SavingSpecies' videographer David Blinken films an interview for National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative in Tanzania
Videos are a great way to learn and to teach. For biodiversity, they are especially important since they readily portray life’s variety and beauty. At the same time accompanying audio can convey the urgency of ongoing biodiversity loss. So it is wonderful that so many organizations have produced videos about biodiversity.
But that has also created a problem. When you search for “biodiversity” in Google’s Video tab you get more that 20,000 hits. Just on YouTube you get 14,000 hits. (Of course many of Google’s results are from YouTube.) Also it’s rather irksome to see that Chevron has a promotional video at the top of YouTube’s search results. (I have previously written about Chevron’s liability for egregious pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon). Vimeo, another video-sharing site, has more than 1,600 biodiversity-related videos.
To help teachers, educators and communicators find the best biodiversity videos I have compiled a list of the top five videos in five categories. For each video I include the title, the URL, the number of views, the date it was posted online and the length of the video. The link title is taken from the video title posted online. For a summary of the video, mouseover the link and a brief descriptor tag will appear.
My evaluation is purely subjective. Some videos with few page views are rated higher than videos with many page views. Some videos may overlap categories. Please feel free to disagree and, of course, to comment with your own favorite biodiversity videos.
Vancouver Film School’s video uses animated graphics with startling clarity and a smooth flow of information to explain the facts of biodiversity and its importance. The timing of the narration with visual effects takes the viewer from a simple definition of biodiversity to more complex concepts. The video touches on the role of biodiversity in agriculture and medicine and closes with a compelling conclusion… This video is also our top pick for the category What is Biodiversity?
Click the link to watch the video: Biodiversity – Vancouver Film School (VFS)
Click the category title to see the list of the top five videos in each category. Click again to toggle the list.
1. What is Biodiversity?
2. The Science of Biodiversity
We hope you enjoyed our selection of videos. Feel free to share this page with educators, biodiversity professionals and others interested in the variety and vulnerability of life on our beautiful Earth.
If you want to submit a video to be reviewed by SavingSpecies and to be considered for next year’s award, please drop us a line on our contact form.
SavingSpecies offers a unique way for you to help preserve biodiversity and to reduce your carbon footprint at the same time. We purchase degraded land in areas of the world's highest biodiversity. We then engage local communities to restore and protect the land. The trees we plant soak up carbon from the atmosphere. So when you help us buy land in high biodiversity areas you are reducing your carbon footprint and helping to preserve biodiversity! 
SavingSpecies was founded and is supported by the world's leading conservation biologists. We support our conservation decisions with the best scientific evidence. The science determines the highest priorities for preserving the world's biodiversity. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, and feel free to contact us with your questions, thoughts and suggestions.
