Losing the forest in Papua

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Michael Eko 

Papua New Guinea is the second largest island in the world. It is inhabited by diverse tribes that depend on nature to provide them with food and medicine. In ecological terms, the island has a rich array of botanical and animal species. Yet, as in the other parts of the world, global industry has started to penetrate remote areas of Papua New Guinea. Many critics believe deforestation, industrial agriculture, mining and other mineral exploitation are major threats to the rich biodiversity in Papua New Guinea.

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Michael Eko

Photojournalist Michael Eko Hardianto traveled to the island in late 2014 and early 2015 to conduct research along the Bird’s Head Peninsula, specifically the South Sorong Regency in the West Papua province of Indonesia. There, much of the natural biodiversity remains. (By Nicole Crowder)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2015/04/08/deforestation-amid-papuas-fragile-ecosystem/

Michael Eko is a documentary photographer from Jakarta, Indonesia who studied Journalism at Atma Jaya University, Yogyakarta. His work was shown in magazines such as National Geographic Traveler Indonesia, Asian Geographic and South East Asia Globe and he is a founding member of Cephas Photo Forum, a discussion forum about photography in Yogyakarta. 

Legacy of Agent Orange

Damir Sagolj
Damir Sagolj/Reuters

As April 30 approaches, marking 40 years since the end of the Vietnam War, people in Vietnam with severe mental and physical disabilities still feel the lingering effects of Agent Orange.

Respiratory cancer and birth defects amongst both Vietnamese and U.S. veterans have been linked to exposure to the defoliant. The U.S. military sprayed millions of gallons of Agent Orange onto Vietnam’s jungles during the conflict to expose northern communist troops.

Reuters photographer Damir Sagolj travelled through Vietnam to meet the people affected, four decades on.

Damir Sagolj
Damir Sagolj/Reuters

http://widerimage.reuters.com/story/legacy-of-agent-orange

Published on The Wider Image Reuters – This immersive app for iPad reimagines news photography to bring images and information to life.

Damir Sagolj is a Bangkok-based award-winning photographer who is the senior Reuters staff photographer covering Asia – and anywhere else where news is breaking. He spent ten years covering the Middle East including the intifada, and the Iran/Iraq conflict along with the more recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and also documented the conflict in the Balkans. His work has been widely published and exhibited including at the presigious photo-journalism festival, Visa pour L’image in Perpignan. 

Chinese dreamer

Sharron Lovell, Tom Wang
Sharron Lovell, Tom Wang

Will the so-called Chinese Dream come true for this 18-year-old from the country’s 260 million migrant workers?

Chinese Dreamer follows the 18-year-old Wanghao as he travels from his rural farm to Beijing to help support his struggling family. A few months later he is there, only to find the big city unwelcoming and realise he has little hope for a future beyond working menial jobs and sending money home. Wanghao dreams of a better life, but with little education and few skills, he struggles to envision something other than difficult, thankless times ahead.

Sharron Lovell, Tom Wang
Sharron Lovell, Tom Wang

http://aeon.co/video/society/chinese-dreamer-the-life-of-a-migrant-worker-in-beijing-aeon/

Published in Aeon Video which streams contemporary and classic short documentaries, exploring the intersections between nature, culture and ideas. 

Multimedia by Sharron Lovell and Tom Wang.
Sharron Lovell is a visual journalist and educator. Currently based in Beijing, she is also the course leader for a Beijing-based, U.K. accredited Master’s program in Multimedia Journalism.
Tom Wang hails from central China, where he studied multimedia journalism. He has always been a music and film lover and while studying in University discovered documentary film.

„Exploited for Profit“ – Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong

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Robert Godden

Hong Kong has 300,000 migrant domestic workers, half of whom come from Indonesia. The vast majority are young women employed by families as caregivers to children and the elderly. Many face exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous recruitment agencies, loan companies and employers. Despite a wealth of evidence from the UN, ILO and human rights organisations, the Government of Hong Kong refuses to acknowledge the scale of the problem and its role in exasperating the situation. In response, Indonesian migrant domestic workers have organised themselves to fight for their rights through forming trade unions and protest. Much of this work is done during the one statutory day-off they receive, and takes place in and around Victoria Park on Hong Kong Island. (by Robert Godden)

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Robert Godden 

http://www.rightsexposureproject.com/indonesia-migrant-domestic-workers

Robert Godden is a photographer and human rights activist. Formerly with Amnesty International, he is the founder of the Rights Exposure Project which brings together a range of audio-visual professionals with local knowledge and international experience. Their region of specialization is Asia, with thematic expertise in migrant workers rights & trafficking for labour exploitation and forced labour.