All Other Things Being Equal

The Ecuadorian Amazon is one of the most biodiverse and endangered regions of our planet. Many people want to protect the biodiversity that remains, but the reality on the ground is a complex dilemma. Local economic necessity means that trees are valued for their timber more than for their crucial role in the ecosystem.

This exhibition, based on three years of personal research experience by scientist and photographer, Johan Oldekop, mixes photographs and sounds with graphical representations of socio-economic data and specimens from the Museum’s natural history collection. The materials, collected between 2006 and 2010, trace some of the complex relationships between humans and the environment in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.

The research this exhibition is based on was supported by the German International Cooperation (GIZ GmbH), the Royal Geographical Society and the Wingate Foundation.

Photo: Portrait of a young man c Johan Oldekop