feature, exceptionally, 10 photographs of the Swiss Désalpe (return of the cows from the mountains in Autumn) by photographer, Alexander Belokurov. Last weekend DiversEarth accompanied two families and their herds from St Cergue to Crassier in preparation for the exhibition. The Swiss Désalpe is a very popular cultural festival that is still very much alive and kicking and part of village life. Long transhumance in Switzerland does actually still exist, but is very rare today.

On the Move is an exhibition of professional photography commissioned by the Mediterranean Consortium for Nature and Culture. It celebrates the lives, challenges and ecological knowledge of transhumant shepherds and nomadic pastoralists in the Mediterranean region. From North Africa to the Middle East, from the Iberian Peninsula to Turkey, Greece and the Balkans, the work of professional photographers from each subregion will be featured in this unique travelling exhibition.

the Mediterranean Consortium for Nature and Culture consist of NGOs (Associacion Trashumancia y Naturaleza, DiversEarth, Doga Dernegi, Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos (Med-INA), Society for Protection of Nature in the Lebanon (SPNL), and WWF, with technical support from IUCN and FFI and financial support of the MAVA Foundation), who have joined forces to undertake, as a first step, a project to assess and support ‘cultural conservation practices’ in the Mediterranean Basin.

Transhumance is the movement of livestock in search of water and food. It differs from nomadism in that only the herders who lead the fl ock participate, leaving their families behind. Animal mythology and symbolism permeate all aspects of this nomadic society and their way of living is in real harmony with nature. As human groups they are part of the ecosystems they pass through and their way of living embedded in nature, are themselves part of biodiversity.

The purpose of this exhibition is to:

– To celebrate and assert the great value of the ecological knowledge of transhumant herders and nomadic pastoralists;
– To raise awareness of the importance of these lifestyles for both nature and culture; – To assist in lobbying for increased recognition and strengthened legislation;
– To raise additional funds for supporting projects that assist transhumant herders and nomadic pastoralists in relation to biodiversity conservation.

 

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