Tesoros Sin Fronteras, an award-winning documentary produced by Conservation International (CI) in collaboration with Bolivia's National Service for Protected Areas and Peru's National Institute for Natural Resources, recently premiered in the Bolivian cities of La Paz and Santa Cruz and resulted in extensive media coverage.
The 26-minute documentary, titled Treasures Without Borders in English, also won a Merit Award for Script and a Merit Award for Conservation Message from the International Wildlife Film Festival in April. CI Vice President for International Communications Haroldo Castro directed and presented the documentary, which culminated a two-year communications strategy supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund to raise awareness about the Vilcabamba-Amboró biodiversity conservation corridor.
The premiere on April 14 in Bolivia’s capital of La Paz drew 700 guests, including keynote speaker Gustavo Pedraza, Bolivia’s minister of sustainable development.
The documentary received extensive news coverage in Bolivia, with 134 media stories. The campaign occupied 46 full pages of newspapers and magazines, which were illustrated with 140 photos. The documentary aired during prime time on ATB, a commercial network, as well as TVN, the national state-owned channel.
Both channels promoted the airing with television spots as well as advertisements in three newspapers. In addition, a 30-minute panel discussion followed both broadcastings. In total, the Bolivian premieres received more than six hours of airtime on television and nearly four hours on radio.
“Bolivia encompasses an immense amount of biodiversity, which is truly a strategic resource for our nation if we can properly protect it, guarantee its conservation and make sure that it is used in a sustainable fashion for the benefit of the people," said Jhonn Gomez, director of Bolivia's National Service for Protected Areas. "That is a challenge that we are facing head-on with neighboring Peru by creating the Vilcabamba-Amboró corridor."
The corridor stretches from Amboró National Park near Santa Cruz, Bolivia to the Vilcabamba mountain range in central Peru, covering an area of 300,000 square kilometers and linking some 20 core protected areas, including historical sanctuaries and indigenous reserves. The corridor helps to connect these protected areas with the communities that surround them, involving local populations in the conservation effort.
The documentary was first shown in Peru in January, where it was one of the top-rated shows in its time-slot reaching some 2.5 million viewers. The Peruvian launch and national broadcast received considerable media attention with more than 60 stories about the corridor.
Although the corridor featured in the documentary is renowned in South America, it is also important on an international scale. It is key to protecting a significant portion of the Tropical Andes biodiversity hotspot, which is considered the biologically richest region in the world.