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The tropics are the world’s future. Its biodiverse forests play a major role in regulating global climate, much of the world’s food production occurs in the tropics and by 2050 the region will hold 50 percent of the world’s population. Thus the tropics face both some of the planet’s greatest challenges and the opportunity to be a driving force for future change. The Organization for Tropical Studies – which offers intensive field courses at four field stations in Costa Rica and South Africa – is leveraging its 50-year history of ecological study to meet this opportunity.

In 2017, we began to build an image library of people, places and programs at two of OTS’s field stations in Costa Rica. This summer we traveled to Kruger National Park in South Africa to continue that work. We also participated in a four-day planning workshop, facilitated by IDEO. Over three days we filmed a series of interviews with decision-makers and future leaders from academic institutions, international development organizations and governments from around the globe. We rigged a small outdoor set next to Lake Panic at the edge of the village and our conversations were punctuated by the grunts and snorts of hippos.

OTS’s South Africa field station is located at the beautiful Skukuza Science Leadership Initiative in the middle Kruger National Park. Rhinos, elephants, giraffes, zebras and other megafauna were everywhere and our days began with game drives to simply get to campus. After the workshop Benj stayed on at the field station to photograph the facilities, make portraits of the staff and visit some of the surrounding communities. You can find our OTS image library in the archive.